Dott to expand beyond e-scooters with bike-sharing service – TechCrunch

Dott is better known for its electric scooter service that is available in a few cities across Europe. But the company is working on electric bikes and wants to launch a bike-sharing service in London and Paris in March 2021.

Dott currently doesn’t operate in London. So it looks like it’ll be the company’s 16th city with this launch.

As for the bike, it has been designed by Dott and it is going to be assembled in Portugal. It is built around a colorful frame made from a single piece of aluminum — there’s no welding. The company also opted for puncture-resistant tyres thanks to foam tyre inserts.

As you can see on the photo, there’s no visible chain as it’s integrated in the frame. The battery can be swapped by Dott without having to bring the entire bike to the charging station. There’s also an integrated geolocation system.

“This European-made bike has been designed inline with our mission: to make mobility accessible to all. Our multimodal (e-bike and e-scooter) service will include the same level of operational excellence: removable batteries, secure charging, operations performed by experienced professionals, systematic repairs and recycling,” co-founder and COO Maxim Romain said in the release.

Dott will compete with Lime, which acquired Jump back in May as part of a deal with Uber. Bolt has also been operating bike-sharing services in some cities.

And, of course, Dott will compete with pay-as-you-go docked bike rental schemes, such as Santander Cycles in London and Vélib’ in Paris. In Paris alone, Vélib’ now has 400,000 subscribers. As it is a subsidized service, it’s going to be hard to compete on price.