VanMoof e-bikes are 10× less likely to be stolen.

You walk out. The rack is empty. Where your €3,000 e-bike stood there's a scuffed patch of pavement and, if VanMoof's ad team had their way, a tumbleweed rolling past.

That gut-drop is the single biggest reason people never buy an e-bike in the first place. Three out of ten would-be buyers in Amsterdam, Berlin and London told VanMoof's researchers it's exactly why they haven't. So VanMoof did something no bike maker does: it published how often it actually happens to its own riders.

The number is small. In the Netherlands in 2025, just 0.2% of VanMoof S5 and A5 bikes were declared stolen. Two in every thousand. The average e-bike? More than 20 in every thousand ten times worse. Here's where that number comes from and how a bike gets stolen ten times less than the one locked next to it.

The number VanMoof finally put on the table

The figure covers S5 and A5 bikes in the Netherlands same anti-theft DNA as today's S6, just a generation behind. And VanMoof didn't mark its own homework. The comparison leans on outside scorekeepers: ownership data from BOVAG and RAI Vereniging, theft data from VbV, the insurance industry's umbrella foundation. Independent numbers. That's the part that turns a boast into a claim you can check.

Six lines of defence

So how does a bike get stolen ten times less? No magic. Six layers, all built into the bike, all working before you've even realised it's moved. VanMoof has been sharpening this platform since it started making connected bikes in 2016 and it shows:

The S6 introduced the most advanced version of this stack yet. Add the mechanical resistance of the Gen 6 Kick Lock and Apple Find My integration as an independent second locator, and a stolen S6 has several separate systems working against the thief at once.

“The S6 introduced the most advanced Anti-Theft System in the world, with the goal of cementing VanMoof bikes as thieves' worst nightmare. Our numbers back it up.” — Eliott Wertheimer, CEO of VanMoof

What's included and what costs extra

Most of the anti-theft stack comes with the bike at no extra cost this is baked in, not upsold. For riders who want more, VanMoof offers two paid tiers:

Ride Pro adds remote alarm notifications and precision tracking that can pin your bike down to a single room or an 11-metre radius. Theft Proof (in eligible markets) puts VanMoof's Bike Hunters on the case if your bike is stolen and if it isn't recovered within 14 days, VanMoof replaces it at no cost. We break both down in our VanMoof Ride Pro guide.

My honest read, as someone who's had the empty-rack feeling

Cards on the table. I've ridden VanMoofs since the Electrified S2. While I haven't actually had a bike successfully stolen, I'll never forget the night someone carried mine away.

I walked out of a restaurant, looked at the spot where I'd left it, and felt that instant, cold shock of disbelief. I whipped out my phone and opened the app immediately. Luckily, it connected. I watched the bike's lights flash on in the distance, and the panic vanished as quickly as it had hit. It stays with you, though—that sudden realization of how vulnerable a normal bike is.

So when a brand tells me its bikes are ten times safer, my first move is still to squint. Brands pick the flattering number; that's the job. But two things make this one hold up. The 0.2% is VanMoof's own figure, pulled from S5 and A5 bikes in the Netherlands—not a global, all-model headline—and they say so plainly. And the comparison runs on data from independent bodies like BOVAG, RAI Vereniging, and VbV, not VanMoof's own theft ledger. That's the bit that moves it from boast to evidence.

It also matches what owners like me have experienced firsthand: a connected, alarmed, trackable, remotely killable bike is simply a terrible target compared to a standard €3,000 e-bike wearing a basic chain lock. For a long time, “what if it gets stolen?” was the question that ended the conversation. VanMoof just made it the opening line. If it's the thing that's been holding you back, this is the number to sit with.