Lime will transition from electric bikes and scooters to small EVs.
Tests will begin soon in Seattle on Lime’s new venture to offer urban EVs instead of the electric bikes and scooters it has offered in the past. This means we may have another entrant in the growing ride-sharing business, and one that will specifically feature electric vehicles. We’ve seen plans from Uber and Lyft to promote EVs, but these companies haven’t provided any indication that they’ll go all-electric in the near future. In areas like California, Oregon, and Washington, this new effort by Lime with the Fiat 500e and Renault Twizy could be hugely popular.
Lime is a scooter rental startup company backed by Uber and Alphabet. The company has touted its intention to take cars off the road by providing electric scooter and bike rentals. Now, it has already filed paperwork to up the ante. A recent story from The Information (subscription only) — as reported by Electrek — reveals that Lime will begin this new ride-sharing concept in the near future.
The company’s system won’t really change, aside from the fact that you can now grab up a four-wheel electric city car, instead of an electric scooter. Basically, the vehicles are located in strategic areas throughout select metropolitan areas and users can simply proceed with the necessary steps for rental, jump in, and use the cars how they see fit.
Seattle citizens are already aware of how the system works, since the electric bicycle service has been in place for a time, so it’s a positive market for this pilot program. One major advantage of the new plan is that since these are actual roadworthy cars, renters won’t be stuck tracking down official Lime “spots” to park in during use. These chosen EVs can park anywhere any other car can park.
Thus far, Lime has 500 EVs on hand, all of which are initially either Fiat 500e vehicles or Renault Twizys. The report says that there is no official word on Seattle’s direct approval of the new plan, but we imagine we’ll have more information in the near future.
Source: The Information via Electrek
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