The micro-mobility market is expected to experience double-digit growth in the coming years. For short distances, micromobility businesses provide an alternative to autos in congested cities. A new Ericsson paper outlines how micromobility companies can increase the lifespan of electric scooters, improve asset tracking, and manage logistics more cost-effectively by utilizing cellular IoT.
Micromobility is a rapidly expanding means of transportation that has become a common sight in city centers around the world. Self-service, shared lightweight electric bikes and scooters (e-scooters) provide a cost-effective, accessible, and environmentally friendly mode of transportation. In the following years, the micromobility market is predicted to increase by double digits, with a CAGR of 16 percent between 2019 and 2027. (from USD 3 billion to USD 12 billion).
A new Connected Micromobility research, co-authored by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little, mobile operator Arkessa, and micromobility operator Voi, shows how micromobility companies may use the cellular Internet of Things (IoT) to address safety concerns and improve operations. Micromobility operators can extend the life of their fleets, precisely implement dynamic pricing with asset tracking, and improve more cost-effective service diagnostics and logistics by leveraging cellular IoT.
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Using 1 million people and a fleet of 3500 e-scooters as a baseline, these three benefits can generate an annual value of up to USD 460,000 for an e-scooter operator in a single city. Micromobility firms can also create safety zones by enforcing low speeds and recovering abandoned scooters using location-aware connected units.
Micromobility also has sustainability benefits, according to the International Transport Forum. Electric scooters can lower CO2 emissions by up to 61 percent when compared to car rides. Electric scooters with a longer life cycle can cut CO2 emissions by up to 33% while lowering traffic congestion in cities can reduce CO2 emissions by 6%.
“Cellular IoT is not only a stepping stone for micromobility companies to improve and optimize their offerings; IoT has benefits for consumers, cities and the climate at large. By leveraging cellular connectivity IoT, we will see micromobility providers interact more with smart city infrastructure, and this is exciting to see,” says Kyle Okamoto, General Manager Internet of Things at Ericsson.
“We believe in cities free from congestion, noise, and pollution. We believe in cities where citizens can freely move around on their terms. To accomplish this, we have taken the most advanced technology including cellular IoT and made it accessible to everyone,” says Jonas Rundberg, VP Software Engineering at Voi.
Learn more by reading the full Connected Micromobility report and try the Micromobility Value Calculator to figure out the annual value of cellular IoT for micromobility companies.