Micromobility businesses, such as scooter rentals, are expanding rapidly due to increased urbanization and government-supported sustainability initiatives. This growth has created a lucrative opportunity for market players to capitalize on.
The global scooter rental market is anticipated to increase from USD 3.31 billion by 2025 to USD 9.58 billion by 2032 at a pace of 16.4% annually. The surge will be driven by demand for smart city initiatives, advancements in shared mobility, and improvements in electric vehicle (EV) technology.
What’s Driving Future Growth?
E-scooters are an economically friendly substitute for personal vehicles, especially in highly populated cities. Shared micromobility solutions like e-scooters are becoming more appealing to people. In addition, initiatives to encourage low-carbon transportation are fostering market growth.
While the market has significant potential for expansion, challenges such as infrastructure gaps and safety concerns, particularly in emerging economies, must be addressed. Overcoming these obstacles will pave the way for future growth. Despite regulatory constraints and price competition, there is significant potential for AI-based fleet optimization and the scooter rental industry in commercial and industrial markets, as well as across various geographical regions.
Opportunities and Challenges for Market Players
To foster the growth of the e-scooter market, technology reform and expansion are essential. However, new regulations, expensive infrastructure, and increasing operational costs are serving as barriers to entry. Strategic innovations like subscription services have been developed to address this problem.
Key Market Opportunities
- Commercial adoption: Bird and Lime are increasing the number of their electric scooters in use in the tech hubs of Silicon Valley and in the New York City business quarter. This helps resolve the last mile problem in these regions.
- Tech-enabled fleet management: Lime has implemented an AI-powered predictive maintenance application that results in unattended fleets 30 percent of the time. This gives them a greater level of operational efficiency.
- Asia-Pacific’s rapid growth: UIP and Bounce are increasing their operations because of increased demand brought about by India’s Smart Cities Mission focused on sustainable transportation.
E-scooter and e-bike operators in Paris have to navigate more complex regulations in 2024 as the city adopted a permit-based system stifling competition for smaller players. In addition, the industry also has to grapple with regulatory restrictions like the fleet cap, parking restrictions, and speed limit policies. Other forms of competition include infrastructure and safety issues; these particularly affect progress in some areas due to the absence of bike lanes alongside good roads. Another obstacle to profit is the increased cost of operations combined with aggressive pricing strategies. Companies are forced to restructure their revenue models to maintain profitability. To counter these issues, Spin introduced subscription-based rentals in 2024 that permit unlimited short trips for a flat monthly charge.
Investment Potential & Regional Insights
Government support and the established public transport system mean North America and Europe have the strongest foothold in scooter rentals. Bird, Lime, and Spin announced expansion into new major cities in the US in 2023 and 2024. Lime has also been publicly noted for its funding of US$523 million in 2023 to scale up their fleet, which the company is intending to pair with a new battery swapping technology. Adoption in Europe is still being driven by stricter emission regulations from the government through encouragement from the city councils of Berlin, Paris, and London adopting policies that make infrastructure more e-scooter friendly. For greater safety and sustainability, Paris transformed their scooter-sharing model into managed license operators in 2024.
Asia-Pacific is growing the fastest, thanks to government-subsidized smart city initiatives and a developing urban middle class. India and China, in particular, are focusing on sustainable urban transportation, which is welcoming investment in the market. In 2023, Chinese e-scooter company Niu Technologies, known for its extensive fleet, upgraded its high-traffic urban area fleet with AI-powered fleet management. Similarly, in 2024, Magna and Bajaj Auto-backed Yulu of India secured additional investments to increase its app-based scooter rental in key metropolitan areas.
With a focus on sustainable, affordable, and accessible transportation services in cities, scooter rentals are predicted to grow significantly. Innovation coupled with investment in AI fleet management, electrification, large-scale expansion, and changing regulation will help businesses thrive in the competitive landscape.
Where to Learn More
For a deeper dive, explore Coherent Market Insights’ Scooter Rental Market Report, which offers comprehensive data on market size, CAGR for 2024–2031, revenue growth opportunities, market drivers, restraints, trends, and competitive strategies of key players.
About Coherent Market Insights
Coherent Market Insights is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm serving clients in over 150 countries. The firm provides actionable insights across various industries, including transportation, chemicals, healthcare, food and beverages, and more. Offering both granular country-specific data and a global perspective, Coherent Market Insights helps clients sustain growth in mature markets and seize opportunities in emerging markets.