Urban mobility firm Lime is packing up its scooters in a dozen cities as it aims to achieve profitability in 2020.
Electric scooters were seeming to appear on every corner in most major cities for a while, so much so that South Park parodied it. Lime itself operates in around 120 locations.
As people seek to reduce their carbon emissions, and seek easier ways to move around cities, there’s a clear demand for new transportation options such as electric scooters. However, perhaps in a rush to beat potential competitors to market, it seems Lime expanded too fast.
“Part of realising our vision to transform urban mobility is achieving financial independence; that is why we have shifted our primary focus to profitability,” wrote Brad Bao, CEO of Lime in a blog post.
“While the vast majority of our 120+ markets have adopted micromobility transportation solutions quickly and are profitable, there are select communities throughout the world where micromobility has evolved more slowly.
Here are the locations Lime is closing its operations:
- US: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Antonio.
- Latin America: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, Puerto Vallarta, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
- Europe: Linz, Austria.
Alongside the service closures, there will also be staff losses. Around 100 Lime workers are set to be laid off, accounting for around 14 percent of the company’s workforce.
“We remain hopeful we can reintroduce Lime back into these communities when the time is right,” Bao concluded in his post.
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