To deliver an electric car faster than the traditional dealers in our country. That is the ambition of Gino Heireman (32). He founded EVshop for that purpose and established himself in the new SME zone on the Mechelsesteenweg in Dendermonde. And also provides a first: “We are the first in Belgium who can provide a battery certificate with the purchase of a used electric car,” he says.
The electric adventure began for Gino Heireman of Appels, himself a staunch supporter of electric driving for seven years, as an installer of charging stations for electric cars. Before that, he founded Stroohm Services. “That activity clarified for me two bottlenecks in the world of electric driving,” he says. “Electric vehicles come with a higher price than those running on traditional fuel. And those who want one face enormously long delivery times.”
With the sale of Stroohm Services and the new establishment of his EVshop, Heireman wants to meet that need. “Especially for the self-employed or companies that want company cars for their staff, a faster delivery time is convenient,” he says. “But EVshop focuses just as much on private individuals, who, thanks to our activity, can benefit from faster delivery times and cheaper prices, often 15 percent cheaper. We source our cars elsewhere in Europe for this purpose. In the Scandinavian countries, for example, they have been working on this electric story much longer, so there is a larger supply there and therefore faster delivery is possible.”
Gino spent nearly a year behind the scenes writing his story. He built up a network of suppliers in order to be short on time. EVshop’s official launch was given when he moved into one of the premises of the new SME zone on the corner of Mechelsesteenweg at Hoogveld. “We have no stock cars, but we can work à la carte,” he explains. “To keep the price down, we do often work with executive or second-hand cars, but always with less than 20,000 kilometers on the odometer. We can thus guarantee a delivery time between three and ten weeks. And to guarantee that the battery is still in tip-top condition and that people are not buying a pig in a poke, we carry out a battery test on each car. We are the first in Belgium to issue such a certificate for used electric cars.”
