New UK Government Prioritizes Battery Fire Safety Amid Rising Concerns

Plus, Faction rolls out self-driving three-wheelers in Texas.

July 23, 2024

Welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, your weekly digest of important events and industry news in the world of personal transportation.

Deal Yourself In

Are you a dealer or distributor that sells electric bikes, skateboards, scooters, motorcycles, accessories, and/or neighborhood electric vehicles in your store?

We want to invite you to be our guest at Micromobility America 2024 on November 14-15 in Southern California (down in Costa Mesa, near LA). 

This two-day event is designed to help you accelerate your business by connecting you with decision-makers at some of the best brands in micromobility. Our audience is largely c-level, founder, or VP, so you can skip email chains and 4-5 layers of protocol to reach the person in charge. 

You can also expect mixers, networking events, parties, and our first-ever Retail Awards, a Shark Tank style competition where retailers like you get to vet innovative new vehicles onstage to see whether they make the cut to be in stores. 

If you own or manage a micromobility store, don’t miss this chance to power up your network and drive your business forward. See if you qualify for complimentary tickets and more benefits here.

What You Need to Know Today

The UK’s new Labour government announced one of its first legislative priorities will be enacting a micromobility safety bill, which will require imported e-bikes, e-scooters, and batteries to gain third-party approval before entering the country. The legislative push comes amid a worrying spike in e-bike and e-scooter fires, with the UK is currently experiencing nearly one such incident per day.

Across the pond, New York City deliveristas can now exchange their uncertified e-bikes and mopeds for safer alternatives through a new $2M trade-in program. All non-UL vehicles qualify to swap.

Faction’s self-driving three-wheelers have hit the street to delivery Chick-fil-A and other fast food in Houston. The EVs are supported by TeleAssist, where dedicated remote operators at a control hub provide real-time supervision.

Image Credit: Faction

Here's an in-depth look at the math behind EV moped brand Gogoro’s ambitions to build a global battery-swapping empire. “Taiwan is a small island, but Gogoro still had to deploy over 12,000 swapping racks across 2,500 locations, and they are adding more. What happens when Gogoro goes to more meaningful, much larger geographies like Indonesia, China, or India? This number becomes immense.”

Bangladesh is home to as many as 4 million electric rickshaws, which as of now, are completely unregulated and unmonitored. But after years of legal crackdowns against e-rickshaw owners, the government has finally decided to enact laws to govern the use of battery-powered three-wheelers.

GEM is suing the EPA and IRS with the goal of getting LSVs to qualify for federal tax credits. As it stands, Americans can redeem up to $7,500 in credits from the government to purchase a full-sized EV, but they get zilch for buying smaller, lower-speed vehicles that are actually more environmentally sustainable.

Following the boom in new e-bike and scooter sales during the pandemic, a market for used and refurbished vehicles has quietly blossomed in the last few years. The latest addition to the second-hand landscape is Moose, a new online seller in the UK. 

Bikeshare is booming in Canada, even as bus and train ridership continues to lag behind pre-pandemic levels. Montreal’s Bixi, for instance, saw 31% more trips in 2023 than the year before. The system had 576,000 unique users last year, which is equivalent to a quarter of the population.

ETA is trying to raise $3M to revive Elf, a semi-enclosed, solar/pedal-powered hybrid vehicle that has a passionate following.

Image Credit: Organic Transit

London plans to invest £50M in safer streets, including micromobility infrastructure, as it pursues a goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries.

A new study from Shanghai finds that e-bikes can lead up to a 19% reduction in car mode share in dual-mode ownership households compared to car-only households.

In honor of the opening ceremony of the Olympics later this week, let’s end today’s newsletter with a look at how micromobility is making its way in the world of athletics. This windshield-equipped gokart is being used to help runners train by cutting air resistance.

Image Credit: ETH Zurich

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