Moscow this year will become the world leader in the number of rental electric scooters, ahead of Berlin and Seoul. According to Izvestia with reference to market participants and experts, this will happen after the mayor’s office of the Russian capital issues 60 thousand permits for renting scooters for rent – one and a half times more than in 2022.
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Moscow authorities talked about plans to increase the quota at the end of 2022, and in the outgoing week there were again reports of plans to issue permits for 60,000 rental scooters. Even if the quota ends up lower, Moscow could be the city with the world’s largest fleet of rental scooters — last year Seoul and Berlin were in the lead with about 50,000 of them each. At the same time, growth is not expected in these cities this year.
New 20 thousand scooters will appear on the streets of Moscow gradually throughout the season. They will be added as the number of parking spaces that kickshare operators create together with the city authorities increases. Of course, there could be more electric scooters, but then there is a high probability of a shortage of parking spaces – vehicles will simply be scattered around the streets, as was the case in China and the United States, so the presence of quotas is a necessary measure. Also, in the absence of control by the authorities, a monopoly can form.
The Yandex Taxi service supported initiatives aimed at developing urban mobility. “Further growth in the popularity of personal mobility aids will be facilitated by the spread of cycling infrastructure, the development of which is now being actively looked at by the city,” a company representative believes.
Last year was successful for the Russian electric scooter rental market. At the end of the year, its volume increased by 64% and reached 13.3 billion rubles, according to a study prepared by Trusharing.ru. At the same time, the number of users of electric scooters increased by 57%, to 15.5 million people, and the number of trips to them – by 88%, to 105 million. There were almost 200,000 rental scooters across Russia by the end of 2022. This year, it is predicted that this number could grow to 275 thousand, and by 2025 – up to 440 thousand.
Image Source: Pixabay/Tho-Ge
Although the fleet of electric scooters is growing, rental prices have not yet decreased, but they have not increased either. The reason for this is the rise in price of the scooters themselves and their spare parts, as well as the growth of administrative costs.
In 2023, the Whoosh service plans to operate in Moscow with a fleet of 15,000–20,000 electric scooters; perhaps, compared to 2022, the fleet will grow by 5,000 units. “We support the increase in the number of scooters, as they will make rental services convenient for even more people. The park in the city is growing in proportion to the demand of citizens and the ability of the services themselves to provide maintenance of devices, ”said the representative of the service.
Yurent will launch a new scooter model in Moscow this year, which will have turn signals and an additional information screen, with which the user will be able to find out that he has entered a prohibited zone.
