While it is ridiculously easy to laugh at scooters and the venture capitalists that love and chase them, they are actually quite profitable. And in the years to come, they should get even more profitable.
Details: From a recent Quartz article (and additional analysis by the brilliant Mike Cane)– The average price of a scooter is roughly $320, the revenue per scooter is roughly $16 per day and the cost of recharge is around $5 per day. Over the 4 month lifespan of each scooter, that’s $1,920 in revenue and $920 in cost which makes for $1,000 in profit and a nice return on the upfront cost.
The trouble, of course, is that most scooters don’t last 4 months. But like any new emerging technology, scooters are becoming more durable and better with every day that passes.
It was announced today that electric vehicle company Boosted just raised $60M in Series B financing. The article states, “The company intends to use the funding to develop and produce new types of personal electric vehicles designed to be even more rugged and robust.”
I suspect we will start to see $1200-$1600 scooters that look and feel like cherished personal vehicles in the next 18 months. The business model around scooters will continue to evolve, and we should see subscription pricing for rental scooters that you keep at home start to expand.
In VERY similar news, Fair.com just raised $385 million led by Softbank.
I personally can’t wait to subscribe to a car and scooter monthly.
