- The European Commission has released a document detailing the progress of E-Scooter technology.
E-Scooter Market Remains Robust despite Industry Challenges.
"The e-scooter market is yet to reach its full potential," states Alexander Jung, a spokesperson for the Micro Mobility group within the Shared Mobility interest group. He noted that demand for e-scooters continues to escalate annually.
In 2022, the platform reported approximately 75.1 million e-scooter journeys undertaken by its members. This figure rose slightly to close to 80 million in 2023, despite a major provider, Tier, leaving the association.
Micro Mobility involves the employment of compact and lightweight vehicles, primarily in urban areas.
Industry Evolution
However, the industry is undergoing transformation. According to Jung, we've moved past the phase of maximum expansion. Now, it's all about managing existing fleets effectively, with profitability being the primary goal for providers.
Profitability is integral to reducing reliance on capital markets and government subsidies over time. Although demand is increasing, fleets have remained relatively constant in recent years. Currently, the association predicts the e-scooter count among its members in Germany to be around 200,000.
The number of providers has decreased. In January, Tier acquired the Dutch-French competitor Dott. Jung, who works with sharing provider Lime, doesn't rule out further acquisitions. "Consolidation within the industry is still a significant trend," he says.
However, companies are investing heavily in new vehicles, technologies, and better customer services. "We're not some fly-by-night operation," says Jung.
Evolving Municipalities
Municipalities also need to adapt. While there's a gradual shift and increased cooperation from administrations, there's still significant skepticism, if not outright rejection, towards e-scooters in many communities.
Recently, the city of Gelsenkirchen in North Rhine-Westphalia linked providers' special use permits to mandatory user identity verification to better monitor misuse and misbehavior. Bolt and Tier, the two operators there, subsequently suspended their services and sued.
Unlike Paris, Gelsenkirchen has not imposed a complete ban, and no such trend is apparent in other German cities.
Jung: Modernization of Urban Spaces Needed
One reason for the skepticism, shared by many other road users, is the way e-scooter riders handle their vehicles. Abandoned scooters on sidewalks or driveways, and young people speeding over curbs, remain common issues.
In Jung's opinion, many of these problems could be resolved by enhancing urban infrastructure: "The better the infrastructure, the fewer violations there are during riding." Where there's a 50 km/h speed limit and no bike lane, e-scooters, and cyclists often use the sidewalk.
This also applies to parking. In principle, more parking spaces for scooters are required, mainly on the street, which would necessitate repurposing parking spots for cars.
The environmental benefits of e-scooters are still a topic of debate.
From a young person's perspective, e-scooters remain a significant factor in the traffic transition, despite concerns raised by studies such as those conducted by the German Environment Agency. These studies suggest that e-scooters are merely an alternative to walking and do not considerably replace car journeys.
However, young people argue that these analyses are outdated. Even if e-scooters only replace a few car journeys, they can still reduce CO2 emissions significantly, especially when used as a substitute for walking. Moreover, e-scooters have an intermodal effect, facilitating public transportation usage: "Their traffic benefits have been proven for a long time."
In a 2022 transport project, the German Institute of Urban Affairs, along with other research institutes, concluded that the emission impact of e-scooters is near zero, meaning they neither save nor generate additional emissions.
In the context of regulatory changes, the city of Gelsenkirchen in Germany introduced mandatory user identity verification for e-scooter providers to monitor misuse, leading to services suspensions from Bolt and Tier.
Despite challenges in certain municipalities, Jung advocates for the modernization of urban spaces to accommodate e-scooters, improving infrastructure and promoting responsible use, such as providing more parking spaces on the street.
