Lime losing lead in ratings war

TikTok teens revive rollerskating, Paris calls its latest micromobility play "car-sharing," and TNCs threaten to leave California.

August 18, 2020

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

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How can innovative positioning and wireless technologies help you design a micromobility solution that sets you apart from competition? What level of location accuracy and robustness do you need to optimize the user experience of customers riding on a shared or privately-owned e-bike, e-scooter, e-moped, or e-motorcycle?

How do you select positioning and wireless connectivity technologies that help you reduce your fleet operational costs? Why must you look at new solutions to increase micromobility safety and be compliant with road authorities regulations?

Join u-blox’s upcoming webinar as they uncover design challenges, important IoT security aspects, and explore the technologies that can add value to your product development and the operations of your mobility service platform.

You will be able to ask questions directly to u-blox—Diego Grassi, Senior Manager Application Marketing and Mathias Vetter, Principal Product Manager, Standard Precision GNSS—and will get introduced to an example of IoT innovation on 2-wheels by Siemen Smolders, Technical Project Manager at Cowboy bikes.

Register for Slot 1 // Register for Slot 2

Report: Bird ties Lime as world’s top-rated scooter app for first time

By Prabin Joel

Could Bird overtake Lime as the top-rated micromobility app in the world? Maybe! Following several months of steady improvement, Bird’s app store rating ended last month tied with longtime leader Lime at 4.85/5.

Overall, most companies’ ratings stayed relatively stable in July. In terms of user satisfaction, Dott and Bird gained the most (0.3% each), while Wind and Yulu fell the farthest (-.08 and -1.4%, respectively).

The total volume of app store reviews written in July was up 32% compared to June. Beam saw the highest growth (126%), followed by Spin (91%).

Overall five operators, Lime, Bird, Spin, Grin, and Voi, accounted for more than 90% of all app store reviews written last month. Lime alone received a majority (57.1%).

Prabin Joel Jones is the VP of IT & Enabling Tech at BOND Mobility, a premium speed e-bike sharing operator based in Zurich.

What you need to know this week

Bikes currently account for 7% of all trips in Bogotá, more than any other Latin American city. The Colombian capital’s eventual goal is to have half of all its trips to be made by micromobility devices. To that end, it plans to add 174 miles of new bike lanes as part of a major pandemic-era cycling initiative.
Old-school roller skates are on backorder at many retailers, thanks to a new TikTok craze.
Giant’s revenue hit $670 million in Q2 and its net income grew 25% over last year, thanks in large part to increased sales for high-margin e-bikes. However shifting trade barriers between China, the US, and Europe have made it difficult for the global bike leader to keep up with demand.
After Simon Cowell broke his back while riding an electric two-wheeler in California earlier this month, many in the media—including us—incorrectly reported that the injury had occurred on an e-bike. In reality, the TV star fell off of an electric motorbike that is capable of going four times as fast as the US speed limit for a pedal-assisted bike.

@BrentToderian@carltonreid@lloydalter@ABCNewsLive@ABCPolitics You can call it an ebike but it’s not allowed on any street and does not meet type classifications in US or EU (or anywhere else). You can put pedals on a rocket and call it an ebike if you want.
— Horace Dediu (@asymco)
8:10 PM • Aug 11, 2020

From mobility to mobile payments, Stripe has hired General Motors CFO Dhivya Suryadevara.
Uber and Lyft are threatening to shut down service in California if a ruling that forces them to classify their drivers as employees isn’t overturned. In an NYT op-ed, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called the binary classification system of employees and contractors a “false choice.” Instead, he advocates for a “third way,” in which companies that rely on gig labor would be required to create a benefits fund that workers can use to cover things like health insurance and PTO.
US motorcycle sales were up 6.4% in the first half of 2020.
Wind has started providing integrated helmets with its dockless scooters.
With new bikes in short supply, used-bike sales are flourishing.
By focusing on B2B and B2G, Trafi is outpacing many of its MaaS rivals. “This business model — licensing off-the-shelf products to cities, tech giants and transport companies, rather than offering a free product to consumers or building custom solutions for clients — is helping Trafi grow fast, while fellow MaaS startups are stalling.”
The bike boom is good news Europe’s top producer, Portugal.
Swiss e-bike operator Bond has acquired the data and analytics startup Roll2Go.
An entire section of the German city of Bremen is going bicycle-only.
Thrill-seekers raced Onewheel electric unicycles down a mountainside in Utah as part of an organized competition earlier this week.

Why don’t we hold cars to the same safety standards as scooters and other less hazardous vehicles? David Zipper investigates.
Philadelphia is adding GPS to its Indego bikes after 330 out of 1,400 have gone missing so far this year. Live and learn.
Lucid Motors’ luxury sedan set an insane new record for longest EV range: 517 miles on a single charge.
Paris’s new car-sharing program, Free2Move, is actually a micromobility platform. Users of the system will soon be able to rent the Citroen Ami, a 28-mph, 1,070-pound electric quadricycle that can be legally driven by kids as young as 14, for a few cents a minute.

British folding bike maker Brompton is gearing up launch to a monthly and annual subscription service.
Walmart and Instacart are partnering on same-day deliveries.
Voi is launching scooters in Cambridge in its first UK pilot.
Electric bike sales are through the roof in Europe, but not everyone who wants one is able to afford the purchase. Among those who aren’t riding yet, 40% say the reason is that e-bikes are too expensive. In response, governments and employers from France to Sweden are stepping up to provide incredible e-bike incentives. “According to Christina Diem-Puello, managing director of Deutsche Dienstrad, there are 1.6 million employees in Germany riding employer-provided e-bikes.”
The NYT illustrates how viral particles travel around a subway car.

Pod people

On a new edition of the podcast, Oliver Bruce talks to entrepreneurs Maxim Romain and Henri Moissinac about what makes their startup, Dott, stand out in the scooter world: It makes a profit on every trip.

“We use superior operations and superior product as weapons, the others use capital as a weapon. They have great fundraising story. We have a great business.”

Jobs to be done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post new career openings in hopes of connecting our 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.

EU Sales Manager at Acton (anywhere in EU)
Senior Sales Manager at Comodule (Nuremberg or remote)
Business Owner at Wunder City (Hamburg)
Various roles at PBSC
CMO at Civilized Cycles