As a recent report shows that electric scooters have become a popular transportation option in Seattle, Lime is going all in with a significant upgrade of its fleet of the devices as well as the e-bikes that it has on the city’s streets.
Lime is planning to roll out 2,000 new Gen4 scooters by this summer, and it has already swapped 75% of its 2,000 Gen4 bikes.
When completed, Seattle will be one of only a handful of cities in North America to have a full fleet of both new Lime models available for citywide use. Washington, D.C., and Atlanta currently have all new bikes and scooters, and Denver is on the way.
The most notable upgrade with the Gen4 is a swappable, interchangeable battery that is shared between both scooters and bikes. That move will enhance the efficiency and sustainability of Lime’s operations and improve vehicle availability for riders. Lime also says the new vehicles offer a smoother ride.
Since launching in Seattle in August 2017, 2 million riders have taken nearly 6 million trips and traveled more than 5.5 million miles on Lime vehicles, according to the company.
“Seattle is one of our biggest and best ridership cities in the world and we are so proud to be bringing our absolute best hardware here this spring,” Anita Gallagher, senior manager of government relations at Lime, said in a news release.
Lime competes with Link, Wheels and Spin for micromobility-minded riders and their dollars as part of the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Scooter Share pilot program. In a study released this month, SDOT said 260,000 riders took over 1.4 million scooter trips from October 2020 through September 2021, and that those trips are outpacing shared e-bike rides.
Lime and Veo are currently the only shared bike providers in Seattle.
SDOT recently held a competitive permit application process for up to four scooter share companies in Seattle, whether they are the existing operators or new ones.