Breathe EV Ltd (12213930): administration
- Status
- Administration ended
- Administration began
- 2023-06-13
- Administrators
- Paul Robert Appleton, Adam Shama
- Administrators' firm
- Begbies Traynor
- Incorporated
- 2019-09-18
- Location
- London
- Industry
- 77110 Renting and leasing of cars and light motor vehicles
Why it went into administration
- Funding withdrawn / unable to refinance
- Competition / price pressure
From the administrators' statement
The Company is a private electric car hire operator and commenced trading in 2020. It was founded by Jeff Davis, Mark Tapscott, Daniel Davey and Hamish Phillips. With the exception of Hamish Phillips, the other founders are also Shareholders, and have each injected equity of between £20,000 and £40,000 into the business.
The Company owned a fleet of 127 Tesla vehicles, which were subject to either Flexi-Own (4-year contracts whereby the vehicle transfers to the driver at the end of the term, for a nominal administration fee), or FlexiHire agreements (short-term leases up to 12 weeks), mainly to Uber drivers primarily operating in and around London. The Company held one of 5 licences to provide electric cars to Uber.
The initial funding for the business came from General Subsidiary 2 Ltd (“GS2”), which provided a loan to the Company to purchase 30 vehicles. GS2 holds a fixed charge over these vehicles registered on 28 September 2021. Of the 30 vehicles, 29 remained as of the date of Administration. Nicholas Barnett of Libertas Associates Limited was appointed Administrator of GS2 on 4 May 2022. The amount outstanding due to GS2 was £856K as of the date of Administration.
Administrators' statement of proposals (2023-08-07) · Companies House register