e-scooter.co launches import intermediary platform for micromobility businesses in 🇸🇮 Slovenija
2. marec 2025 avtor Novinar motornih vozilThe international electric micromobility promotion platform e-scooter.co launched an import intermediary platform that enables local sellers and international logistics specialists to service customers that want to import an electric vehicle from other countries.
e-scooter.co started to accept import purchase requests about 1,5 years ago and over 30.000 people have submitted a request since, with over 2.741 requests pending from the countries Slovenija, Avstrija, Italija, Madžarska in Hrvaška with a combined revenue of 10.217.568 €, which excludes revenue from additional services that can be sold to customers such as insurance, finance, maintenance service and the primary import service fee, which may double the revenue potential with a high profit margin.
Why Electric Vehicles Face Difficulties
There are various reasons why electric micromobility products face great difficulties to enter the market despite their great advantages such as significant cost-saving for owners.
For example, electric scooters and mopeds literally save up to 90% of maintenance costs which undermines the business model of the existing sales infrastructure of petrol-engine based vehicles, hindering those established outlets to sell electric models.
Manufacturing Disruption
While the existing petrol-engine based service infrastructure can't financially sustain itself with electric models from established brands, the brands themselves face profound disruption from the much bigger component industry that enables smaller startups to create high quality mobility products.
For example, the 🇩🇪 German brand Bosch has been developing advanced and reliable electric motor kits that includes a dashboard and electrical system and the innovative startup Edison Motors from 🇹🇭 Thailand launched a scooter barebone platform
that enables other startups to create new models.
The manufacturing scale 3D printing industry causes further disruption in this space.
Big Petrol Brands Not Motivated to Enter The Market
The manufacturing disruption trajectory caused big brands early on in 2010-2015 to make a hard decision to not enter the electric vehicle market, or to enter it in a way that didn't unlock its full potential for the greatest possible market.
Some have criticized 🇮🇹 Italian Vespa-Piaggio for example for introducing an electric model that costs twice as much as the petrol version for an effective driving range of only 60 km while advertising a driving range of 100 km, and while not having a removable battery.
By comparison, the petrol version of the same Vespa model has a reliable
driving range of 280 km and Vespa is unlikely to have failed to deliver on the electric driving range by accident.
In practice, this electric vehicle largely stimulated the sales of petrol models on economic grounds and is likely to have been introduced for that purpose despite that some people have been happy to pay 7.000 € for an iconic electric Vespa while the petrol version costs 3.500 €.
Scared away from both ends
Small disruptors scared of going global
While established big brands were financially reluctant to enter the market in the first place, smaller startups (manufacturing disruptors), due to scale-ing and logistics related problems, often remained limited to sales in a single country or a small region.
As an example, the unique Carver scooter-car or the GiGi foldable moped from the 🇳🇱 Netherlands are not yet sold internationally while there has been a significant demand for over a decade. In the 🇺🇸 US alone over 1.059.906 € in orders for the Carver were sent in on e-scooter.co and someone from 🇮🇳 India sent the following message in his purchase request on March 1, 2025.
I want carver in India
An interaction with the founder of Dutch startup GiGi learned that the company initially had high ambitions but ultimately was scared away from selling internationally.
Selling can be easy but what if something breaks? Then there has to be a local party that can provide service. We do have the EEC certificates but we only want to enter a market when we are financially ready for it.
This line of reasoning makes sense and is common from the perspective of small manufacturers but the problem for international access for customers is that this line of reasoning intensifies over time when a manufacturer aspires to improve its quality and service.
In practice, this results in a high potential vehicle not becoming available in other countries, despite potential high demand.
GiGi, one of the first electric moped pioneers in the Netherlands with high international ambitions and EEC certificates, now decades later, never went beyond the Dutch border.
A Solution For The Market
Connecting Buyers with Import Intermediary's
The simple function of the e-scooter.co platform is to connect import intermediary's
(sellers, importers or logistics specialists) with buyers. Quality service and reliable business are ensured through Escrow payment by the customer.
An example customer review reveals how the service might work in practice:
(primer ocene) Najnovejši Gogoro Pulse Hiperskiro sem prejel na Nizozemskem prek pošiljke z Uship.com, kjer je imel prevoznik iz Vietnama prostor v tovoru iz Tajvana v Rotterdam.
Skiro so dostavili pred moja vrata in postopek nakupa je potekal točno tako, kot smo se dogovorili z uvoznim posrednikom, ki je odgovoril na moj zahtevek za nakup na e-scooter.co.
Registracija skiroja na Nizozemskem je zahtevala malo več papirjev, vendar je bila končno zaključena. Skupna cena, ki sem jo plačal za skiro, je nižja od cene nove Vespine Elettrice v moji državi.
Neverjetno je, da sem danes prvi, ki vozi ta skiro na Nizozemskem! Gogoro Pulse Hyperscooter pospešuje hitreje kot večina avtomobilov na Nizozemskem, Gogoro pa se osredotoča na vzdrževanje z evropskimi deli v vsaki motociklistični delavnici, kar omogoča poceni in enostavno vzdrževanje.
Zadovoljna stranka!
A Simple Business Model
V zameno za dostop do najnovejših modelov iz celega sveta stranke prevzamejo polno odgovornost za garancijo, servis in registracijo v svoji državi. Stranka se strinja tudi z odpovedjo garancije proizvajalca, če ta zavrne garancijsko servisiranje v določeni državi.
Rezultat je preprost poslovni model transakcije: stranka plača za dostavo vozila. Ko je storitev opravljena, se transakcija zaključi in ni več tveganj za dolgoročno zadovoljstvo strank ali težav s storitvami.
Stranke bodo zadovoljne in njihova mobilna rešitev bo učinkovita zanje
V praksi se je izkazalo, da so električna vozila zelo zanesljiva in zahtevajo do 90% manj vzdrževanja.
Poleg osnovnega vzdrževanja bodo večina električnih skirojev in mopedov brez težav delovali desetletja brez dodatnega servisiranja. Električni sistemi se ne pokvarijo hitro, sodobna vozila pa imajo certifikat IP za zaščito pred vodo in prahom, kar zagotavlja dolgo življenjsko dobo.
Električni motor pri mikro mobilnosti skoraj nikoli ne pokvari in nima težav ob dostavi. Električni motor zlahka zdrži 50 let brez vzdrževanja.
Moderna električna vozila prejemajo posodobitve prek zraka od proizvajalca, vključno s posodobitvami programske opreme in spremljanjem stanja vozila ter proaktivnimi opozorili za vzdrževanje optimalnega stanja. To dodatno zagotavlja trajno in učinkovito mobilno rešitev za stranke, tudi brez varnosti tovarniške garancije.
Pametna uporaba sodobnih storitev lahko olajša mednarodno logistiko
Storitve, kot je UShip.com, omogočajo poceni pošiljanje vozil po vsem svetu. Pri Uship lahko mednarodni prevozniki s prostim prostorom zapolnijo svoja vozila s posameznimi naročili strank, na primer za električni skiro ali moped od trgovca na Tajskem do stranke v Nemčiji.
Registracija nekaterih vozil je lahko zahtevna v določenih državah, vendar se z vsakim uspešnim primerom napredek pospeši in ni potrebno zagotavljati te storitve strankam.
Donosno in visok potencial prihodkov
Uvoz modelov, ki niso na voljo v državi, je za stranke izjemno ekskluziven in pripravljeni so plačati visoko ceno za želeni model.
Popoln nadzor
The intermediary is in full control and owns the customer relationship from the start.
e-scooter.co is not involved in financial transactions between businesses and the customer. A third-party Escrow service is strongly advised by the platform to protect both buyers and sellers, but when customers trust the intermediary they may decide to pay to them directly.
Access to Customers
e-scooter.co charges intermediary's a yearly subscription fee for ongoing access to new customers. On a daily basis, many new customer requests are sent in that can be serviced, resulting in a multi-million USD business opportunity.
Businesses can apply for access on the following URL:
https://si.e-scooter.co/requests/
A list with top requested models and basic market analysis is available on this page