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The company is proud of the Bolt-4. It is now setting it up in nine German cities. (Photo: Bolt)
After Tier, Bird, Lime and Co, the Estonian micromobility startup Bolt is now pushing thousands of electric scooters to German cities. A pedestrian association speaks of “mobility garbage”.
Bolt is starting the Germany offensive with 15,000 e-scooters in nine cities. According to the startup, the roll-out is the largest of its kind. His aggressive pricing policy also mentions it, as does Reuters reported. After registering, users can use the turquoise-green scooters for five cents per minute, there is no activation fee. Most recently, the provider Voi presented long-term passes with which customers can travel for the equivalent of one euro a day. With the five-cent offer, the price war has reached a new milestone – in the t3n test in summer 2019 we paid around nine euros an hour (0.15 euros per minute).
These cities get Bolt e-scooters
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In addition to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, the company also has scooters in Cologne, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Potsdam and Fürth. It recently received 150 million euros through a financing round. Two thirds of this is to be invested in 150 new locations across Europe. With this, Bolt wants to get closer to the goal of becoming the largest provider. The main competitors are the US companies Lime and Bird, which recently had three-digit financing rounds behind them, as well as the startups Voi from Sweden and Tier from Berlin. Hive, Circ and Dott also play a role.
Recyclable scooter with replacement battery
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Bolt is proud of the Bolt-4 scooter the company is currently shipping. It has a modular design that is easy to repair. In addition, it can be completely recycled. The exchangeable battery is particularly light, writes the company in an email. Bolt also promises greater reliability in the new vehicles. Other providers are also developing their vehicles further: Tier is testing a battery exchange system in Münster and last week announced the start of the system for Berlin. Lime and Dott also want to use exchangeable energy storage devices. Sustainability is playing an increasingly important role, so Dott, for example, attaches great importance to only expanding cautiously. Most other providers are currently outdoing themselves in financing rounds and expansion plans.
Berlin: Pedestrian lobby speaks of mobility garbage
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So far there are four free-floating rental companies on the market in the German capital: Lime, Bird, Voi and Tier. A total of 24,500 scooters are available in the city. It is said that the pedestrians are the ones to suffer. The professional association for foot traffic in Germany designated the flood of scooters to the Berliner Zeitung as “mobility garbage”. Politicians react to the complaints and the Berlin Senate wants to pass the new road law before the election. It provides for an award procedure for the installation of all sharing vehicles. In addition, the city wants to raise fees for this. Such rules already exist in Düsseldorf and Bremen.
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