Mobility startup Lime has begun rolling out a new swappable battery to its fleet of electric bikes and scooters. According to the company, the component is a significant upgrade over the one it uses currently. The nearly 1 kWh battery features twice the capacity of Lime’s previous .46 kWh design. Best of all, the battery is compatible with the company’s existing Gen4 and Citra e-bikes and scooters, allowing Lime to enhance the capabilities of those vehicles without replacing them.
Lime says it plans to deploy the battery in a handful of cities this summer, including Paris and Long Beach, before rolling it out more widely. A higher capacity power source brings with it a few advantages. The most obvious of all is that Lime’s vehicles can travel further. In turn, that allows the company to save on operating costs since its charging vans no longer need to make as many trips to support its fleet.
The timing of the upgrade comes at a critical time for Lime and other micromobility providers. After a decline in ridership at the beginning of the pandemic, the company saw people increasingly turn to its service for their transportation needs. With gas prices in the US and other parts of the world approaching historic highs, more and more people are looking for affordable and safe ways to get where they need to go.