Scooter rental services assessed the impact of sanctions on work in Russia

Representatives of scooter rental services say they managed to purchase equipment for the upcoming season before the imposition of sanctions. But the cost of the trip may increase.

Representatives of electric scooter rental services, the so-called kicksharing, interviewed by RBC, said that they managed to prepare for the upcoming season.

According to a representative of the Whoosh service , they were preparing for the new season in the company in advance, in winter. This service has already put scooters up for use. Whoosh buys scooters from a factory in another country (whose representative did not specify), and then assembles them in RUSSIA. “The sharing platform, applications and scooter firmware are the service’s own development,” said a Whoosh representative. According to data on the service's website, at the beginning of March it had 50,000 scooters, including 15,000 in Moscow and 9,000 in St. Petersburg . Whoosh noted that they plan to "actively launch new cities." The company did not predict whether it would be able to purchase spare parts and scooters after the end of the season. Representative Urentsaid that the company purchased scooters this year from CHINA . The service plans to start the season from March 18 to 23. Some of the parts are 3D printed in Russia, while "the stock of the rest allows us to guarantee the maintenance of the park to ensure safe trips this season," Urent says. At the same time, the company assures that deliveries from China are now "going without interruption." The software installed on Urent scooters is the company's own development. Molnia press officerstated that they are not experiencing difficulties due to the imposition of sanctions against Russia and logistical problems, since they “formed a fleet of scooters in advance and purchased all the necessary parts with a margin.” The service plans to bring out about 3.5 thousand scooters this season. The company uses its own software, so they do not depend on foreign ones.

At the same time, representatives of the services did not rule out an increase in the cost of travel. According to a Whoosh representative, they started the season with last year's fares, now the price of a trip is 8 rubles. per minute, and the start of the trip is 50 rubles. “But we do not exclude that it will be necessary to correct upwards, which we would not like,” he said. A representative of Urent said that at the beginning of the season the price for the trip will be 5-7 rubles. per minute (and 50 rubles per start with each trip), then it "will depend on supply and demand in the market." At the Molnia service in the standard tariff with a permitted driving speed of 20 km / h, the start of the trip will cost 45 rubles. and then 5 rubles. per minute at a per-minute rate.

What are the prospects for kicksharing in Russia

According to the Truesharing.ru project, in 2021 the size of the Russian kicksharing market amounted to 11–12 billion rubles. About 50 scooter rental services operated in 90 Russian cities. These services had 10-15 million users who made approximately 55 million trips. The average cost of a trip was 160–200 rubles. (7–8 rubles per minute). The biggest players were Whoosh and Urent, accounting for 70–80% of the market. At the end of last year, Truesharing.ru predicted that by 2024 the size of this market would grow to 35-40 billion rubles, the scooter fleet would reach 300-350 thousand units, and the number of customers would increase to 40-50 million people.