The 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 944 requests pending from the countries Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam dan Indonesia with a combined revenue of RM 7,652,893, 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 RM 32,419 for an iconic electric Vespa while the petrol version costs RM 16,210.

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 RM 4,908,756 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:

(contoh ulasan) Saya menerima Gogoro Pulse Hyperscooter terkini di Belanda hari ini melalui pengaturan pengangkutan Uship.com dengan pengangkut dari Vietnam yang mempunyai ruang tambahan dalam penghantaran mereka dari Taiwan ke Rotterdam.

Skuter tersebut dihantar ke depan pintu rumah saya dan proses pembelian berjalan tepat seperti yang dirunding dengan pengantara import yang memenuhi permintaan pembelian saya di e-scooter.co.

Pendaftaran skuter di Belanda memerlukan lebih banyak dokumen, tetapi akhirnya selesai. Harga keseluruhan yang saya bayar untuk skuter ini lebih rendah daripada harga Vespa Elettrica baru di negara saya.

Saya terpegun kerana menjadi orang pertama yang memandu skuter ini di Belanda hari ini! Gogoro Pulse Hyperscooter memecut lebih laju daripada kebanyakan kereta di Belanda, dan Gogoro memberi tumpuan untuk memastikan kenderaannya mudah diselenggara dengan alat ganti Eropah di mana-mana kedai motosikal, menjadikan penyelenggaraan berpatutan dan mudah.

Pelanggan yang gembira!

A Simple Business Model

Sebagai pertukaran akses ke model terkini dari seluruh dunia, pelanggan bertanggungjawab sepenuhnya untuk waranti, servis dan pendaftaran di negara mereka.

Hasilnya model transaksi mudah: pelanggan bayar untuk penghantaran kenderaan. Transaksi selesai setelah perkhidmatan disempurnakan tanpa risiko jangka panjang.

Pelanggan akan berpuas hati dengan penyelesaian mobiliti yang efisien

Dalam praktiknya, kenderaan elektrik terbukti sangat dipercayai dan memerlukan penyelenggaraan 90% lebih rendah.

Kebanyakan skuter dan motosikal elektrik boleh beroperasi selama beberapa dekad tanpa penyelenggaraan lanjut. Sistem elektrik tahan lasak dan kalis air/debu moden.

Motor elektrik dalam mikro mobiliti hampir tidak pernah rosak dan boleh tahan sehingga 50 tahun tanpa penyelenggaraan.

Kenderaan elektrik moden menerima kemas kini perisian dan pemantauan kesihatan secara over-the-air untuk memastikan keadaan optimum.

Penggunaan perkhidmatan moden memudahkan logistik antarabangsa

Perkhidmatan seperti UShip.com memudahkan penghantaran kenderaan global dengan kos rendah menggunakan ruang pengangkutan antarabangsa.

Pendaftaran kenderaan mungkin mencabar di sesetengah negara, tetapi setiap kejayaan mempercepatkan proses berikutnya.

Potensi pendapatan tinggi yang menguntungkan

Import model eksklusif yang tiada di pasaran tempatan membolehkan harga premium daripada pelanggan yang sanggup bayar lebih.

Kawalan Penuh

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://my.e-scooter.co/requests/

A list with top requested models and basic market analysis is available on this page