Nextbike: New locations for e-bike sharing in Spain

Nextbike, the bike-sharing provider acquired by Tier, is expanding its presence in Spain. The service’s launch in Palma de Mallorca just before the turn of the year was followed by launches in the Barcelona metropolitan region, Getxo and Mislata at the start of 2023.

This article has been updated. Please continue reading below.

In and around Barcelona, the service is called Ambici. It will be Nextbike’s largest e-bike fleet to date and, according to the company, even one of Europe’s most extensive e-bike sharing systems. The station-based system started with around 600 bikes in six municipalities in the Barcelona metropolitan region and is expected to include approximately 2,500 e-bikes at 220 stations in 15 municipalities when completed.

Nextbike has been present in Palma de Mallorca since December 2022 with its BiciPalma service. Nearly 1,000 bikes will be available there following the last expansion, around a third of which are e-bikes. According to the statement, “this will make it possible to integrate around 20 districts flexibly and individually into Palma’s public transport system.”

In Getxo, Nextbike is taking a new approach with its Getxobizi service. “The small system with around 100 bikes is a taste of what is to come with the development of an interconnected system for the entire Bizkaia region,” the provider writes. And that later this year, the bike-sharing service now underway in Getxo should be integrated into the Bizkaibizi interconnected system. It should then include a total of 600 e-bikes.

The fourth city in the group is Mislata in the province of Valencia. Nextbike does not specify the number of e-bikes in the system there. The “small bike sharing system offers e-bikes and push bikes that can be rented and returned at 15 stations, including one station in the city of Valencia.”

Before the end of the year, Nextbike says it will launch other systems in the Spanish market, including two bike-sharing services in the Bizkaia and Santander regions.

Nextbike operates in some 300 locations in more than 18 countries. After the acquisition by Tier Mobility in November 2021, the rebranding started in the summer of 2022. In addition, Tier’s vehicles were integrated directly into the Nextbike app. Electric pedal scooters, electric mopeds and bikes from Nextbike can be rented over the same app. Tier and Nextbike together offer more than 250,000 vehicles in over 400 cities.

Update 27 March 2023

Nextbike continues to expand its presence in Spain. The four new e-bike sharing systems mentioned above will be followed by three more offerings this summer. This is because Nextbike has also won the tenders for systems in Santander, Arteixo and the Bizkaia region. The Bizkaibizi offer for the entire Bizkaia region around the city of Bilbao includes 600 e-bikes. In Santander, the Santanderbici offer, operated in cooperation with the city, is designed for 220 e-bikes. And for the system in Arteixo, Nextbike will provide 100 of its classic bikes in addition to 35 e-bikes.

Currently, Nextbike operates ten bike-sharing systems in Spain with more than 3,000 bikes. As a result of the tenders won and the expansion of existing systems, the bike-sharing offering will grow to at least twelve systems with almost 6,000 bikes before the end of this year.

Source: Info via email