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 4,064 requests pending from the countries United States, Canada and Mexico with a combined revenue of $16,695,070, 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 37.3 miles while advertising a driving range of 62.1 miles, and while not having a removable battery.

By comparison, the petrol version of the same Vespa model has a reliable driving range of 174 miles 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 $7,265 for an iconic electric Vespa while the petrol version costs $3,632.

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 $1,100,000 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:

(example review) I received the latest Gogoro Pulse Hyperscooter in the Netherlands today through a Uship.com transport arrangement with a transporter from Vietnam who had some spare room in their shipment from Taiwan to Rotterdam.

The scooter was delivered at my doorstep and the purchase process went exactly as negotiated with the import intermediary that responded to my purchase request on e-scooter.co.

Registration of the scooter in the Netherlands costed a bit more paperwork, but it was ultimately completed. The total price that I paid for the scooter is lower than the price of a new Vespa Elettrica in my country.

I find it amazing that I am the first to drive this scooter in the Netherlands today! The Gogoro Pulse Hyperscooter accelerates faster than most cars in the Netherlands, and Gogoro focused on making its vehicles easy to maintain with European parts at any motorcycle shop, so maintenance is cost-friendly and easy.

A happy customer!

A Simple Business Model

In exchange for access to the latest models from around the world, customers take on full responsibility for warranty, service and registration in their country. The customer even accepts to dismiss warranty service by the manufacturer in the case that a manufacturer denies warranty service in a specific country.

The result is a simple transaction business model: the customer pays for getting the vehicle delivered. Once that service is completed, the transaction is completed and there is no risk on longer term customer satisfaction and service related problems.

Customers will be happy and their mobility solution will be efficient for them

In practice, electric vehicles are proven to be highly reliable and require up to 90% less maintenance.

Outside of basic maintenance service, most electric scooters and mopeds will easily continue to operate for decades without further maintenance. Electrical systems do not brake easily and modern vehicles are IP-certified water and dust proof so that they will last decades.

An electric motor in micro mobility almost never breaks and almost never has upfront issues upon delivery. An electric motor will easily last for 50 years without maintenance.

Modern electric vehicles receive over-the-air maintenance service by the manufacturer which includes software updates and vehicle health monitoring and pro-active warnings to keep the vehicle in a good condition. This will additionally secure a durable and efficient mobility solution in practice for customers, even without the security of factory warranty service.

Smart use of modern services can make international logistics easy

Services like UShip.com make it easy to ship vehicles around the world at low cost. At Uship, international transporters with spare transport space can fill their space with individual orders from customers, such as for example an electric scooter or moped from a dealer in Thailand to a customer in Germany.

The registration of some vehicles can be tough in some countries, but with each success subsequent progress is accelerated and it is not required to provide this service to customers.

Lucrative and high revenue potential

The import of models not available in a country is highly exclusive for customers, and customers will be willing to pay a high price to get their desired model today.

Full Control

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

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