Electric scooter sharing the latest trend in Berlin

(8 Sep 2017) LEADIN
Electric scooters that can be booked with a smartphone app are the latest way to get around Berlin.
Around 1800 scooters are available in the German capital and available for anyone with a drivers license.
STORYLINE
Berlin is embracing shared electric scooters in an effort to offer eco-friendly transport options to visitors and residents.
Over 1800 electric scooters, from two companies, are available in the German capital for anyone with a smartphone app and a driver's license.
Users simply use the app to find the nearest scooter, walk to it and use the app to unlock it and take a helmet from the box.
Then its just a matter of driving to the destination and leaving the scooter there.
Alexander Meiritz, co-founder and CEO of Emmy Scooters, explains:
"You download the app. You do a one-time registration. And then you can use the app to open to scooter. You see in the app what scooters are nearby. And then you can open the box where there are two helmets and you get the key. You drive to where you need to go and then you can leave the scooter there, as long as it is in the operating area. You pay per minute."
Anyone with a drivers license can register and drive within minutes.
It does mean that a lot of inexperienced scooter drivers are on the roads.
Emmy, the first company to launch scooter sharing in Berlin with 150 scooters in the summer of 2015, has not yet had a "serious accident,"
according to Meiritz.
"Of course it happens (accidents). We have over 1000 scooters in all of Germany and of course, somethings happens daily. But so far nothing serious has happened, knock on wood. We are happy about that. But of course, sometimes the scooters fall over and so on."
Emmy has expanded to five other German cities and there are plans to launch internationally.
Germany has been shaken by the so-called diesel scandal where car makers are accused of using software to hide the real emission of its diesel cars.
But according to Meiritz, the scandal has increased the interest in electric mobility and scooter sharing.
"I think the diesel-scandal has brought a lot more focus on electrical mobility. And of course also on scooters. When you look at the city you notice how limited the space is. And you see what kind of demand there is for electrical scooters… I think the diesel scandal has really helped."
The concept of Scooter sharing came to prominence in San Francisco in 2012 when a company called 'Scoot' introduced a sharing scheme in the city.
However, no other North American city has introduced a similar service and Scoot still has under 500 scooters operational in San Fransisco, according to the InnoZ mobility research center.
Instead, it is in Europe that the concept has really taken off.
In Berlin, there are two companies: Emmy and Coup.
Emmy is a Berlin-based startup while Coup is owned by the German manufacturing company Bosh and operates in cooperation with Taiwanese company Gogoro that also produces the Coup scooters.
A coup scooter costs 3 euro for 30 minutes while an Emmy scooter costs 19 euro cents per minute or 59 euro cents per kilometre.
Users don't need to worry about charging the scooters as the companies travels around at night and changes the batteries.
Coup is also available in Paris, France, along with Cityscoot, a French scooter sharing company.
There are also scooter sharing companies active in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Milan and Brussels.
But it is in Berlin and Paris that the concept has really taken off, says Enrico Howe, mobility sharing expert at the InnoZ mobility research center.

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