Estonia’s Taxify joining ride-hailing race in Paris
The French capital is seeing a wave of new sharing offers since it cancelled its longstanding Autolib service. The latest arrival is Taxify from Estonia. The taxi service launched a fleet of electric kick-scooters, accessible via the company’s app.
At its home base Estonia, Taxify rivals the likes of Uber and Lyft. Paris however is a testing ground for their latest offer, les “trottinettes”, small electric scooters ready to rent. A few hundred have been rolled out, all branded “Bolt”.
Taxify estimates that some of their ride-hailimg clients may make the move to swing their legs on the last few miles of a journey. Renting one of the scooters comes in at a one-euro rental fee and 15 cents a minute.
Taxify has promised they would collect and recharge the electric scooters every night. A step that may be much needed given their Bolt are joining existing fleets of kick scooters deployed by Lime Bike and Bird.
Lime in Paris uses a similar business model. Their electric scooters may be booked via mobile app as well, albeit via the mighty Uber. The price is exactly the same as Taxify’s.
To rent an electric scooter through Taxify requires users to scan a QR code.
The company has not mentioned any further plans for expansion. In cities like Berlin, such electric kick scooters are deemed illegal on public roads and sidewalks although legislation is likely to change soon. In London too, the DfT is holding up regulation regarding such extra light electric vehicles.
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