Micromobility

In today’s episode, Oliver interviews Ties Carlier, the co-CEO and cofounder of Vanmoof to talk about the new Vanmoof V, which is one of the most beautiful ebikes at Micromobility Industries have ever seen and is due to drop next year. It’s a lot faster and more powerful than anything they’ve done before, and this was a great chat about that design decision and why Ties thinks we need to get more creative and lateral in how we think about what micromobility vehicles can do and should be regulated. Ties is based in Taiwan, which manufactures most of the world’s ebikes, so they also briefly touch base on that too. We’ve had his brother Taco (co-CEO of Vanmoof) on shows 53 and 74 so also check those out if you want to hear more about the Vanmoof story.

Specifically they dig into:
- Ties’ background starting the company with his brother Taco and his move to Taiwan.
- the new V - what, why, when and why they chose to go for speed over other potential design opportunities
- how the launch of the S3/X3 went and what Vanmoof learned in the process
- hiring/building teams remotely for micromobility and how much Vanmoof has grown in the last year

- what he’s excited about in the coming years in terms of product and tech in micromobility

This week Oliver interviews Enrico Howe and Alex Gmelin from Invers (@Inversmobility) about the 2021 Global Moped Sharing Report. Oliver interviewed Enrico on the show in episode 52 for the 2019 version and it was great to have him back and get an update two years later on about the state of moped sharing globally. It included some incredible and crazy stats – the mopeds sharing industry has transitioned to electric at a dizzying pace in the last two years. We’re looking forward to hearing commentary about it on Twitter - please drop us a line at @MicromobilityCo, @oliverbruce and @asymco.

Specifically they dig into:

- How INVERS and the Global Moped Sharing Report came to work together

- The current state: What are the top line figures/key insights/developments?

- What are the main markets and how did they develop?

- Which cities are hotspots for moped sharing?

- What vehicles are used for sharing and what are the trends?

- What are latest developments in charging infrastructure and battery management?

- Urban mobility planning: how is regulation affecting the market?

- Look into the future: what do we expect for the next two years?

In the meantime we want to thank our sponsor for the episode Ubiq. Ubiq is turning operations from reactive to predictive. Most shared mobility businesses are not profitable, as 60%-80% of the demand is not met. Ubiq places vehicles in the right place, at the right time, to meet demand. This enables operators to increase revenue by 20% within 8 weeks while also decreasing operational costs.

Most shared operators react in order to meet demand, instead of predicting and exploiting the full capacity of their fleet. StreetCrowd is enabling over 15.000 citizens across 11 cities on 2 continents to address that issue by matching vehicles requiring rebalancing or charging with crowd users, allowing shared mobility providers to automate operations. Therefore, mobility operators can utilize decentralized operations that run 24/7, across the city, turning operations from reactive to predictive.

Best part? It’s plug and play and you can get started right away. Get in touch to find out more by clicking this link: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/eNgL

This week we’re releasing another interview from the Micromobility America conference. Laura Bliss from Bloomberg interviews Ben Bear, CEO of Spin (and guest on MM episode 73), about where sharing is going next after a COVID 19 put the brakes on it. Spin is one of the more interesting companies with the relatively crowded shared Micromobility field being owned by Ford, and pursuing a slow and steady strategy focussed around things like charging infrastructure. It’s a great discussion.

Specifically they dig into:

- The challenges that COVID-19 has posed to the industry

- What of the big problems - regulatory, unit economics, safety - still need to be solved

- What cities are thinking about

- Their expansion globally

In the meantime, thanks to the sponsor for the episode Ubiq. Ubiq is closing the gap between supply and demand. Most shared mobility businesses are not profitable, as 60%-80% of the demand is not met. Ubiq places vehicles in the right place, at the right time, to meet demand. This enables operators to increase revenue by 20% within 8 weeks while also decreasing operational costs.

How? By exploiting the full potential of your fleet. StreetCrowd is enabling over 15.000 citizens across 11 cities on 2 continents to contribute to the future of shared mobility. StreetCrowd matches vehicles requiring rebalancing or charging with crowd users, allowing shared mobility providers to automate operations. In other words, mobility operators have access to scalable, decentralized operations that run 24/7, across the city.

Best part? It’s plug and play and you can get started right away. Get in touch to find out more! 



https://l.linklyhq.com/l/cxIZ

This week Oliver interviews Eric Qwidwenus-Wahlforss, Founder and CEO of Dance. When we first heard that the founders of SoundCloud had got into electric bikes we wondered how does the world of software paralleled across to the world of hardware and electric bikes. But Eric puts up a convincing argument and Dance has made a splash with their launch. This is a great conversation about the nature of how the industry has changed over time and how the business model of micromobility parallels to a lot of other subscription Internet businesses.

Specifically, they dig into:

* The backstory to Dance, including Eric’s background at Soundcloud in Berlin and the climate motivations for starting Dance

* Why they chose the rental business model, and what that enables

* More about the bike and the service, and how they see competition

* The reception to date

* The challenges and ease of fundraising and what has changed in the space over time

* Manufacturing in an era of COVID

This week we’re releasing the first of the content from the recent Micromobility America conference. In this interview, Lauren Goode from Wired interviews Andrew Yang who was one of the headline speakers.

Lauren and Andrew talk about Forward, his new American political party, before moving on to talk about role of micromobility in the future of transport. It’s a great conversation and we in the team really appreciate it when politicians have such progressive takes and are willing to embrace technology in transport like this.

Specifically they dig into:

- Andrew’s new political party, Forward, and why its important

- How local, state and federal regulations play a part in Micromobility’s future

- How many scooters Andrew owns

- Why micromobility is important for health, both mental and physical

- The need for cities to better accomodate these new modes

- Why he likes small companies and innovation, and why micromobility is well suited to this

- The challenges of electrifying other parts of the fleets.

- The links between UBI and micromobility

This week Oliver interviews one of his heroes in the urbanist space, Gabe Klein. Gabe has successfully managed to successfully operate in both the private and public sectors, as one of the first execs at Zipcar, helping form the company that became Car2Go and then was appointed head of DOT in both Washington DC and Chicago. He has a great grounding in the space and understands what works and what doesn’t in cities giving him great perspective of what micromobility offers to the cities and urban transport conversation. It was a wonderful conversation - more like a catch up with a friend than an interview. The team hopes you enjoy!

Specifically they dig into:

- His background starting in bikes, moving on to Zipcar/what became Car2Go

- His move into city government - both DC and then Chicago - and what he learned there around the challenges/opportunities to help shape cities and their transport systems

- What he thinks micromobility offers to the transport conversation - both owned and shared - on the variables of cost, speed, convenience, joy and safety.

- What he thinks the industry in general has done poorly/needs to improve on.

- Whether he believes that micromobility has an integral part in the future of transport both in the US and globally, and what needs to be developed to unlock that potential.

Our sponsor for the episode is UBCO.

UBCO is accelerating the global transition to electric mobility by designing the world’s toughest electric utility vehicles. Engineered and tested in New Zealand, now adopted by consumers and businesses globally, UBCO’s rugged all-wheel-drive two-wheeler stands out in the lightweight electric vehicle category. As appetite grows for sustainable transport options, UBCO provides utility EVs that are tough, versatile, safe and connected. We interviewed their founder Tim on episode 96, and we were honoured to have them on stage at the recent micromobility America event in the Bay Area on the 23rd of September. 

Thanks for their support of the show.

This week Oliver interviews Jaideep Dhanoa, Founder and CEO of Fenix, about his experience within the micromobility industry across Asia and the Middle East. Jaideep is an absolute OG of the space. They talk about his experiences with the Chinese bikeshare boom while at Grab, his move back to the Middle East with Circ and now his efforts with Fenix. They talk Turkey which is a market that hasn’t been on the radar till now, but could well become the next Paris or Seoul. It's a great conversation and they really hope you enjoy as much as they did. 

Specifically they dig into:

- Jaideep’s background at Grab working on micromobility integrations, and why that foretold the future explosion of the sector.

- His journey back to the Middle East and his efforts with Circ and then the rise from the ashes of Fenix.

- The challenges and opportunities for the rise of micromobility in the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC).

- The significance of the funding rounds that they’ve received.

- The largest markets across the Middle East and Central Asia.

- Why Istanbul is the most interesting emergent market for micromobility, and what Fenix is doing to secure their position there.

- Jaideep’s reflections on the overall space globally, and where he thinks we’ll get to in 5 years.

Our sponsor for the episode is Ubiq. Ubiq is making shared mobility profitable. Most shared mobility businesses are not profitable, as 60%-80% of the demand is not met. Ubiq is automating rebalancing operations to ensure vehicles are in the right place, at the right time, to meet demand. This enables operators to increase revenue by 20% within 8 weeks while also decreasing operational costs. The solution? Automated Rebalancing and Charging as a Service. Ensuring EV fleets remain charged is a major challenge for shared mobility and, if not managed effectively, can be a huge drag on revenues. Ubiq’s Charging as a Service gives you a head start by automating the charging process; its predictive engine is combined with crowdsourced operational execution to provide easily scalable charging operations. This leads to an efficient charging process that will have a major impact on revenue boosting.

Best part? It’s plug and play and you can get started right away. Get in touch to find out more here: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/c3iX

Hey team, this week Oliver interviews Olaf Sakkers about his new book, Mobility Disruption Framework. Olaf is one of the General Partners at Redblue Capital, a new mobility venture investment firm that he founded. Prior to this, he was at Maniv Mobility for 6 years with Michael Granoff, a friend of Micromobility Industries and a previous guest on the podcast. This is one of our favourite episodes. Olaf’s work feels seminal, which is always a good place to start from. It covers a lot of the same ideas covered on this podcast all in one, coherent and cogent framework, and helped us really get our head around concepts that we’ve been thinking about for years but have struggled to  articulate. We cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Thank you to Reilly Brennan for putting us onto it via his excellent Future of Transportation weekly newsletter.

Specifically they talk about:

Olaf’s history with Maniv Mobility and his new venture Redblue.

The origins of the Mobility Disruption framework and its audience.

Why Olaf is bullish on hydrogen for vehicles.

His framework around CATS and DOGs and why the dematerialisation of transport matters

His framework for Throughput Construction Cost, which in our opinion is revolutionary.

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In the meantime. The next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd of September. It’ll be at the Craneway in Richmond, across the bay from San Francisco and have more than 50 top speakers from the industry, more than 1000 global participants and 500+ startups and brands represented. If you love this space and want to find your tribe here, head to micromobility.io to find out more details.

This week Oliver interviews Horace about his recent thoughts on the impact of lithium ion batteries on power tools and how the market and products have developed. He also spawns a new framework: batteries we carry, batteries that carry us and batteries that carry themselves. It’s Horace at his best - riffing and letting his brain do what it does.

In the meantime, make sure that you get your tickets for Micromobility America, the world’s largest summit devoted to small electric vehicles. It returns to the SF Bay Area on September 23, 2021 for an immersive, in-person gathering. The team are hellbent on breaking the old paradigm of car dependency and getting the world moving again, safely and sustainably. The event will be a jam-packed day of talks, demos, meetings, and test rides with micromobility’s top global founders, policymakers, investors, and influencers. Meet over 500 startups and established players, test the latest technology and vehicles for the first time in nearly two years. It’ll take advantage of the beautiful California weather, doing as much as possible outdoors and headliners include political upstart Andrew Yang, veteran tech reporter Lauren Goode, and e-scooter racing trailblazer Lucas Di Grassi, and dozens more. Check it out more at micromobility.io. 

The sponsor of the episode is Segway Commercial, the sharing business division of Segway-Ninebot. Their job is to help people and companies launch their own micro-mobility business. No matter the size or location of your scooter fleet, their mission is to make shared micro-mobility simpler and more accessible to all. They will be bringing a full line of electric vehicles to Micromobility America and encourage listeners to reserve their test ride. They’ll have their full range, such as Segway’s IoT-enabled e-Bike and e-Moped, and their full line of shared scooters featuring latest AI technologies, including T60 & T60 lite. 

To RSVP your test ride, please click on this link (https://b2b.segway.com/mma2021).

Today Oliver interviews Michael Dunne, founder of Zozogo, former VP of JD Power in China, GM of General Motors Indonesia and host of the Winning in Asia podcast which covers the auto sector in China. Mike has a huge depth of experience in China, which is an area that the team haven’t covered as much as we’d like on this show. The conversation gave rise to a lot of discussions about the lay of the land in the Chinese auto sector, the role of the Chinese auto sector in Micromobility and how micromobility will need to change to see adoption from those who are coming from poverty into wealth and are looking for highly performant and high status vehicles. It’s a great discussion and one that we think you’ll really enjoy.

Specifically they dig into:

- Mike’s background and how a kid from Detroit ended up in China in the 1990s.

- the Dynamics of the local Chinese car industry, including a breakdown of local vs joint ventures vs Tesla. 

- what (totally crazy!) excess capacity in the auto sector looks like and why that might matter for Micromobility 

- the top down vs bottom up nature of industry in China, and why the incentives matter.

- infrastructure in China - roading vs existing Micromobility

- the cultural enablers and disablers for Micromobility in China - and why Micromobility will struggle in the quest for status

In the meantime. The next Micromobility America conference is now scheduled for the 23rd of September. It’ll be at the Craneway in Richmond, across the bay from San Francisco and have more than 50 top speakers from the industry, more than 1000 global participants and 500+ startups and brands represented. If you love this space and want to find your tribe here, head to micromobility.io to find out more details.