2020 lifts US bike market to $4.5B

Plus, Apple car, iPod bike, Secretary Buttigieg, and more.

December 22, 2020

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities that is enabled by small electric vehicles. The reason you’re reading this email is that you signed up on our website or came to one of our webinars or events.

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Micromobility World

Before the break next week, a quick reminder that we are gearing up for our largest-ever and first fully digital event, Micromobility World (Jan 27-29).

Micromobility World is a beacon for disruptors and pioneers to come together and reimagine our cities at the street level in the aftermath of an unthinkable year. Featured speakers include Janette Sadik-Khan, Bradley Tusk, Benedict Evans, and more.

A limited number of free General Admission tickets are left. We expect to run out in the near future. If you plan on coming, we recommend signing up at your soonest convenience. Have a safe and happy holiday.

What you need to know this week

  • As 2020 draws to a close, the size of this year’s unprecedented cycling boom is starting to come into focus. According to the NPD Group, $4.1B worth of bikes (excluding ebikes) were sold in the US between January and October 2020, a 62% increase over the same period in 2019. While those figures are impressive, it’s clear the future belongs to electric. Ebikes reached $490.8M in US sales for an incredible 144% increase year over year. The question on everyone’s mind right now is, can this staggering growth be sustained in 2021 and beyond?

  • Following mega-rounds by Tier and Voi, Estonian TNC Bolt has raised $182M in a deal led by D1 Capital Ventures. The latest round will fund the startup’s efforts to become the largest scooter operator in Europe in 2021.

  • Massachusetts-based scooter startup Superpedestrian has raised $60M from Citi Impact Fund, OurCrowd, Winthrop Square Capital, and others. Investors were wooed by the company’s vehicle intelligence system, which gives its Link scooters one of the lowest vehicle loss rates of any operator.

  • Investment group Groupe Bruxelles Lambert—joined by former Apple exec and iPod co-developer Tony Fadell—has acquired a majority share in Canyon Bicycles in a deal that sources say could be worth nearly $1B. The change suggests that Canyon, originally a high-end cycling brand, will continue to expand into e-mobility, such as the four-wheeled pod concept it unveiled this summer. (Side note: Fadell previously invested in Superpedestrian through his firm Future Shape.)

The Canyon Future Mobility Project concept vehicle.

  • Speaking of Apple, the iPhone maker is targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology, according to reports.

  • VC conglomerate Rokit Made plans to open the US’s largest ebike plant in Las Vegas next year. The factory is expected to have an initial annual capacity of 300,000 units, eventually scaling to 900,000.

  • New York scooter subscription service Beyond (formerly Brooklyness) has raised $1.8M in a round led by Narrative Fund and Brooklyn Bridge Ventures.

  • What Buttigieg could mean for transportation.

  • Scotland plans to cut car use by 20% in the next decade—and that includes electric cars.

  • DoorDash is partnering with Zoomo to allow New York City couriers to try an ebike for free for two weeks.

  • Spin is partnering with Drover AI to add cameras, sensor arrays, and onboard computers to all of their scooters in the hopes of curbing improper parking and riding behavior by customers.

  • Tern introduced a 28-mph version of its popular HSD utility e-bike.

  • UAE scooter startup Fenix has launched weekly and monthly subscriptions.

  • New analysis of the 2003 SARS outbreak’s impact on public transit in Asia finds that it took ridership about a year to bounce back after the crisis. Will coronavirus-ravaged transit systems face a similarly slow recovery once the vaccine is distributed?

  • Voi is partnering with Captur and CityMaaS to give people an easier way to report misplaced scooters.

  • The pandemic has ushered in a major transformation of Los Angeles’s auto-friendly streets. This year in the city bike trips were up 52% and bike-car collisions were down 70%.

Chart of bike accidents in LA 2020-vs. 2019

  • Lime’s CFO doesn’t envision a market debut anytime soon: “The biggest rationale in my mind for going public is access to capital. From our standpoint, we have sufficient cash on hand to execute our plan.”

  • A study from London finds that protected bike lanes reduce the odds of cyclist injury by 45-60%, whereas “advisory lanes” increased injuries by 34%.

  • How investors arrived at Tier’s $1B valuation.

  • For all the progress the safe streets movement has made this year, let’s not lose sight of what we’re up against. Of the top 25 selling vehicles in 2020, nearly all of them were gas-guzzling, road-hogging trucks or SUVs.

Pod people

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Most micromobility purchases still start with searching “e-scooter” on Amazon. On the podcast, Oliver Bruce talks to the cofounders of Ridepanda about their efforts to build a trusted online marketplace for micromobility, including vehicle comparisons, financing, maintenance, and more.

Jobs to be done

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