🗽 New Mannahatta?

Plus, Gogoro pulls in more PIPE, Berliners want car-free core, and Lime’s new ebike hits the streets.

January 18, 2022

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by small electric vehicles, such as hoverboards, ebikes, scooters, and mopeds. 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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Thank you for reading.

Last Call for Early Bird 🐣

Have you heard?

Micromobility Europe is coming to Amsterdam on June 1-2 for a major two-day summit exploring how small electric vehicles are powering a massive shift in how we move people and goods from Point A to Point B.

We’re thrilled not only to be returning to Europe, a global epicenter of micromobility, but also to be bringing the show for the first time to Amsterdam, perhaps the most renowned cycling city in the world.

We have lots of exciting stuff in the works for Micromobility Europe that we can’t wait to share, but for now…

From now until midnight tomorrow, Early Bird tickets are on sale for only €195.

This is your last chance to unlock all-access passes with the Early Bird discount. Get this deal while it lasts.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Taiwan’s Gogoro increased its PIPE funding to $285M ahead of its SPAC listing. (CEO Horace Luke spoke to TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bellan about his company’s unique battery-as-a-service model last week at Micromobility World.)

  • Ola is suspending production of its S1 e-moped until late 2022 so it can focus on meeting the demand for the premium S1 Pro model. The Indian manufacturer has pledged to build 2m electric scooters per year, yet so far, has struggled with various production delays.

  • Berliners are trying to create a car-free area larger than Manhattan.

  • Meanwhile, Manhattanites are trying to grow their city with a proposal to add 1760 acres. It’s a refreshingly ambitious proposal for a major American city. Although if you want to make room for 250k more New Yorkers, you could start by upzoning the 15% of residential land that is currently reserved for detached single-family homes.

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  • Nearly a year after announcing plans to invest $50m in ebike expansion, Lime is deploying its first wave of Gen4 ebikes, which have a swappable battery that also works with its scooters.

  • Stockholm is reducing the number of shared e-scooters in the city by 50%, while allowing all eight of its current micromobility providers to continue operating. Seems like a recipe for disaster, both for commuters who rely on scooters and the companies that need to find a financially sustainable way of providing them.

  • Helbiz is partnering with Wheels to deploy seated electric scooters in the US and Italy next month, with plans to expand into more markets soon. The Italy-based micromobility startup also announced it is integrating with Google Maps worldwide.

  • Serve Robotics’s new autonomous sidewalk delivery robots don’t require human assistance.

Serve Robotics robot on sidewalk next to dog and human

  • The share of journeys in London made by cycling or walking has gone from 27% to 42% during the pandemic.

  • Another impressive sign of COVID’s impact on transport: 56% of female bicyclists who are riding today either started cycling or returned to it during the pandemic, according a survey by NBDA.

  • People are most likely to cycle when car speeds along their route are no more than 20mph.

  • HumanForest is partnering with Deliveroo to give London delivery workers access to shared ebikes.

  • Prague is making free 15-minute bikeshare rides a permanent part of its public transport offer.

  • City regulators from New York to Utah are grappling with whether ebikes belong in the normal bike lane.

  • Luxury fashion labels are tripping over themselves to nail down ebike collabs.

  • The latest version of The Micromobility Landscape—featuring more than 800 companies—is now live. Apply to add your company here.

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  • A survey from Victoria, Australia, finds 3 out of 4 people are interested in biking but are concerned about the lack of safety infrastructure.

  • Micromobility startups are calling on the government for more support in the form of increased bike infrastructure and even direct subsidies.

  • New York City is working with Beyond to study how micromobility can be safely integrated with public transit.

  • Why fast commerce isn’t new.

Micromobility World Replays

ICYMI: Last week we gathered the global industry for our Micromobility World web summit, featuring insightful talks by dozens by public and private decision-makers in urban mobility.

Now we’re releasing recordings of these talks on YouTube so you can replay them anytime, starting with Horace Dediu’s brilliant interview with Bird CEO and founder Travis VanderZanden.

Watch as they discuss micromobility trends and why Travis is still waiting for the industry to invent a scooter as impactful as the iPhone.

We’ll be uploading the rest of the sessions from Micromobility World very soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get updates when each new video is added.

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.