Uber Rival Launches Electric Bikes in Paris

Bolt, a European rival of ride hailing company Uber, has launced electric bikes in the city of Paris.

The Estonian-based start-up company began to roll out the bike rentals in Paris on Wednesday in hopes that scooters and bikes will help the company recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Sales had plunged 75% in March for the company.

Bolt, which was recently valued by private investors at 1.7 billion euros, has said the bikes would be available on its platform from Wednesday. Users will need to switch from taxi-hailing to bikes within the app, and can then unlock one by scanning a QR code.

“Our new e-bikes sharing service will also help to fulfil the demand for light, green individual modes of transport, which has seen growth due to European cities gradually coming out of COVID-19 lockdown,” said Dmitri Pivovarov, the company’s director of micromobility. “We believe that micromobility should be accessible and affordable, especially at times like these.”

Bolt launched its first e-scooters in Paris back in 2018, and then rolled out a food delivery service in its home city of Tallinn in August last year.

The company plans to launch bikes in more European capitals later this year. It currently offers scooter rentals in 21 cities across Europe.

Not long ago Uber scrapped thousands of electric bikes and scooters following the sale of its Jump division to Lime in May.