đź’° Voi & Bolt Raise Big

Plus, US advances $1.2t for infra, Hellobike scraps IPO, and e-cargo bikes beat vans on inner-city deliveries.

August 10, 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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What You Need to Know This Week

  • After months of negotiations, the U.S. Senate passed a $1.2t bipartisan infrastructure bill today, including $110b for roads and bridges, $66b for passenger and freight rail, $39b for transit, $15b for EVs, $11b for road safety, and $1b for highway removal.

  • Electric cargo bikes deliver 60% faster than vans in city centers, according to new study. Bikes averaged 10 packages delivered per hour, compared to 6 for vans.

  • Estonian TNC Bolt has raised $713m in fresh funding to push into online grocery. The new investment round values Bolt at about $4.75b, more than double its last private valuation of $2b.

  • E-bikes accounted for 30% of Giant’s sales dollars in the first half of 2021. Net profit was up 65% overall.

  • Scooter and bike rentals recovered much faster than transit ridership in North America last year, according to NABSA’s annual shared micromobility report. Interestingly, the study found that only 14% of bike-share providers suspended service during the height of the pandemic, compared to 57% of e-scooter operators. As cities reopen, will transportation officials remember which providers stood by them when the going got tough?

  • It’s official: Hellobike will scrap its U.S. IPO plans after China’s tech crackdown.

  • Micromobility startup Voi has raised $45m in a Series C round extension, bringing the total amount to $205m. The funds are expected to be used to research and develop technology that will improve safety and parking, two issues that are top of mind for city officials who dole out lucrative municipal permits.

  • Indeed, ineffective right-of-way and parking management systems are holding dockless micromobility’s growth back.

  • Honda, KTM, Piaggio, and Yamaha are forming an electric battery consortium with the goal of defining a standard for swappable battery packs for two-wheelers.

  • This week Okai unveiled a new sit-down scooter that can be folded in half and carried like a kick scooter.

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  • Barcelona has reclaimed 20 acres of cityscape from motor vehicles since March 2020.

  • Examining Lyft’s latest membership offer, it looks as if the company is attempting to link up its national bike-share network. In addition to ride-hail discounts, Lyft’s new annual subscription, Lyft Pink ($199/year), will provide unlimited free 45-min bike rides in every city where Lyft operates a bike-share system, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and more.

  • And in Washington DC, Lyft is bundling bike-share and transit to encourage multimodal travel.

  • Honda’s latest two-wheeler design is an ultra-affordable e-moped (starting price: $1,150) made for the Chinese market.

  • Luna and JumpWatts are forming a new partnership that aims to bring computer vision and teleoperations together to improve dockless scooter placement and parking.

  • Bird is testing a new feature that will automatically slow its e-scooters when users ride them through busy pedestrian areas, like schools.

  • Siemens Mobility and Everis have won a contract to develop a countrywide MaaS platform for Spain.

  • Is it possible a leaked book deal doomed the original Segway?

Our Summer Special Is Here

If you’re a micromobility fan, you know summer is one of the best times to get out and ride. It’s also one of the best times to score big savings on tickets to our annual summit, Micromobility America.

Launching in the SF Bay Area on Sept 23, the Micromobility America conference will bring together an incredible mix of industry insiders and public leaders, including this year’s headliner, Andrew Yang, for a highly programmed day of test rides, talks, meetings, and more. Check out the lineup here.

If you haven’t reserved your spot already, now would be a great time to do so: Tickets are nearly 50% for a short while.

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.