Scooter Sharing Market to Grow by Five Times during 2019-2025

Across the world, the rate of industrialization and level of urbanization are increasing, which are resulting in the growing spending power. People are now able to purchase stuff that they couldn’t earlier; a classic example is personal vehicles. While the primary purpose of buying them has always been transportation, in certain places, particularly developing countries, people buy them just as a status symbol. The booming automotive sales have led to several issues, such as air pollution, as vehicular exhaust contains many harmful gases, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and carbon dioxide (CO₂). To tackle the issue, governments and international organizations are encouraging people to shun private transport and go for public transport instead, especially for short distances.

One of the concepts in this regard, which is rapidly becoming popular, is scooter sharing, which lets commuters rent such small vehicles for short-distance traveling. From $99.8 million in 2018, the scooter sharing market is predicted to grow to $553.0 million by 2025, at a 24.4% CAGR during the forecast period (2019–2025). Shared scooters can be hired for one-way as well as round trips, of which one-way trips have been more popular. People are increasingly using such vehicles for first- and last-mile connectivity and also as part of a multimodal approach, wherein scooters are ridden to reach a bus stop or metro station.

As scooters take up less space on the roads as well as require smaller parking areas, the government of several countries are promoting these for regular commuting. With the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads, as a result of the increasing disposable income and population, urban congestion is also rising, with pedestrians barely getting space to cross roads in certain places. With more people opting for shared scooters, it is being expected that road congestion will come down and traffic flow will be a lot smoother than presently.

Another advantage of traveling by shared scooters is convenience and cost savings. These services do away with the need to own a vehicle, which is a costly affair, owing to the high vehicle purchase and gasoline/diesel prices, insurance premium, parking fee (in certain places), and the added expenditure on regular maintenance and servicing. Users only have to pay an initial registration or scooter unlocking amount and then additional charges on the basis of the journey time and distance, the charges for all of which are quite low. Further, services are generally available throughout the day, with a simple tap on the smartphone app of sharing companies.

To make access to services better, shared scooter firms are leveraging the platform as a service (PaaS) technology to develop their own mobile apps. Under the model, vendors subscribe to a software, usually available on the cloud, to carry out business and also save on operational costs. Another among the technological developments in the shared mobility domain is internet of things (IoT), wherein vehicles have their own network connection. This enables service providers handle navigation, optimize the sharing process via efficient vehicle tracking and monitoring, and analyze problems from a remote place.

Presently, Europe displays the highest usage rate of scooter sharing services, owing to the large number of regional cities which have such mobility programs. Though the concept originated in San Francisco, U.S., it has witnessed the fastest expansion in Europe, where such services are available in over 60 cities, currently. During the forecast period, the scooter sharing market growth in Asia-Pacific (APAC) is predicted to be the most rapid. The primary reason behind this would be the swift adoption of shared scooters in Taiwan and China.

Hence, as more people realize the negative effects of the growing number of vehicles, they would start hiring shared scooters, at least for shorter distances, more often.