The e-max scooter is imported and distributed within Australia by EMC Electric Motor Company. It turns out that, not only are they located in Perth, but their head office is only just down the road from where I work! So today I decided to go pay them a visit and see if I can have a look at one of their scooters.

After hearing the emax promotion on the radio, I decided to do some research to find out more about exactly what electric scooters are available in Australia.

As far as I can tell, while there are number of different electric scooter models available overseas (and countless varieties of small electric toy stand-on scooters, which don't count), there are only actually three different models of moped class electric scooter currently available in Australia, as of December 2006.

Last weekend my wife and I were driving around Perth trying to make a dent in the obligatory Christmas shopping list when we heard on the radio that 96fm was going to give away an e-max electric scooter to a lucky listener. Until then I had only ever heard of EVT electric scooters, which are fairly expensive and dated-looking. So the first chance I had I Googled "e-max electric scooter" on my mobile phone's web browser (ok yes so I'm a geek I know!) and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the e-max scooters actually look pretty cool, and on the radio they were advertised for under $3000 to boot!

I had been interested in electric vehicles for ages but, as they are not yet that popular in Australia (or pretty much anywhere else for that matter!), I hadn't really had much of a chance to check them out in real life. I've also been quite keen to downsize my car (an old Magna) for something a little smaller. Given that I work only 5km from home and that it is sunny most days in Perth, I've been looking into getting some kind of scooter. I figure the short travel distance and the fact that I can take back roads and avoid the traffic means that I'm willing to take the risk, don a helmet and trade 4 wheels for 2!

OK I have just registered the domain name with Godaddy and the website is now live (duh, otherwise you wouldn't be able to read this!).

The site is very much still under-construction but over the next few days I shall be describing my experiences as I test-ride (and hopefully buy) one of these beasts. Plus hopefully I'll get around to putting up the links to all the resources I've found on e-max scooters so far.

Stay tuned!