Scooter Startup Lime Launches Car-Sharing Service

It’s time to share the limelight. The popular, electric-green bike sharing company, Lime (formerly known as LimeBike), rolled out its electric scooters, dubbed Lime-S, in Prague at the end of September. People can be seen zooming around the capital city on these, but a new service from them could be spotted on the streets soon.

The company just announced its newest plan: car sharing. While the cars will not hit Europe for a while, this next level of transportation, called LimePod, is being launched in Seattle.

It’s no coincidence Seattle was picked for the launch. It is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest and the bike-sharing aspect of the businesses was also tested in this city.

Lime plans to deploy 1,500 shared cars by the beginning of 2019 in Seattle. This would make Lime the largest car sharing provider in one American city ever Bloomberg reported.

Unlike the electric scooters, LimePods will not be electric and will have insurance built into the price like Car2Go or Czech Revolt. It will work like the LimeBikes and Lime-S. The user will use the app to find a free car, unlock it for $1 (25 CZK) and then pay 40 cents per minute (9 CZK) in the U.S. (scooters and bikes cost 15 cents (3 CZK) per minute). There is no unlocking fee for the cars.

It may seem weird that Lime is launching a non-electric car sharing service because the bikes and scooters try to steer people away from using cars. However, the now three branches of Lime—bike, scooter, and car—are all focused on helping people commute efficiently.

Green will not overwhelm the pavements because the cars come in white, green and yellow. Users can park them anywhere in the city, too.

Lime is valued at over two-billion U.S. dollars. The company focuses on multiple forms of transportation, while Bird, its biggest competitor, only narrows in on scooters. Only time will tell how well and popular LimePods will be. Who knows? They may be flooding the streets of Prague in due time.

Author: Meredith Hessel