đź’¸ Price hike for e-bikes

Plus, why WFH might not last much longer, more clues about London’s scooter pilot, and Lime lets users ride without app.

March 30, 2021

Hello and welcome to the Micromobility Newsletter, a weekly missive about mobility, mostly mobility in cities by lightweight electric vehicles. 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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One of the key assets to running a shared mobility business successfully is the vehicle you choose. In moped sharing, there are a growing number of vehicle options, especially as the demand for two-wheeled electric vehicles increases.

Later this week, we at INVERS will be releasing our latest e-paper looking at who are the dominant moped manufacturers today and which ones to keep an eye out for this year.

What if you could get 74% more rides per scooter simply from operational tweaks? “It goes from a business that kind of makes money to one that really makes money.”

In our latest video interview, Zoba co-founder Joseph Brennan shows Oliver Bruce how analytics and data can optimize micromobility ops.

P.S. We’re releasing a constant stream of new content on YouTube now, with many more great episodes coming soon. If you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss any of Oliver’s essential interviews with industry insiders.

Between COVID work stoppages, a massive stock surge, a strategic tech acquisition, partnering with legendary automotive engineer Sandy Munro, and the general fits and starts of pre-production, Arcimoto, maker of semi-enclosed electric three-wheelers, has had an eventful year.On next week’s Pro Webinar, CEO Mark Frohnmayer will shed light on Arcimoto's manufacturing progress and long-term ambitions—and why he believes heavy micromobility is vital to the future of electric vehicles.

Become a Pro, free for 30 days, to gain access to this exclusive event and other cool perks.

What You Need to Know This Week

  • Price hikes are threatening to derail the incredible momentum e-bikes have shown during the pandemic. Amid rising transportation costs, a shortage of key components, and the expiration of a U.S. exemption on e-bike tariffs, several manufacturers say they have no choice but to raise their prices by $100 to $200. If Congress cares about getting people out of cars and into truly sustainable modes of transport, now would be a great time to pass the EBIKE Act, giving Americans a tax credit covering up to $1,500 of e-bike purchases…

  • Don’t count out a commuting comeback yet. A new survey by KPMG shows most major global companies no longer plan to reduce their use of office space after the pandemic. Just 17% of chief executives intend to cut back on offices, down from 69% in the last survey in August.

  • Lockdown brought traffic to a standstill in many cities last year. But rather than ushering in a golden age of road safety, empty streets appear to have encouraged faster, more reckless driving. As a result, 2020 is projected to have the largest-ever annual increase in the U.S. pedestrian fatality rate per mile driven.

  • The latest edition of the Micromobility Landscape has dropped, courtesy of industry biographer Alessandro Zenati, featuring more than 200 new startups filling in crucial blank spots in the urban mobility ecosystem, including last-block delivery, charging and parking, DTC, and more. Submit your company for approval here.

  • Lime customers can now rent a scooter without downloading the app by taking a photo of the scooter’s QR code and paying through Apple Pay or Google Pay. In addition to app-less riding, Lime also rolled out new features that make it easier for users to reserve a scooter and check its battery range in advance of a trip.

  • Giant Group’s net profit went up nearly 50% in 2020 amid the unprecedented bike boom.

  • Bike lanes not only make micromobility users feel safer, they actually make trips seem faster. According to a fascinating study, scooter users perceive routes with bike lanes to be 59% shorter than they actually are.

  • Ninebot’s insanely cheap A30C electric moped may be coming to the U.S. and Europe soon. Costing only $350, the A30C includes some interesting features, including full-suspension, regenerative braking, password protection for electronic key sharing, OTA updates, and more.

  • Recruiting efforts in London lend credence to recent reports that Dott, Lime, and Tier have been approved to operate scooters in the city. (An earlier version of this post identified Voi as one of the companies that was hiring in London. We regret the error.)

  • Bike trips in Bogota have almost doubled in the last decade, to 880k per day.

  • Mobility data startup Lacuna is adding Tamika L. Butler and Rashida Richardson to its board of directors.

  • Amid declining ridership, more and more transit agencies are turning to MaaS partners to handle booking, payment, and trip planning. “What we do best is transporting large volumes of people on vehicles and managing mass transit,” said Metro Transit executive director Jessica Mefford-Miller. “On the software side, there are a lot of players out there doing great stuff that can help us meet our customers where they are and make trip planning as easy as possible.”

  • British Columbia will welcome privately owned e-scooters in select cities for the first time this summer.

  • And relatedly, here is state-by-state breakdown of electric scooter laws in the U.S., updated for 2021.

Startup Spotlight

Browse startups looking to connect with investors.

📦 GetHenry

Full-service last mile delivery bicycles.

Problem

Last-mile deliveries account for up to 30% of global CO2 emissions.

Solution

We offer delivery companies and couriers full-service subscriptions to delivery vehicles such as e-bikes, cargo bikes, and electric mopeds. Besides the hardware, our offer includes regular maintenance, insurance, and a fleet management dashboard to track performance.

How do you know it’s a problem?

Over 50% of all last-mile deliveries could be operated by light electric vehicles. But due to high costs of ownership (acquisition costs of up to $15k and maintenance costs of ca. $80/month), the adoption rate is still very low.

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Jobs to Be Done

Welcome to our jobs board, where every week we post open positions 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.

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