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Lime About to Drop Thousands of E-Scooters on German Cities

Lime About to Drop Thousands of E-Scooters on German Cities

(Bloomberg) -- Lime is about to drop thousands of its electric scooters on German roads to compete for rides with local rivals and Uber Technologies Inc.’s e-bikes.

The U.S. startup that’s backed by Alphabet Inc. will “very soon” start its e-scooter service in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg, Chief Executive Officer Brad Bao said in an interview, declining to give a more specific start date.

Lime and its rival Bird Rides Inc. have attracted millions of users in North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, and in some cases angered city officials by swamping inner cities with its vehicles. In Germany, Lime is cooperating with authorities and will pursue a more careful growth strategy by partnering with local companies and starting with a fleet "in the low thousands,” Bao said.

“We will launch a smaller fleet and gradually grow it based on the utilization,” he said.

European competitors are moving fast to beat Bird and Lime, which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the likes of Bain Capital Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, in a race to roll out products in Europe’s biggest economy.

Swedish mobility startup Voi Technology AB said last month it would begin operations in Germany as soon as June. Rival Circ, formally Flash, was created by Delivery Hero SE co-founder Lukasz Gadowski and signed a partnership agreement with Herne, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, to offer e-scooters for rent. And in Berlin, local e-scooter sharing startup Tier Mobility just scored an investment from former Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg.

German lawmakers kickstarted the market last month when they voted in favor of legislation that clears the use of stand-up e-scooters with a maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) on roads and bicycle paths.

Germany is the first country to implement higher standards for e-scooters in a move that will "up the bar for the entire industry," Bao said. “We hope that Germany could be one of the biggest markets for us globally.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefan Nicola in Berlin at snicola2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rebecca Penty at rpenty@bloomberg.net, Nate Lanxon, Giles Turner

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