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In the shadow of scooters: The business with the rental scooters

2019-11-12T08:16:51.942Z


E-scooters are one of the most controversial topics of the year. As if in the slipstream, a completely different business is booming: the sharing of electric scooters.



45 km / h fast, many kilometers range, mobile with the driver's license - these factors make electric scooters extremely practical. However, the small two-wheelers are especially successful as sharing vehicles. For example, the number of rental scooters in the world increased by 164 percent in 2019. The market also grew strongly in Germany: by around 42 percent.

This is shown by the Global Scooter Sharing Market Report 2019 from the scooter manufacturer Unu, in which the activities of 54 providers from 21 countries were incorporated. 4187 Sharingroller are according to the authors in Germany on the way - above all electrically. Worldwide, 70.6 percent of the cars are electric vehicles. If one excludes the Indian market, the share of Stromer in the rental scooter fleets is even 99 percent.

"If there is an ideal vehicle for the electric drive in the sharing mode, then it is the scooter," says Andreas Knie, traffic researcher at the Berlin Science Center. "It's affordable, the batteries can be easily exchanged and are big enough for a decent range." The scooter thus closes the gap between the bike and the car, says Knie: "This is a serious means of transport, which bridges distances between three and 15 kilometers well."

This recipe seems to work worldwide. According to the study, the number of users worldwide increased from 350,000 in 2017 to almost 4.8 million in 2019. The industry is growing in two main regions: In Europe, where Portugal (253 percent), Italy (281 percent) and Belgium ( 385 percent) recorded strong growth. However, the biggest driver of growth is India, which did not play a noteworthy role in 2018 - but now there are between 15,000 and 20,000 hand scooters on the way. Thus, the country relegated Spain and its 13,500 scooters to second place.

"The strong growth in India is a special effect," however traffic researcher Andreas knee restricts. The people there are used to scooters, at the same time the traffic is very dense - thus small and flexible vehicles are popular. "In addition, there are many customers who do not want to use the bus but do not have their own car," says Knie.

The growth in the Indian market is also reflected in the figures of the individual cities. The number of sharing scooters in Bangalore, with more than 15,000 scooters, grew at the same rate as in all other cities. Europe's scooter capitals are Paris and Madrid with around 6,300 vehicles. But also Berlin is with 2300 scooters on a European top spot.

"This is the most advanced means of transport we currently have," says traffic researcher Knie. "But it's also a good weather vehicle, in winter, the use in Germany is relatively difficult." This could set limits to growth in this country - if it does not do economic risks. Although the rate of use of the scooters in the study among well-managed providers currently stands at eight loans per day with a useful life of about 15 minutes.

That's also ideal, explains Knie. "In reality, these values ​​are unlikely to be sustainable yet, and so far there is a lack of an appropriate business model, as most vendors are unlikely to be profitable, especially as the devices are more expensive than e-scooters or bicycles." Therefore, the market will consolidate, said Knie.

Currently, there are still a variety of providers, so in 20 cities, several companies are active, the highest selection, according to the study according to Madrid, where six sharing companies fight for customers. Altogether the authors counted 54 offerers, which are active in 88 cities. But most of these vendors are relatively small, with Vogo, eCooltra, Bounce, Cityscoot and the Bosch Start-up Coup running five vendors 56 percent of the total sharing fleet.

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However, the decisive factor for the change in traffic can not be reflected in such a study, explains traffic researcher Knie: "The scooters must be digitally integrated into the apps for public transport." Otherwise, the system would become confusing due to the many providers. "Such an offer only makes sense if I can grasp and use it immediately," says Knie.

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2019-11-12

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