Just like the other industries, the automotive industry is also going through a major transformation, thanks to the progress of technology. Embracing new trends such as environmental sustainability and cost-effective solutions, many companies have come up with smart options. The automotive industry is trying to bring different options and refine its operations and business with the latest trends.
To stay relevant in this technologically advanced era, the automotive companies have come up with smart mobility solutions offering flexibility, a lot of customisation, a multi-modal transportation system, and more. Smart mobility is a sustainable alternative that saves the environment from energy consumption and CO2 emissions.
Talking about Vienna, the city has one of the best public transport networks in the world. In addition to the trams and buses for people to commute, there are service providers offering smart mobility solutions. There are electric scooter services that let users book a ride and park it via an app. Today, we have listed popular smart mobility scooters in Vienna.
Bird (US)
Founders: Travis VanderZanden
Funding: €377 million
Valuation: $2.5 billion
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Bird is a last-mile electric vehicle sharing company offering affordable and environment-friendly transportation solutions to its user communities. Bird offers dockless electric scooters and the service operates via an app. The mobile app shows where scooters are available in the locality so that users can locate an electric scooter and start the ride by scanning the QR code. Interestingly, the app also shows the battery life of the scooter and location using GPS.
Lime (US)
Founders: Brad Bao, Toby Sun
Funding: €706 million
Valuation: $2.4 billion
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Lime is an electric scooter rental service operating in many cities in Europe. Initially, it started with Paris and gradually expanded to other cities in Europe last year. Lime is revolutionising micro-mobility and empowers a new urban lifestyle. The app lets riders find and unlock a fleet of smart bikes and scooters easily in an efficient and sustainable way.
Circ (Germany)
Founders: Lukasz Gadowski, Carlos Bhola
Funding: €55 million
Valuation: €220 million – €330 million
Founded year: 2018
Why its hot: Berlin-based micro-mobility startup Flash got itself rebranded in June to Circ. Also, it is gearing up to expand into new regions in the German market. Circ believes that using cars to commute a few kilometres is not efficient as drivers waste hours in traffic every year. To make it simple and easy, the micro-mobility startup Circ offers personal lightweight electric vehicles to lower carbon emissions and save time.
VOI Technology (Sweden)
Founders: Douglas Stark, Filip Lindvall, Fredrik Hjelm
Funding: €76.4 million
Valuation: $120 million – $180 million
Founded year: 2018
Why its hot: VOI Technology is a Swedish electric scooter-sharing startup. It operates with the intention to provide an affordable and sustainable way for its users to commute. VOI aims to reduce the carbon footprint with its mobility solutions. The startup is present in a slew of cities including Stockholm, Madrid, Gothenburg, Malaga, Lisbon, and Zaragoza. It has over 150,000 registered users and is in plans to expand into France and Italy too.
Tier (Germany)
Founders: Julian Blessin, Lawrence Leuschner, Matthias Laug
Funding: €27 million
Valuation: €100 million – €150 million
Founded year: 2018
Why its hot: Tier was founded to provide electric scooters on a rental basis to enable last-mile connectivity in the cities. In October last year, the service was launched in Vienna with a fleet of 250 green electric scooters. Tier focuses on changing the situation we see in the polluted cities right now with its electric scooters. The service works with the companion app as the other services in this industry.
Arolla (Austria)
Founders: Thomas Jetzinger, Verena Weber, Andreas Steiner
Founded year: 2019
Why its hot: Arolla is a smart mobility startup from AMV Networks. The company launched earlier this year offers scooter sharing service. It uses electrically powered scooters that can be controlled via an app. Arolla scooters have a speed of 24 km/h and the battery can last up to 40 km on a single charge. The company plans to expand the service across different markets.
Stock Photos from Slavko Sereda/Shutterstock
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