Van.Eko Be.e

With joining forces between Vaniek Colembrander and his Van.Eko plant with the manufacturers of NaBasC bio-based material NPSP (Nebraska Peter Simon Peter) and the designers group Waarmakers, the project now is nearly finished to start.

Van.Eko develops, manufactures and supplies the scooters to the market. The monthly fee will range around €150,- to €200,- including VAT(calculations are still pending variations). This is not a light sum, therefore the scooter sharing service is intended to soften the financial load. Also, in the Netherlands (and elsewhere) it is common to receive a commute refund from your employer, which averages at €100,-/month. This is also intended to soften the load of ownership.

The end goal for Van.Eko is to offer the Be.e to the Be.eKeepers at the lowest possible cost. Depending on the entrepreneurial skills of the Be.eKeeper, his or  her personal requirements and the effectivity of the Van.Eko web platform this should be easily achievable. A profit could also be made, but then the Be.eKeepr would be subrenting the Be.e to WannaBe.e´s for more than half of the month.

The idea is to offer the Be.e to first-level users (Be.eKeepers), they will pay a monthly fee to loan a Be.e from Van.Eko for personal use. Van.Eko then offers these Be.e Keepers the opportunity to offer the Be.e to second level customers (WannaBe.e´s) for daily commutes, city foraging, or day trips to the beach. The WannaBe.e can contact with a Be.eKeeper through the Van.Eko website platform and then: Check if and where a Be.e is available, determine a date, meeting point and price with the selected Be.eKeeper and consequently pick-up the Be.e for second-level use. This gives the Be.eKeeper the opportunity to earn some money back on the monthly fee.

The Be.e is built with a BioBased Composite frame, a so called monocoque construction. This makes the scooter very robust, strong, reliable and sustainable. These features make that the scooter is ideally suited for tough urban abuse. It´s very difficult to damage the scooters panels, as these are also the load bearing components. So the Be.e itself is highly innovative and as such Van.Eko has fitted only top-of-the-line components to fulfill the qualitative expectations. A battery with 8 year life, 2000 cycles, a 4kW motor, high-end brakes, LED lighting, USB charging, Smartphone holder, qualitative throttle control, GPS tracking, Boost functionality (or cruise control), reverse drive and on-route service are all part of the package.

The Be.e-Sharing concept makes this high-end innovative scooter available to everyone at the lowest possible cost. More importantly, the risk of ownership is left with Van.Eko. So if the product fails to perform, it´s our problem. Not our customers.

This approach makes it possible to implement a circular business strategy all around. Many of the basic components on the scooter do not wear. So after an 8 year lifetime, most of them can be returned to the assembly plant, refurbished and assembled into another scooter, or recycled in other appropriate manners. It´s our goal to provide the highest Raw-material efficiency per driven kilometer in the world.