Peloton Interactive will recall 2.2 million exercise bikes due to the danger of injury from a seat issue, the corporate said on Thursday, dropping its shares by 8.9%.
The voluntary recall puts more pressure on Peloton because it struggles to meet declining demand for fitness equipment in an uncertain economy.
“We now have identified 35 reports of seatpost breakage from the two,160,000 units sold within the US as of April 30,” said Peloton in statementafter the vulnerability was revealed earlier this month.
Between January and March, Peloton said it charged $8.4 million as an estimated expense for a “voluntary corrective motion plan” covering the defect.
Consumer Product Safety Commission, in a separate post statement on Thursday said consumers should stop using recalled exercise bikes immediately and speak to Peloton for a free repair.
The recall affects Peloton bikes with model number PL01 sold from January 2018 to May 2023 within the US and is one in every of the corporate’s flagship products.
The seatpost can break unexpectedly during use, posing a possible risk of falls and injury, said Peloton.
It added that Peloton Bike+ members or original owners of Peloton bikes within the UK, Germany and Australia usually are not affected.
“We now have noticed that Peloton has temporarily stopped selling the bike over the previous couple of days (the + bike remains to be available). Clearly negative, but we predict this headline may sound scarier than the actual announcement,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said in a note.
Bike and Bike+ products account for the “significant majority” of Peloton’s sales, according to a recent annual report.
The most recent recall comes after the virtual training company agreed to pay a $19 million high quality earlier this 12 months for failing to timely report a defect within the Tread+ treadmill that would have caused serious injury.