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When the first lockdown shocked Germany last spring, the electric scooters stood still on the side of the road.

"2020 was a turbulent year for Lime too. We had to shut down our operations completely for seven weeks because hardly anyone was out in the first lockdown," said Jashar Seyfi, the head of the American rental scooter in Germany, in an interview with WELT.

But Lime's electric scooters and bicycles are now among the winners of the pandemic, according to the company.

“But Corona also helped us.

Many people had to completely rethink mobility because some did not want to get on a full subway during the pandemic, ”says Seyfi.

"That brought us a lot of new customers."

At Lime, it is true that some of the customers will use local public transport again after the end of the pandemic.

But many users are likely to keep their changed mobility behavior in the future.

The company does not publish exactly how many customers Lime has gained in Germany.

“Overall, the number of trips was at the previous year's level despite the lockdown,” says Seyfi.

Jashar Seyfi, Germany boss at Lime

Source: picture alliance / dpa

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Since the electric scooters called scooters were approved in Germany in June 2019, a total of 17 million trips have been booked with Lime.

“During the pandemic, we found that we are less dependent on casual users such as tourists because we were also able to convince many locals of us,” says Seyfi.

“Our target group has become much broader.” In fact, the average user in Berlin is now 39 years old, and more than a quarter of the journeys are made by customers who are older than 47 years.

Lime will therefore invest in Germany despite the ongoing lockdown and above all expand the fleet of electric bicycles.

The company plans to invest a total of 50 million dollars (41.4 million euros) in e-bikes worldwide.

In Germany, after Lime took over the electric bike business Jump, which was previously part of Uber, there were 4,000 to 5,000 electric bikes in four cities.

This year, the number of e-bikes is expected to double and then be in the five-digit range.

Expansion into at least four other German cities is also planned.

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The company wants to reinforce a trend that also started with the pandemic.

"Corona has meant that there were more longer trips - and the purpose has also shifted in the direction of trips to work and shopping," says Seyfi.

Previously, customers had mainly used the scooters for the so-called last mile from the subway station to their destination.

Now the e-bikes are being used more and more for the entire route.

“That was our long-term goal anyway, which is why we brought our e-bike range onto the market,” says Seyfi.

"The trend has now accelerated significantly due to the pandemic."

Make driving a thing of the past

Every minute that users spend longer on the scooters or bikes is worth cash for Lime.

Most customers rent the vehicles at the current price of 20 cents per minute.

According to Lime, global usage time increased from an average of 9.7 to 13.1 minutes per trip in the pandemic year.

The distance covered increased from 1.7 to 2.1 kilometers - although the effect was significantly greater on bicycles than on scooters.

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The company no longer sees itself as a pure scooter company.

"In the future, Lime should stand for electric micromobility as a whole," says the head of Germany.

"In addition, the bicycles help us to be present in the outskirts of the cities."

Because so far the scooters have mainly been a phenomenon of small areas in city centers.

“Our goal is to make car journeys superfluous - not only in city centers, but also in the outskirts of the cities,” says Seyfi.

"We want to make private cars less attractive, and for this the alternatives have to become more attractive."

That is what the additional e-bikes are supposed to do and give Lime an advantage in the still highly competitive market of so-called micromobility.

In metropolises like Berlin, scooters from numerous providers are and still are on the sidewalks.

In addition to lime, animal, bird and voi are particularly common.

However, a market shakeout began last year, and individual providers merged: Bird, for example, swallowed its competitor Circ.

"The consolidation in the market for micromobility will continue", believes the Lime Germany boss.

"But there will be no monopoly positions, there will always be at least two or three different providers."

With so many rental companies out there, it's hard to make money from the electric scooters.

"Lime has been profitable in Germany since December 2019," says Seyfi.

The group as a whole also made a profit for the first time in the third quarter of last year, and this should now also be successful for the current year as a whole.

For this, the business model could also change further.

"We started with a simple price per minute, but our price models have now become very different, we offer different subscription models and time passes," says Seyfi.

"Perhaps at some point the price per minute will no longer have any relevance."

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