A few months back, the Estonian ride-hailing company Bolt expanded its micro-mobility services to 45 cities in 15 countries including Sweden, France, and Portugal. And now, Bolt unveiled plans to bring its micro-mobility services to more than 100 cities next year.
Aims to operate 130,000 electric scooters
As a part of this expansion, the company will operate 130,000 electric scooters and electric bikes in 2021. In this regard, the Tallinn-based company will invest more than €100M in growing its micro-mobility business and building its custom-made hardware.
Markus Villig, CEO and co-founder, Bolt said: “Our cities are suffering from traffic, emissions and lack of public space caused by parking. We believe that the future of urban transport is a network of on-demand services – ride-hailing, electric scooters, bikes and other light vehicles. The days where every person needs to buy a car are over. We’ve seen that one of the biggest bottlenecks in the transition to shared electric mobility is pricing, which is why we’re excited to bring affordable scooters and electric bikes to even more countries across Europe next season, including Germany and the UK. Bolt is the largest European ride-hailing network, which enables us to offer the best prices to customers thanks to shared costs between the businesses.”
Notably, the company launched an electric bike-sharing service, becoming the first on-demand transportation platform in Europe to have electric bikes, scooters, and ride-hailing under a single brand in one app.
Custom scooter model
Back in May, Bolt introduced its first custom-made electric scooter model, entirely designed and engineered in-house. The scooters are modular and therefore highly repairable, with an estimated lifespan of up to five years, and fully recyclable.
The new scooter weighs 17kg, which makes it the lightest model used in scooter sharing. The scooter features inflatable tires that help ensure better grip and smoother, safer rides. It can go for more than 40km on a single charge at a maximum speed of 25km/h.
The scooter also has a Beginner Mode, which allows users to limit the maximum speed of their ride to 15km/h.
Commitment to become climate positive
In September 2020, Bolt announced a commitment to become climate positive (carbon negative) in its electric scooter operations by the end of 2020.
To date, Bolt has more than 30 million users in over 35 countries across Europe and Africa. Its services range from ride-hailing to micro-mobility with e-scooters and electric bikes to food and package delivery.
Main image credits: Bolt
