Scooters in Paris at a Crossroads • TechCrunch

What happens?What will happen to 15,000 electric scooters dotted around Paris’ streets? Their fate could be dramatically affected by the French capital’s decision to renew the licenses of three scooter companies operating in Paris on March 23.

It wouldn’t only affect Dott and Tier, but also Uber’s Lime and Uber’s Tier – the three companies it holds. obtain those licensesSince 2020. This decision will be a precedent for other cities around the globe that allow scooters to use their streets. The negative decision in Paris could have a chilling affect on micro-mobility startups worldwide if things don’t go according to plan.

Paris was the pioneer of electric scooter racing. Paris was the first city to approve its use in open urban environments. City dwellers (and tourists) have used it as a convenient means to get around traffic jams and bikes crowded Paris public transport. This counterpoints claims that they were exaggerated. , and the overcapitalization of non-fictional VCs.

“This is important for everyone. Paris is very important from a business point of view – it is the largest city in the world from a business point of view,” Mathieu Fore, Director of Marketing and Communications at Dot, told me. “And even from a symbolic point of view, Paris is important.”

Things started to look shaky in September 2022 when the city’s deputy mayors David Billiard & Emmanuelle Gregoire requested a meet with the three mobility operators. They said Tier, Lime and Dott were not doing enough in terms of safety and urban chaos. This is not the first time Paris has complained about these services.

The lack of regulation from the beginning led to many scooter startups launching their fleets in Paris – Bird Bolt Bolt by Usain Boltoui, deux bolts), Circ, Dott, Hive, Jump, Lime, Tier, Voi, Ufo, and Wind.

The tender process eventually led to a new set if rules, including a 20km/h speed limit as well as designated parking spaces.

Then tragedy strikes in 2021 when he is a pedestrian killingIn a motorcycle crash. This resulted is more restrictions on scooter service. Scooter companies agreed to create hundreds of slow zones in areas such as pedestrian streets, public squares, or car-free areas. Paris may be able to implement slow zones at times. ConsideredIt is slow but not abandoned to transform the entire city into a district.

There is also the question of climate change and whether it’s enough to be a selling point. Scooter promoters claim that they offer a green alternative to touring. But as did TechCrunch’s Rebecca Bilan pointed outScooters don’t always help with environmental goals in urban areas. Paris is an example.

A dense city with a very efficient and subsidised underground network Bike sharing serviceParisians can access over 400,000 subscribers to make it easy to get to their destinations. While some people ride electric scooters, others may order an Uber or purchase their own scooters, many people use scooters. Instead of himMetro is an alternative to electric scooters and is therefore a more sustainable mode of transport.

Electric scooters are now popular with both Parisians and tourists.

Dott, Lime, and Tier logged over 2 million trips in October 2022. Out of the 400,000 users in Paris, 85% are residents.

Each operator is limited to a maximum of 5,000 mopeds. This means that there are approximately 15,000 mopeds in Paris. Send me FluctuoIn 33 European cities, there are approximately 300,000.

Every scooter is used in Paris, often several times per day. Here’s a chart showing the number of scooter rides in Paris each month:

Credits for the image:Dot, Lime and Thiers

These metrics have resulted in massive funding rounds and valuations. Crunchbase says that Lime is one of the companies that has promoted the floating scooter idea. Starch $1.5 billion. Managed dot Believe$210 million in class excerptAround 650 million USD

It’s true that the financing side of these companies has been quiet for the majority of the past year. Bird, the most visible company among these companies, is partly responsible. Not in ParisIt is trading on the New York Stock Exchange and is currently out of commission. (With a market cap now of less than $86 million — compared to more than $2 billion when it went public in March 2021 — Bird announced last week that 32 million dollars in cashConvertible notes and personal investments by Travis Vanderzanden, Founder and Chairman, and Shane Torchiana. Bird also acquired Bird Canada, which was previously spun off, and took other steps in order to strengthen its finances.

After the September 2022 Paris meeting, Lime, Dott, and Tier were informed by civil authorities that they should not renew scooter licenses in 2023. The wider market is not in their favor, so they should prove themselves to be respectable businesses in their prominent city.

The three operators compiled a list with 11 suggestions in October 2022. These proposals ranged from banning road users to using camera-based pavement detection system, to banning road traffic violators.

Tier, Lime, Dott, have already started to implement some of the elements. They also introduced an age verification system that required users to take a photograph of their ID. Each scooter now has a registered plate. This allows police to take note of registration plates and the current time if two people are riding the scooter together. Scooter companies will then be able to see who was riding a specific scooter at that time.

“We decided in December to proactively roll out a couple of these, notably on identity checks and license plates. After 30 days, we now have 100% of shared e-scooters in Paris with a license plate, verified More than 160,000 identities were taken and checked,” Erwan Lepage, director of public policy for Western Europe at Tier, told me.

And then what? It didn’t happen.

Silence negotiation tactic

Paris is divided over scooter regulation. David Billard, Deputy Mayor, was one of the most vocal opponents. He claims that scooters should not be allowed, and his words carry weight. He is also responsible for transportation.

However, he does not use media interviews to argue that scooters should be banned. This shows that not everyone on the city council agrees with him.

Mathieu Faure, Dott, stated that “it’s a personal opinion. He’s against shared scooters.” “We don’t really understand why. It doesn’t give any rational explanation.”

Particularly, Anne Hidalgo (the mayor of Paris) thinks about scooters. Nobody knows for certain.

The city council has yet to report any decision. Lime spokesperson told me that the city has not yet responded to any meeting requests or messages from Lime or other operators.

“We have not received any response from Paris yet. Our contract expires on March 23,” added Tier’s Erwan Le Page.

We have reached out to the City of Paris and will update this story if we receive any comments.

Credits for the image: gear

If I’m reading between the lines, Anne Hidalgo will eventually have a decision about whether her scooter licenses need to be renewed. All the noise you hear about it is nothing.

There is no reason not to contact the scooter companies. Because the mayor of Paris is not speaking up, scooter companies are already increasing the security of their services.

Also, it is not the best strategy to get improvements from operators right away.

Paris: Reducing our dependence on motorbikes

Contrary to the early days of shared scooters and bikes, small commuter companies have mainly turned to full time employees to repair, replace, transport cars, and swap out batteries.

Dott, Lime, and Tier are the current employers in Paris. 200 people also work indirectly with the operators. A subcontractor company patrols Paris streets and works with all three companies.

This model works well. Dott claims it is currently profitable in Paris if it takes into consideration all fixed and variable expenses associated with its Paris operations (EBIT is profitable).

While Tier, Lime, and Dott are present in many cities, a significant amount of these companies’ revenue still comes from Paris. Perhaps this is why they launched bike-sharing service using electric freewheeling bikes.

“We currently run 7,000 [bikes]Lyme spokesperson said that they plan to continue doing so in Paris. Similar to Tier, Dott owns a fleet of 3,500 bikes and Tier has 2,500.

The free-floating bikes were not subject to a tender process, but operators had to still sign an agreement with Paris. They also have to pay a license fees.

Credits for the image:Dot

It’s smart to add electric bicycles, as there are synergies with scooters and bikes. Lime, for example. The same batteriesFor bicycles and scooters, this means that the operations team is able to swap batteries for all vehicles while cruising Paris’ streets.

However, Dott and Tier want to continue offering scooters after March 23rd. On Wednesday, Dott, Lime and Tier employees gathered. protest In Front Of Municipal House. They wanted to meet with city officials to clarify their concerns.

Their demands were again met with silence. Even though the mayor of Paris doesn’t seem to care about media coverage, the deadline means that he will have to make a decision soon. Many micro-mobility businesses and local governments are now looking for the answer.

Image credit: Tier Mobility