Lime Scooters is adding electric mopeds to its fleet of vehicles. These signature lime green electric mopeds will seat two people and can achieve up to 28 miles an hour.
The mopeds are designed for short trips—under 5 miles—in city areas. The upside of these new scooters is that they’re faster and can travel longer distances than the original Lime scooters. The downside is that they are much heavier, and arguably require a more skilled rider than a regular e-bike or e-scooter.
This, naturally, raises some questions about safety. These new electric mopeds use built-in cameras to enforce helmet use and also require that users take a selfie wearing the helmet before the ride begins. Repeat offenders violating Lime rules will be removed from the platform. These regulations are an important safety step to reduce the potential for injuries.
It’s not just the hardware that makes these new electric mopeds different from Lime scooters. The system is also changing to accommodate different needs with the new products. While the original scooters are maintained by gig workers who find them and return them to chargers, these mopeds will be maintained by full-time employees. Instead of returning to chargers, the mopeds will have swappable batteries.
“As we’ve grown as a company, we understood that we just needed to follow what our riders were demanding which is further distances,” said Sean Arroyo, head of new mobility at Lime. “The ability to meet any trip, at anytime, anywhere, is something that’s at the foundation for us and so our riders really are the ones that pointed us in this direction.”
The release of new products is a good indication that Lime is recovering from its COVID induced slump. In the first month of the pandemic, Lime paused a majority of its operations. The company saw a 95% drop in ridership, a significant hit, but has since seemingly recovered.
The rollout starts in Washington DC this spring and then will move to Paris. Lime hopes to expand to a handful of cities over the course of several months following the original debuts.
