Micromobility’s massive global market potential

2030, 8, 250 billion.

Three numbers you need to know if you’re interested in micromobility. 

Those are the headline figures that Kersten Heineke of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility cited on the latest episode of Ride when we asked him to forecast the market for micromobility. 

Kersten joined Richard Corbett of Voi Technology and Adam Norris of Pure Electric to discuss “Micromobility: Shared or Owned?”

Voi and Pure are known for their electric scooters, but both have seen the potential of the growing electric bike market and increased their portfolios to include attractive e-bike offerings alongside e-scooters. The two companies have very different business models, but the same goal: to help people get around quickly and conveniently without needing to use their cars.

Shared micromobility is going to be a major phenomenon in larger cities

“We’re seeing a potential, depending on geography, of between 5% and 8% of all passenger miles travelled globally being covered by micromobility,” said Kersten. “That may not seem like much, but most of these trips are usually pretty short. Shared micromobility is going to be a major phenomenon in larger cities, but maybe not so much in smaller urban areas, so this is a tremendous market potential. The global market potential for micromobility is somewhere around US$200 billion to US$250 billion by 2030, broken down into shared and private. The shared micromobility market has a market potential that is significantly north of US$20 billion by 2030.”

So where do shared and privately-owned micromobility offerings fit into that forecast? With “about 60% of the UK market,” Voi is the country’s largest shared e-scooter operator, said Richard Corbett. “We see the powerful impact that micromobility can have, with up to to 30% of our riders replacing their car trips for micromobility. And that’s only going to get better as we see improvements on infrastructure in the cities and improved availability of scooters.”

The global market potential for micromobility is somewhere around US$200 billion to US$250 billion by 2030

But Corbett agreed with Adam Norris, founder of Pure Electric, that there’s room in the market for ownership and usership. “It’s like rental cars,” said Norris. When you’re out and about, it’s great to be able to use a scooter when you need it. “But when I’m walking out of my front door, it’s easy to just pick my own scooter up, take it work, and make sure it’s fully charged when I want to go home. I think there’s a place for both.”

This wide ranging discussion covered not just the business models, but also the relationship between cities and operators, regulations, safety, and where micromobility fits into broader concepts such as the 15-minute city and mobility as a service (MaaS).

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Available to listen now: “Micromobility: Shared or Owned?” features Adam Norris (founder, Pure Electric), Richard Corbett ( VP Global Market Development, Voi Technology), and Kersten Heineke (Partner, McKinsey Center for Future Mobility)

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