Bolt prepares to share more scooters and bikes in Portugal
It was in February 2020 that Bol started sharing electric vehicles in Portugal. Faro was the first with green scooters in the technological city of Estonia. The following month, covid-19 ended up putting a brake on the platform’s plans, which only gained new momentum towards the end of that year. Almost two years later, the team in Portugal is made up of 80 people and there are 40 vacancies to be filled. Shared solutions are already in six cities.
“We have a means of transport from a distance that we have had in Portugal. We prove that the scooter we don’t share much is just for tourists. Santiago Páramo.
In an interview with Dinheiro Vivo, the official said that scooters (and shared bikes shared only in Lisbon) complement public transport in the last kilometer before the destination.
But the time when Bolt only bet on capitals is long gone. Today it is also possible to find shared scooters in five other cities: Coimbra, Braga, Barcelos, Setúbal and Cascais. “In 2021, we learned that micromobility is not just for big cities; it can also work in smaller places”, also highlights the person in charge of Dinheiro Vivo.
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The beginning of this year was marked by a new injection of capital. Investors put another €628 million into the technology founded in 2013 in the Estonian capital Tallinn. Accelerating the transition to shared mobility was one of the goals announced for the entire market.
The effects will reach the national territory, guarantees Santiago Páramo: “We have more than 30 cities on our list to grow in Portugal.”
Cities without mentioning possible locations – because of the dialogues with the municipalities – the person in charge of Bolt recalls that in the main central warehouses there are centrals that later end up serving peripheral locations.
“In Lisbon, for example, there is a central warehouse, which serves the city of Cascais, but which can also supply Oeiras and Sintra.” The Braga warehouse is connected to Barcelos.
But Bolt scooters spend less and less time in these spaces: also starting this year, the entire joint fleet will have removable batteries. Or the vehicle will need to be badly damaged to be “propped” against the boxes to be accurate.
Also in the Lisbon region, there will be a novelty this quarter: the first docks for loading scooters after each trip will debut It is not yet known which parish will be covered by the solution, which reminds us of bicycles for Gira, EMEL’s sharing network .
At European level, the Estonian technology company plans to place around 1500 similar docks by the end of this year.
The safety of users is another of the company’s bets. Since the end of last year, the nights from Friday to Saturday and from Saturday to Sunday have been used to test customers’ skills. Before picking up the scooter, each person has to make a quick reaction test to see if they are fit to ride a scooter.
Passing the test is barred from using the two-wheeled vehicle and prompts a person to hail a car in the mobile application.
If you are using a scooter for the first time, you can ask, through the app, to lower the maximum speed from the 25 km/h threshold, in order to get used to driving with the vehicle.
There is still a technological solution to prevent users from leaving scooters in inappropriate places. Santiago Páramo, instead, prefers to focus on prevention, “so people know where to park”, as well as the designation of awards for good behavior. The strategy, argues the official, reduced Bolt’s fines with the authorities, while ensuring the tests even continue to belong to pedestrians and not to poorly parked scooters.
Even so, Bolt’s painting does not fail to give the message: “Cities need to reduce space for cars: in each place for a car can fit six or seven scooters”.
It remains to be seen how fast Estonia’s technology will reach throughout the year with a newly arrived capital injection.