It only lasted a couple years, but the era of the electric scooter as we know it is over.
Once flush with venture capital cash that encouraged growth at all costs, startups such as Lime, Bird, and Vol have all laid off employees as their scooters lay dormant during the coronavirus crisis. Lyft has also scaled back its scooter business, exiting Austin, Oakland, and San Jose for good. The plan right now is just to survive, at least until the mere act of touching a communal scooter no longer seems life-threatening.
Electric scooters were already in trouble before stay-at-home orders began. The economics of scooter startups never quite squared with their level of Silicon Valley investment, and their sudden invasion of city streets was often at odds with the kind of government partnerships they needed to thrive.
When it comes to shoddy business models, the pandemic has a way of speeding up the inevitable. In the case of electric scooters, it has exposed the limitations of a business that…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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