Micromobility: Shared or Owned?

The term “micromobility” was first coined by Horace Dediu of Micromobility Industries, and refers to minimalist personal mobility, using vehicles weighing no more than 500kg.

Micromobility is now widely accepted as part of our vocabulary, but ask for a definition, and you’ll get a wide range of responses. You can be sure, however, that the definition will include e-scooters.

And that’s thanks to the e-scooter boom that’s taken place over the last few years, with a growing number of towns and cities around the world offering e-scooters since they first appeared on the streets of LA and San Francisco in about 2018.

Pay-as-you-go or subscription? Docked or free-floating?

Motorized scooters are nothing new, of course - they’ve been around for over a century - but it was a start-up in Singapore that brought free-floating rentable electric scooters to life in 2016, and a revolution was born.

It’s safe to say that e-scooters are here to stay – but what does that mean for the cities with no e-scooter strategy in place that find themselves suddenly hosting e-scooter providers?

And even if a city does have a micromobility strategy, how does it integrate micromobility start-ups into its long-established public transport services?

Then there’s the detail: pay-as-you-go or subscription, docked or free-floating? Not to mention regulation, safety, and monitoring… And that’s before we’ve even had time to think about profitability. For city regulators, each of these needs careful thought, planning, and time – in stark contrast to the fast-moving world in which many of the micromobility start-ups like to operate.

About the guests

Richard Corbett is Vice President, Global Market Development at Voi Technology

Find Richard on LinkedIn

Adam Norris is the founder of Pure Electric

Find Adam on LinkedIn

Kersten Heineke is a Partner at the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility

Connect with Kersten on LinkedIn