Estonian transportation startup Bolt has started to rent out electric scooters in Kyiv.
Now, users of the Bolt mobile application can rent a scooter in several districts in downtown Kyiv by scanning a QR code on it.
It costs Hr 29 ($1) to unlock a scooter. After it starts to work, every minute of driving will cost nearly Hr 5 ($0.2). A scooter can also be rented for the whole day for Hr 600 ($22).
“We will review pricing when other services appear — if necessary,” Taras Potichnyi, country manager at Bolt Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post. “We will test (this format), because the market (of electric scooter rental) is new.”
Potichnyi also said that the company may offer discounts for weekends and holidays.
Kyiv became the latest European city where Bolt offers electric scooters. The service currently works on Poshtova Square, Independence Square, Bessarabska Square, next to the Golden Gate of Kyiv and in the Mariinsky Park.
The app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices, has a map that shows zones where one can drive a scooter. There are three zones: green, orange and red. Customers can drive scooters in green and orange zones, but they must leave them only in the green zone.
Driving in the red zone is forbidden, and the electric scooter will move slower. If users break the rule, they will be fined Hr 100 ($3.60).
The service is meant to help people to get faster from a metro station to a workplace or home. Additionally, Potichnyi said that the launch of electric scooter rentals is another step toward becoming more ecologically conscious, as using electric transport doesn’t pollute the air.
Bolt uses Zimo S1 scooters that can go 30 kilometers on one charge. Every morning, Bolt employees will collect and charge the scooters, as well as disinfect them regularly.
Step by step, by the end of 2020, Bolt will increase the number of scooters, but the startup plans to work exclusively in the city center — the service will not be available in the suburbs at least not over the next year, says Taras Potichnyi.
The company will test the service in Ukraine’s capital and — if all goes well — may roll it out in Odesa and Lviv. Perhaps, next year the rentals will appear in other cities, Potichnyi said.
In November 2019, Bolt launched the rental of electric scooters on the territory of innovation park UNIT.City in test mode — people could use them for free.
In Ukraine, Bolt is one of the three most popular mobile apps for ordering a taxi ride, alongside Ukrainian Uklon and U.S. Uber.
