The anti-theft service, mostly. When someone steals a regular bike, even if you have an airtag, tile or whatever pointing out where the bike is, it's a nightmare to get police to cooperate to get your bike back. In Germany, even out of the few thefts that do get reported (as most people don't even bother), just 10% get resolved.
In contrast, VanMoof bikes come with a service of "bike hunters" that do this for a living and have better records about bike ownerships and so have established relations with law enforcements. Bike thieves quickly learned that stealing VanMoof bikes will only lead the cops to their stash.
FWIW, in London I've been surprised that police (or maybe just the specific officer in charge of the case) was really keen to retrieve my stolen cheap ebike in which I hid an airtag. Still took several weeks to get it done, but I got my bike back.
When I put the airtag in, I was pretty certain I'd lose a bike _and_ an airtag: got proven wrong!
Design and marketing hype.. another company that was over founded and didn't have to make though choices and buy pre-made and well tested components. Ended up killed by the break downs and service cost of their own hardware. Would not have happened if they just went with bosch.
I bought one - it’s an e-bike that doesn’t look like some big ugly transformer thing. I wouldn’t go so far to say it looks like a ‘regular’ bike, because the vanmoof now has a pretty recognizable design, but it’s close!
It had few features that made it more than just a regular bike with some motor attached.
Off the top of my head:
— automated gearbox (which was one of the most often breaking parts, but when it worked was magical)
— it had a "boost" button which gave you a little bit of extra power whenever needed (riding uphill, starting from red lights etc); my understanding is that those are now more common, but were pretty unique when S2/S3 generation was introduced
— no external batteries (a downside if you don't have a way to charge it, upside if you do because it just looks nicer)
— a lock integrated into a frame, that unlocked with your phone
— anti-theft features like the mentioned insurance thing, but also a built-in Find My network support for the newer models, and the bike itself has a "Lost Mode" which pings the nearby cell towers
— built-in display for showing you battery status, which gear you're on and your speed
I really like mine _when it's working_ (it had to spend few months in the shop waiting for parts), _because_ it's such a sleek and integrated product.
I probably wouldn't have bought another one even before the bankruptcy, because of the reliability issues; but when I bought mine (early 20201-ish?), nothing on the market at the time was even close to matching the complete package of VM.
Cowboy was the closest to it, but I really missed the multiple gears and the boost button when I test-rode one.
I was also very annoyed by them nickel-and-diming on things like kickstand on a 2k bike, but that's a different issue.
They were trendy looking and expensive. That was the main selling point, at least in Amsterdam where the vast majority of people who owned them had zero need for an electric bicycle.
They look space age and you can fulfill the Silicon Valley style craving to have rent seeking and anti repair business models invade every aspect of your life
