However important the awareness of individuals for the climate crisis might be, in today’s world when the environmental pollution has increased so much, especially in transportation, it is as important for companies and countries to carry out their policies targeting this problem.
As the technological advances continue to affect almost every aspect of our lives, they inevitably find their way even in this area in the form of electric vehicles that are striving to become the balm for the air pollution wound and to consolidate its place in our lives.
The young Turkish businessman Oğuz Alper Öktem is the founder of Martı, an e-scooter sharing company that is leading the trending micro-mobility movement in Turkey since it was established in 2018, offering the citizens of Istanbul and other cities in Turkey green and cheaper transportation alternative.
In a system where even the world’s policies are shaped by keeping the climate crisis as a top priority, Öktem believed it is important for a technology company to set the climate crisis as a mission so along with his sister Sena Öktem, the co-founder of Martı, he set the protection of the environment as one of the company’s priorities.
Initiating such a novel concept in Turkish society was certainly a considerable risky move by Öktem who didn’t know whether people will like the idea or not.
But the combination of trusting its vision and the fact that they’ve found themselves in the right place with the right business model at the right time – being first in the sector – tuned the adventure into full-scale success. Martı is now present in more than 20 cities and employs over 1800 people.
By turning Martı into a successful story, Öktem has drawn attention to the inevitable transition to electric transportation not only as a greener and more sustainable transport alternative but also as the future of transportation.
Martı may take this initiative on the Turkish streets in line with its plans to launch the electric vehicles project in 2022.
He strongly believes that, in ten years, all transportation will be made with shared and electric vehicles. And the statistics say that Öktem might be on the right track there.
Due to the climate crisis, increasing fuel costs, city traffic congestion, and parking problems, the shared scooter market, which had a global market profit of only 11 million dollars in 2017 has reached $1.8 billion in just five years, and, according to Statista data, is expected to reach $2.9 billion by 2026.
Öktem also believes that EVs and shared vehicle concept wild boost the sharing economy area Martı also created in Turkey. Explained in simple terms, is an economic activity based on the sharing of individually underutilized assets or services among individuals via online platforms.
Öktem points that although personal vehicle ownership will not disappear completely, he believes that 80% of the transportation means will be based on the sharing economy in the next decade, so Martı will continue working in this direction.