There was a big relaunch of BLUESHARK with Gentari and EPMB Partnership
Today you drive or ride around our city, it is almost impossible to spot a Blueshark electric scooter in use. There was a time when they were going to be a common sight in our crowded cities. So what happened? Well, if you never heard of Blueshark, let us share some information.
Sometime in March 2023, the Blueshark brand was relaunched in Malaysia in partnership with listed company EPMB (EP Manufacturing Berhad) with the announcement of the Blueshark R1 scooter and that they were working with PETRONAS for scooter battery swapping stations.
Interestingly, a few months earlier, in January 2023, EPMB announced that they had secured a contract to supply 23,000 units of electric scooters to the Indonesian and Vietnamese markets.
The news mentioned that EPMB will be delivering the units by the first quarter of 2023, this was to be done after its wholly-owned subsidiary EP Blueshark Sdn Bhd, signed a Master Agreement with Singapore-based Averte Global Pte Ltd and Hong Kong-based Blueshark Group Ltd, in which Averte and Blueshark had jointly agreed to be the Joint-Venture partners and Purchasers.
At the time, the selling price for each electric scooter was expected to be within the range of USD1,850 – USD3,900. No further news on this also.
Then in August 2023, we read news of the R1 Pilot Programme, where Blueshark will provide, free of charge, 50 units of R1 electric scooters to selected GRAB delivery riders for a product trial.
The goal of this project was to gather experiential data for Blueshark’s electric scooters, while promoting cost saving with green mobility.
The second phase of the project was to have EP Blueshark (EPSB which is a subsidiary of EMPB) manufacture, assemble and distribute the Blueshark electric scooter to Grab’s riders-partners and other delivery-partners at a special offer price.
We test rode the Blueshark electric scooter in July 2023 and found it to be well built and with very good ‘smart’ technology features. It had about 100km riding range with a full charge from two battery packs sitting under the rider’s seat and there were impressive features like a reverse gear, side view camera for added safety, 10-inch full colour instrument panel and LED headlights.
The Blueshark R1 delivered a reliable and efficient riding experience at prices starting from RM9,390 for the R1 we tested and from RM7,190 for the R1 Lite.
So, what happened to seeing more and more delivery riders using this electric scooter.
What happened to the plan to have town council officers and police department using electric scooters when patrolling?
What happened to having more ‘battery swapping stations’ (located at PETRONAS fuel stations) outside of Shah Alam and Subang Jaya?
Remember TREELETRIK? This was an early electric scooter company (pictured above)in Malaysia that delivered a few models like the T70 we tested and they did not manage to continue their business because there was no commercial support and easy ‘grant’ money from MARii?
There is another electric scooter (pictured above) brand, ECLIMO from Penang still operating with little support from the same agencies and easy grant money.
