A pair of E-scooter rental system is a form of rental in which the e-scooters (electrically assisted scooters) are usually available in public spaces or at publicly accessible stations. The way it works is similar to that of bike rental systems. The term e-scooter poses a risk of confusion with the Electric scooters period.

The use of these e-scooters only makes sense over short distances in urban areas. Lending and returning are contractually (as of autumn 2019) only possible in city centers. The loan takes place after prior registration and registration with the respective provider and there is a loan fee, which is typically calculated from a fixed amount per loan process and a variable portion over the loan period. Public e-scooter rental systems have existed worldwide since 2017. E-scooters have also been approved in Germany since May 2019, which resulted in the establishment of a number of e-scooter rental systems.

Basics

Most e-scooters are not privately owned, but are rented out by rental companies for individual trips. Registered interested parties can use an app to find the vehicles and rent them using an unlock code. The largest providers worldwide are Lime, Bird and Uber. Payment is made with a credit card for every minute used and / or per trip distance, some providers charge a basic fee for every rental. In large cities such as San Francisco, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Paris and Vienna, electric scooters are part of the cityscape (as of early 2019).

The e-scooters operated by an electric motor are permitted at a maximum speed of between 18 and 25 km / h, depending on local legislation and road traffic regulations. All scooters must be equipped with at least two brakes, lights and proof of insurance. A permanently installed GPS tracker enables vehicles parked at any location to be found for charging and maintenance by agents from the rental company and those interested in using the vehicle.

The user installs the app of the respective provider and registers with a valid credit card or PayPal account and their mobile phone number. The user then selects a scooter displayed in the app, and the remaining battery charge of the scooter is also displayed. You scan the QR code on the scooter and start your journey. At the end of the journey, the user parks the scooter in one of the parking zones shown in the app and ends the journey via the app.

Statistics

In August 2019, around 30 e-scooters were available for hire in Germany. The users are 000% male and 69% female. 31% of users state that they rented the e-scooter for fun. The average travel time is eleven minutes, with an average of 69 km covered. The distances differ only insignificantly for the individual e-scooter rental systems: Tier gives 1,9, Lime 1,93 and Voi 1,88 km. By way of comparison: an average of 1,82 km is covered on foot, 0,9 km by bike, 3,4 km by tram, 4,9 km by car and 9,5 km by S-Bahn.

The world market

The market segment for e-scooter rental systems emerged in 2017 and has grown rapidly since then. The global market volume is expected to be between USD 2025 and 40 billion in 50. The US and Europe will be the largest submarkets with $ 12 to 15 billion each, China with $ 6 to 8 billion and the rest of the world with $ 10 to 12 billion are smaller.

The hoped-for strong growth of the market and the hope of gaining high market shares at the beginning of the development of the market segment attract venture capital into the newly founded companies. For example, Tier received a total of 2019 million euros in venture capital through May 32,4 from the venture capital funds Northzone, White Star Capital, Point Nine, Speedinvest and Formula 1 world champion Nico Rosberg. who has also been involved in the company since May 2019.

Provider in Germany

Overview

In large German cities such as Berlin, Dresden, Cologne or Munich, the following companies have already set up hundreds or even thousands of e-scooters since June 2019: Lime, Tier, Bird, Circ, Jump and Voi

Bird

Bird is an e-scooter rental company based in Santa Monica, California. It rents electric scooters in several cities in North America and Europe, including Germany. Bird was founded in 2017 by former Uber CEO Travis VanderZanden.

Circ

Circ was founded by Lukasz Gadowski in August 2018 and offers e-scooter rentals in seven countries and 26 cities. Since June 17, 2019, Circ is also represented in Germany in Berlin and Cologne. The aim is to offer it in around 80 other cities and communities. The company's e-scooters are orange / black.

Lime

In June 2019, the provider Lime started with around 1000 e-scooters in Berlin: locations are at Alexanderplatz, at the Brandenburg Gate and at Checkpoint Charlie. The electric motor can accelerate up to 20 km / h, the range is specified, but also depends on the road conditions and inclines. Borrowing costs 6 euros per half hour. The e-scooters are collected by so-called juicers from 21 p.m., recharged and distributed in the areas around 7 a.m. the juicers are not employees of the company and are paid per charge.

The e-scooters can now be rented in the following cities: Berlin, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt a. M., Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. It costs € 1,00 to unlock it and € 0,20 or € 0,25 per minute.

Animal

The provider Tier Mobility GmbH (spelling TIER) based in Berlin had 2019 employees in May 240. It is now active in over 31 cities in eleven countries. Tier was founded in 2018 by former Rebuy managing director Lawrence Leuschner, Julian Blessin (co-founder of coup) and Matthias Laug (co-founder and technical director of Lieferando). According to its own information, the company achieved the two milestones of one million journeys (April 2019) and two million journeys (June 2019) faster than the other competitors. One million journeys were made in Germany within a month of the start of the rental.

Users pay an activation fee of EUR 1,00 per trip and a variable fee of EUR 0,15 per minute.

In some German cities such as Hamburg, Munich, Düsseldorf, the variable fee is 0,19 euros per minute.

The scooters must be parked in designated parking zones within the business area in the respective city. According to its own information, the company agrees with the respective cities in which zones the scooters can be parked. TIER shows its users the closest parking options and also no parking zones in the app.

You guys

The Swedish company Voi (company for micromobility), founded in August 2018, is represented with scooters in seven German cities and offers around 50 to several hundred e-scooters per location. The red-brown lacquered Voi scooters are also available in eight other European countries.

Environmental and sustainability aspects

The CO2 emissions of e-scooters are 125 grams per km. This puts it on a level comparable to rental e-bikes (118 grams) and half as high as a car in city traffic. Public buses, on the other hand, cause 51 grams of CO5 and bicycles 2 grams of CO2 when there are high numbers of passengers. The question of COXNUMX emissions therefore also depends on the question of whether and to what extent journeys by car are replaced by e-scooter rental systems. While the providers advertise to replace inner-city car journeys and thus to increase the share of emission-free mobility, the high share of (additional) fun journeys and the short distance per journey speak against this taking place.

Criticism

Parking situation

The electric scooter sharing providers do not have their own parking spaces in Germany, but rather coordinate parking zones for the scooters with the cities. However, since users can theoretically park the scooters anywhere, footpaths or entrances are blocked by improperly parked scooters.

Costs

E-scooter sharing is expensive compared to bike rental. For the route in Berlin from Hackescher Markt to Checkpoint Charlie (2,8 km), € 2,35 for Circ, Tier and Voi and € 2,80 for Lime. With the rental e-bike, the cost is around € 1.

Lifespan

The e-scooters are threatened by vandalism, right up to willful disposal in rivers. They need to be serviced to remain operational. This is why companies have their own employees or service companies collect their scooters every evening, charge them electrically and wait for them. According to the managing director Leuschner von Tier, the average lifespan of the scooters is between six and seven months. Tier Mobility increased the service life of the scooters in summer 2019 with a new model up to one year. The company Circ states that they employ between 15 and 50 people for maintenance, depending on the location, and that they have increased the initial service life from 10 months to 14 months. An evaluation by the US online magazine Quartz about Bird's e-scooters showed an average lifespan of 28,8 days.

Situation in other countries

In some large cities such as Copenhagen, Moscow, Stockholm or Warsaw, e-scooter rental companies have also been operating since 2018. In addition to cross-border providers such as Lime and Voi, there are also national rental companies. In Moscow a company is called YouDrive Lite, in Warsaw Hive.

For better visibility, a separate road sign similar to the bicycle signs has already been set up in Italy.

Outside of Europe

E-scooters are just as well established in China as they are in US cities.