Daimler’s MyTaxi launch first kick-scooter fleet in Lisbon

After announcing plans to add electric scooters to their portfolio a month ago, MyTaxi revealed the location of their pilot: Lisbon. People in the Portuguese capital can rent a scooter from a fleet of hundreds. For Daimler, this may open a whole new venture labelled Hive.

For now they run the kick scooters under a new label, Hive, and Daimler embedded the service in a dedicated app of the same name. Yet Mytaxi CEO Eckart Diepenhorst told German media that this model will either kick-start a new service via Hive or else they may integrate it into the existing MyTaxi ride-hailing offer.

In any case, the pilot is new territory for Daimler and the CEO confirmed as much. While they use electric cooters made by Segway in Lisbon, Diepenhorst stressed that it would be “crucial to develop our own hardware” especially when moving into regions with more adverse weather conditions.

Indeed Hive may expand as early as next year depending on the market and the experiences they are making just now. The MyTaxi CEO also pointed to the importance of a good working relation with the respective city. He added it had been a decisive factor when opting for Portugal.

To rent an electric scooter via the Hive app comes at the cost of a one euro base fee and 15 cent per minute afterwards. Half an hour thus adds up to almost 5 euros. This is the normal market rate and the same Lime in Paris is asking. The electric scooters of both Lime or Hive can be left anywhere.

MyTaxi boss Diepenhorst had no answer when asked about Hive’s unique selling point. He did point out factors for success however, namely hardware, availability and said relationship with a city’s authorities. Moreover, MyTaxi considers to roll-out their Hive fleet of electric scooters across Europe – given things work out in Lisbon.

handelsblatt.com (in German), itunes.com (Hive app)