Uber has launched a shared electric scooter rental scheme in Madrid and Paris

Global ride-hailing company, Uber, is introducing new transport options in Madrid or Paris. In the Spanish capital, you’ll be able to get around by electric kick scooter rental service through Uber’s subsidiary Jump. In the French capital, there’s a new electric bike and scooter share service, making it the first European city to have both mobility options.

Uber has distributed 566 of the electric scooters so far in Madrid, where they will compete with a dockless electric bicycle sharing scheme. Customers can locate a scooter through the Uber app or maps, and it costs one euro to unlock it and 12 cent per minute to ride it. As an introductory offer, the first ten minutes will be free for four weeks.

In Paris, 500 e-bikes and 500 e-scooters are initially available in the inner Paris area through the Uber app, and bikes and scooters cost €1 to unlock and then 15 cent per minute. To celebrate the launch, unlocking will be free of charge for three weeks. Jump plans to expand to the Greater Paris area and other cities in France in the coming months.

Uber says it wants to provide people with a new transport alternative to move around cities. One challenge it will face when it goes to expand into other countries is that some locations have introduced restrictions on scooter use. For example, Paris is now fining people for riding their scooters on paths, and Barcelona has banned the use of shared electric scooters.

“Uber’s mission is to create opportunity through movement,” the company says. “We started in 2010 to solve a simple problem: how do you get access to a ride at the touch of a button? More than 10 billion trips later, we’re building products to get people closer to where they want to be.”

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