Jiandong Sony Pan
Monash University
Gitanjali Bedi
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The product offered from Voltrium is innovative, by promoting full electric powered transport as a viable option for Australian people.
What Voltrium does is bringing affordable and accessible electric vehicles to those in need. When Jeff was still in high school, he got a scooter that is similar to Voltrium scooters and he enjoyed it very much as it brought an enormous amount of joy and convenience. For example, due to the lower emission of the vehicles, goal #13 Climate Action could be achieved, electric powered transportation also promotes goal #12 responsible consumption, as well as the use of renewable energy which could be promoted under goal #7. If electric scooters become a form of transportation with a reasonable size of usage, the way roads in the neighbourhood could also be impacted, for example scooter specific lanes on the roads. Therefore the promotion of Voltrium scooters could bring innovative ways of town planning, thus goal #9 can possibly be achieved. It is evident that in Spain for example, electric scooters are permitted to be used on bicycle lanes.
The founders of Voltrium, Daniel (Left) and Jeff (Right) and their products.
The idea of electric powered vehicles has become popular with the American electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors and their launch of Tesla Model S. It is a symbolic product that has exceptional performance and pushed the boundaries of driving range. However Tesla is not accessible for everyone in Australia; the high price and long queue to purchase one makes a strong barrier from Australian people to enjoy electric powered vehicles.
Jeff said during the interview, “I want to make people able to enjoy the fun of electric powered transportation without having to spend over $130,000 on a Tesla.” “I used to ride my scooter to school occasionally, it is not a long distance and it normally takes a long time to get me there due to traffic conditions, I went much quicker on my scooter as I did not get stuck in the traffic. And I thought this could be a great way of going places.”
The overall impact of the innovation brings down the carbon emission figure from people travelling around. Voltrium provides a cleaner way for Australian transportation by offering affordable and reliable electric powered scooters (possible registered vehicles in the future). The short term benefit it brings to Voltrium's customers include the convenience and low cost short distance transport the scooters offer. In the long term, if electric transport grows into a large size of transportation methods, Australia's carbon emission figure is likely to decrease, thus positive environmental impact could be expected.
Starting a business is not easy, but as Voltrium delivers innovative, reliable and low carbon footprint products, they earn themselves a good reputation. Most of their customers came back with positive feedback and recommend Voltrium to many of their friends. Some of their customers bought scooters for private land uses and use scooters traveling from one side of their properties to another. “Many of our customers came back and said they enjoyed the torque and convenience of the electric motors, and how quiet and clean they are to run.”
The growing customer base gave the boys at Voltrium confidence in the future of their business; they are now looking to make their scooters road legal as their next project. Once they succeed in promoting electric scooter travelling, many of the Sustainable Development Goals could be achieved, some directly and some indirectly
There are many other potential positive impact that wide use of electric vehicles as a daily transport tool could bring to the society in the long run. The reduction of carbon emission from people’s daily transport have huge impacts on the environment around us. According to recent studies, an electricity driven car produces only 43% of the carbon dioxide an average passenger cars produces if it is charged from the grid in Australia. (Brakels, 2018), which is a great achievement of reducing emissions in cars; however electric cars are not totally ‘clean’ to run in Australia. a possible strategy for Voltrium in the future would be partnering up with solar panel providers, and the electric scooters can then be charged up with solar energy which is much cleaner. Unlike electric cars that require a lot of electricity to run, scooters are much lighter weight, therefore running them using solar power is more feasible. Voltrium is also active in Electrical Vehicle expos each year and they showcase their products to the community.
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Jeff Li, Co-owner
Voltrium Tech known as ‘Voltrium’, is based in Melbourne, Australia. Voltrium deals electric scooters on their online store. They also provide services and spare parts for Voltrium scooters as well as other brand scooters. Voltrium is currently a small scale business with two staff members who are also the co-owners of the business. From 2016, the boys from Voltrium are working hard to make low to zero emission powered transportation to Australian people accessible and enjoyable. Their mission statement “We at Voltrium are committed to bringing desirable and environmentally friendly transport to everybody. We are helping to fast forward the transition to sustainable transport” shows their commitment in bringing sustainable transport to people Australia-wide.