📦 Amazon Opens "Micromobility Hub"

Plus, Rivian inches toward ebikes, Mottu banks $40M for motorcycle rentals, and USDOT pledges $1B for highway removal.

July 05, 2022

Micromobility America

ICYMI: Micromobility America, a conference dedicated to electric scooters, bikes, and all manner of other small vehicles, is coming to the SF Bay Area on Sept 15-16, and for a short time, you can snag tickets for $700 less than the full price.

Grab Early Adopter tickets now, then join us for two absolutely awesome days of talks, demos, rides, meetings, and more.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Everybody loves cargo bikes right now. Just ask Amazon, which announced yesterday it is launching a fleet of electric bikes that look like mini trucks as part its first-ever “Micromobility Hub” in London. To start, Amazon hopes to replace commercial vans with bikes for 5M deliveries a year.

  • Amazon isn’t the only tech titan reconsidering vans, trucks, and cars. A new Uber-commissioned report predicts there will be a 78% growth in urban deliveries by 2030, and unless micromobility usage is encouraged, cities will face a sharp rise in traffic and emissions.

  • Electric motorbikes are poised to take off in Asia, where in countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, more than 80% of households already own a two-wheeler.

  • Overall bike sales have tapered off a bit since the early days of the pandemic, but the ebike category has proven more resilient.

  • Is a Rivian ebike in the works? The EV automaker’s move to hire Specialized CTO Chris Yu suggests maybe so. (Chris Yu spoke on our podcast recently about why big mobility brands should have an ebike strategy)

  • Mottu, a Brazilian motorcycle rental company, has raised $40M to put food couriers on two-wheelers across Latin America.

  • What do we have to do to get USB-C charging on our ebikes?

  • The Sondors Metacycle, a highway-ready electric motorcycle with a low initial price of $5,000, will start shipping soon.

sondors metacycle

  • Some personnel news: Comodule is restructuring and appointing Teet Praks as CEO; Former Spin CEO Ben Bear has signed on as an advisor to Populus (which was just chosen to manage data for Chicago’s shared scooter pilot); and Bird founder Travis VanderZanden has stepped down from his role as president to be succeeded by COO Shane Torchiana (VanderZanden will continue as CEO and chair of the board).

  • Paris will start charging riders of gas-powered motorcycles for parking.

  • Unu is launching an EV moped and battery subscription service in Berlin.

  • Bo, a micromobility startup that emerged from stealth at Micromobility Europe last month, is garnering attention for its futuristic “monocurve” electric scooter.

Bo Mobility monocurve e-scooter

  • Here’s a concept for an electric motorcycle that can ride on railway tracks and roads.

  • To convince people to get out of cars, electric scooters need to deliver on the four S’s: smarts, simplicity, sustainability, and style.

  • Velotric, a micromobility startup created by Lime cofounder Adam Zhang, has launched its first ebike, the $1399 Discover 1.

  • Texas-based Volcon has launched an 80mph electric utility vehicle with 100+ miles of range.

volcon stag utv

  • Why Canada isn’t having a traffic safety crisis, but America is.

  • USDOT has launched a $1B first-of-its-kind pilot program aimed at helping reconnect cities and neighborhoods racially segregated or divided by road projects.

  • Barack Obama issues an open call for city planners to combat urban sprawl: “Sprawl in America is not good for our climate. And so we have to think about creating livable density that allows us to take mass transit and take bicycles.”

Pod People

What is micromobility and why does it matter? Four years after launching the Micromobility Podcast together, Oliver Bruce and Horace Dediu revisit the trillion-dollar question in a brand-new conversation. Topics of discussion include the case for why small EVs are interesting, the implications for cities, failed predictions, and why definitions are meant to be broken.

Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post open positions in hopes of connecting our talented readers with professional opportunities in the burgeoning world of new mobility. Find out who’s hiring below and sign up for the newsletter to view fresh listings every week.

Hit reply if you have a job that you’re interested in listing.

VanMoof: Bike Mechanic Team Lead (New Jersey)

Micromobility Industries: Content Lead & Sales and Account Manager (remote)