🛵 India’s EV Boom Arrives on 2 Wheels

Plus, Bird ramps up retail, Harley’s EV brand roars toward SPAC, and the weird politics of speed bumps.

Thanks for stopping by the Micromobility Newsletter. Now let’s roll.

Micromobility World Is Back

Have you heard? Micromobility World, our free virtual conference focusing on the future of small vehicles for small trips in urban centers, returns on January 12th, 2022 for a jam-packed day of talks, meetings, and more.

Join micromobility’s top global builders, thinkers, and leaders—including special guest Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird—as we explore the disruptive power of lightweight electric vehicles to revolutionize our cities, unbundle the car, and build a more sustainable future.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • India, the world’s largest two-wheeler market, is quickly embracing the e-mobility revolution. Just this month, Bounce began taking preorders for its radically affordable EV moped, the $480 Infinite E1; Simple Energy announced it will invest $330M in new capacity to make its own sit-down electric scooters; and SoftBank-backed Ola confirmed it will start shipping its first S1 and S1 Pro models on December 15th.

  • Bird is launching new retail scooter and bike products at Target. In its Q3 earnings report, Bird said that retail is a small but rapidly growing part of its business, with $10M worth of product on backorder due to supply chain difficulties.

  • San Francisco bike lanes mapped as ski runs (easy, intermediate, expert, dangerous).

  • Road congestion is back to pre-pandemic levels. But many downtowns are still deserted because of WFH. Is this what the worst of both worlds looks like?

  • The EU is looking at allowing Member States to reduce VAT for bicycles in an effort to make cycling more affordable.

  • In the Bronx, ebike companies are partnering with local nonprofits and the state government to provide discounts to frontline workers. Could this model work nationwide?

  • Local and national politicians around the world are sending mixed signals about the future of private car ownership.

  • Milwaukee is considering dropping the average fee it charges homeowners to install a speed bump from $250 to $80. But if speed bumps are good for street safety, shouldn’t cities want to make it totally free to request one? Maybe it’s no surprise that guerilla urbanists are taking speed bump installation into their own hands…

  • If the next pizza you order arrives cold, you can blame bad parking policies. According to a recent study from downtown Seattle, commercial delivery vehicles spend an average of 2.3 mins per trip—or 28% of the total delivery time—searching for parking. As consumers come to expect 15-min delivery, can couriers afford to spend extra time looking for car parking, or will they be forced to switch to nimbler vehicles, like ebikes?

  • A tale of two bike industries: In the US, only 3% of bikes are manufactured domestically, compared to 50% of bikes (and 75% of ebikes!) in the EU.

  • Boston’s new mayor is hiring a “chief of streets” to steer the city beyond car-centric transportation.

  • The latest (L)EV SPAC has arrived: Harley-Davidson’s electric motorcycle brand LiveWire is merging with a blank-check company to go public at $1.77B valuation. The deal will net the company approximately $545M in funds.

Fig. 1:

Pod People

Co-hosts Horace Dediu and Oliver Bruce reunite on the latest episode of the podcast to recap the recent COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Specifically, they dig into why micromobility wasn’t more prominently featured in the potential solutions provided by groups like the IEA, and how that matches up to the disruptive innovation framework. 

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.