The story
In 1934, two young entrepreneurs, Luis Riera Carré and Jaime Juanola Farrés, founded a company to manufacture bicycle accessories. The name RIEJU came from the first letters of each of their middle names (RIEra + JUanola).
They bought some land and started to build a factory, but the Spanish Civil War thwarted their plans. The Spanish Republican Government confiscated the unfinished building and used it as a truck depot. A second storey was built above the existing premises during the war and was considered a payment of interests when the facilities were returned.
In 1940, once the war was over, Rieju resumed its industrial activity making bicycle accessories.
In 1942, Rieju was established as a Private Limited Company (Sociedad Limitada) with a capital of 1 million pesetas. They started to build their first bicycle models as well as bicycle components. The company then had 35 employees and an average of 30 bicycles were built each week.
In 1947 Rieju built their first moped, adding to one of their bicycles an auxiliary 38 cc four-stroke engine (built by Serwa of France) coupled to the rear wheel. This model had a power of 1 HP and a maximum speed of around 40 km/h. Two years later, in 1949, Rieju launched the "No. 2" model, now with a more powerful engine and a gearbox designed in-house. Later models (No.3, No.4, etc.) evolved the vehicle to give it a "motorcycle look".
In 1964 Rieju reached an agreement with Minarelli to manufacture their engines under licence, and launched the "Jaca" model, with 3.5 HP and a top speed of 70 km/h, but this was limited to 40 km/h due to moped regulations.
The landmark Jaca model was evolved throughout the 1960s and 1970s, giving birth to the Confort and TT models. In 1978, Rieju developed a moped with automatic transmission but it was not successful.
Production kept increasing steadily throughout the 1980s, with new and more varied models, placing Rieju among the top moped sellers in Spain. Also, Rieju bikes won several prizes in international Enduro competitions, raising the profile of the marque.
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In 1994, the company opened itself to other markets and started exporting their models across Europe. By 2006, exports represented about 60% of their sales.
In March 2011, the manufacturer’s first electric scooter, the Rieju Mius, entered production at the plant in Catalonia. Also in 2011 saw the launch of many new Rieju machines, most notably the new RS3 50 and RS3 125LC. They are made in Spain and are powered by Yamaha-Minarelli engines.
In 2020 Rieju purchased the rights to Gas Gas's off-road Two-stroke motorcycle models.
In 2021, Rieju launched their first electric two moped the "Nuuk CargoPro", a 6 kW electric delivery scooter with a 100–120 kilometre range with a top speed of 90 km/h.
In 2022, Rieju launched their second electric scooter, the "E-City" designed for urban driving. The scooter was released with two variations, a 50 cc equivalent which comes with a top speed of 45 km/h with a range of up to 70 kilometres, and a 125 cc variation with a top speed of 75 km/h and a range of 160 kilometres.
In july 2024 Rieju acquired the spanish electric scooters manufacturer Win Life Electric Vehicles S.L. including its intellectual property and the rights of the RAY 7.7 Electric Scooter.
From Wikipedia’s article on Rieju, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5