The growing population is leading to the rising number of vehicles, especially in the big cities. This is creating a problem, as with the number of vehicles increasing faster than new roads being constructed, the available driving space is becoming more congested every year. The major culprits behind these are four-wheelers, including cars, trucks, and buses, which take up a significant space on the roads. To tackle this problem, governments around the world are not only encouraging people to use two-wheelers as much as they can but also share one, if possible.
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| Scooter Sharing Market Research Report | P&S Intelligence |
Therefore, due to government efforts, P&S Intelligence expects the scooter sharing market to grow from $99.8 million in 2018 to $553.0 million by 2025, at a massive 24.4% CAGR between 2019 and 2025. Scooters already have a long-standing presence in countries such as India, China, and Italy, and they are now gaining popularity in many other countries, such as France, Germany, Taipei, and Spain. These vehicles are small and easy to maintain and ideal for covering short distances, usually up to 5 miles (around 8 km).
Another reason for the rising popularity of scooter sharing services is that they are a lot cost-effective than owning the vehicle. By opting for the sharing service, people do not have to purchase their own scooter and pay the hefty fuel, maintenance, parking, and insurance prices, as all these expenses are borne by the service provider. In addition, shared scooters are available almost round the clock, with the user just having to download the mobile app or visit the website of the service provider.
Considering the convenience these services offer, people are using them for one-way and round trips, more so for one-way travel. Scooter sharing has become a popular way to commute between the home/college/office and metro station, bus stop, and other rapid transit stations. In addition, many are availing of these services to visit their near and dear ones, which is further encouraging service providers to expand their reach. With time, as more people realize the benefits of scooter sharing, this service is expected to be availed of a lot more for round trips as well.
Seeing the success of the scooter sharing concept and its future potential, service providers are looking to widen their avenues by offering more than just one type of shared mobility service. For instance, apart from scooter sharing, Swiss Mobility also offers carsharing services, while Scoot provides shared bikes (bicycles) and kick scooters too. A key factor enabling companies to offer all these services is the heavy investment they are receiving. For instance, Cityscoot received a $50-million (EUR 42.4-million) funding in 2018, while Yugo received $475 thousand (EUR 402 thousand).
Presently, Europe is the largest scooter sharing market, as the urban road congestion here is pushing governments to encourage people to shift to shared mobility instead of taking their own vehicles out. Moreover, with most regional countries bound by the Paris Agreement, they are doing more than those in other regions to reduce their carbon emissions, which is why they are impelling service providers to add electric scooters to their fleet. Moreover, several European countries already have a rich scooter culture, and by 2018, there were more than 20,000 of these in public sharing fleets.
Apart from Europe, these services are also gaining rapid ground in Asia-Pacific (APAC), which is home to some of the most-polluted cities in the world. The popularity of these services has grown so much in the region in recent times that by 2019, with 20,000 scooters, India’s shared scooter fleet surpassed that of all other counties on earth! Due to government initiatives and the rising demand for cost-effective and clean public transportation, the youth of India has become strongly attracted to this concept.
Therefore, with the increasing awareness about carbon emissions leading to a rise in the investments being received by scooter sharing companies, the access to their services will definitely widen in the years to come.
