What Brand Of Electric Scooter Do LIME And BIRD Use?
We receive many questions from readers who have recently ridden the electric scooters of the sharing platforms BIRD or LIME while on holiday. Or people who are tired of borrowing scooters and want to buy their own scooters.
The question is almost always the same: which brand and model of E-step do BIRD and LIME use? Your readers are often just as enthusiastic as me and want to buy your own electric scooter!
Which electric scooter uses BIRD
Bird uses the brands/models Xiaomi M365, Ninebot ES2, and Ninebot ES4 electric scooters. All these models are comparable, with a maximum speed of up to about 25 km/h and a range of about 20-30 km.
The model’s BIRD uses can differ per city.
Bird
Bird is one of the largest electric scooter rental companies. BIRD’s e-scooters can be found in more than 60 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North America, with 10 million rides in the first year of operation.
Renting a scooter from BIRD costs € / $ 1 to unlock the scooter, then € / $ 0.15 per minute.
Which electric scooter does LIME use?
Lime uses the Ninebot ES2 and Ninebot ES4 electric scooters. LIME is currently working with Ninebot on the development of the next generation of E-steps.
Lime
Lime is a sharing platform/rental platform for bicycles, scooters, and cars. They have rolled out their services in different cities worldwide.
The means of transport have no fixed stations, but can be found all over the city. They are rented through an app. Renting a Lime electric scooter normally costs 1 dollar/1 euro per 30 minutes.
Also read: why you should buy your own scooter instead of a loaner scooter
Can you also buy LIME and BIRD E-steps?
You can also simply buy the electric scooter that BIRD and LIME use. Xiaomi and Ninebot supply exactly the same scooters to private individuals.
The scooters can be ordered online and work exactly the same as the loaner scooter. So you can ride with the same experience but on your own scooter!
Steps are software adapted
Under the hood, all scooters are the same, whether you buy a scooter yourself from one of the brands mentioned or use a loaner scooter.
However, the steps of the sharing platforms have been adjusted in software. This is mainly done to work well with their apps, but also to comply with local laws and regulations.
The maximum speed that the BIRD or Lime scooters can achieve differs per country and city. A limiter is therefore often set. For example, in some cities the limit is 12.5 mph – 20 km/h while in other cities 9.3 mph – 15 km/h is found to be fast enough.
Do you buy an e-scooter from one of the brands mentioned? Then the standard specifications with which the scooters are delivered from the factory apply.
The scooters can also look slightly different in detail than when you buy the same model/brand of scooter yourself. Think, for example, of the green color of the lime steps.
