Micromobility Industries hosted its flagship European summit in Amsterdam this week mobilising leaders from across the globe.
The focus of the two-day summit was on how micromobility can improve health, reduce emissions and solve the urban mobility dilemma.
VanMoof’s Co-Founder Taco Carlier unveiled the Dutch firm’s latest generation of e-bikes, the S5 and A5, inviting attendees to be the first to take the futuristic looking electric vehicles for a test ride, while manufacturer Segway, a popular choice for shared e-scooter operators, showed off its newest-gen S90L e-scooter.
“Micromobility continues to evolve at breakneck speed as evidenced by the variety of modalities at this MM EU event,” says Alex Nesic, Co-Founder of Drover AI.
“As pioneers in computer vision and AI for micromobility, it’s also quite validating for us to see that segment grow with vehicle manufacturers introducing new models with onboard cameras and processors. The future of micromobility is clearly going to be much more artificially intelligent.”
Other organisations in attendance included bikeshare operators and subscription companies, from Dance, Zoomo and Donkey Republic to shared e-scooter operators such as TIER, Dott and Helbiz.
Dance’s Co-Founder and CEO Eric Quidenus-Wahlforss, former Founder of audio platform SoundCloud, explains why he thinks micromobility is making such headway.
“The timing has never been better,” he says. “With increased cycling infrastructure, public discourse and political will across Europe to create more sustainable cities, we can help more people choose a sustainable commute.”
Berlin-based start-up Dance is an electric mobility subscription company for e-bikes and e-mopeds.
Quidenus-Wahlforss continues: “Our research shows the majority of Europeans recognise that e-bikes and e-mopeds can replace a car commute and can benefit the environment; a flexible, full-service option like Dance can compel more people to try this sustainable form of travel.”
We also sat down with Zoomo’s Lisa Conibear, Regional General Manager for UK and Europe. Zoomo is a leader in electric last-mile delivery vehicles, which provides bikes for the likes of Deliveroo, Just Eat, DoorDash among others.
“We are thrilled to see all the hardware innovation at this Micromobility Europe summit as this shows investor confidence,” she says.
“We’re proud to be here representing the delivery sector and more importantly couriers.”
Conibear says micromobility is the perfect form factor to answer the demanding needs of today’s consumer in a quick commerce world. She sees a move away from peri-urban amazon-style warehouses, which utilises van-based deliveries, to small micro-warehouses in cities where bikes fit well alongside the goods consumers want delivered.
Her vision is “to have the delivery drivers role recognised and celebrated and to give them a voice in shaping future regulations around micromobility.”
Erdem Ovacik, Donkey Republic’s CEO and Co-Founder agreed about the growth in innovation, but aired a word of caution.
“Micromobility is having a fantastic moment as we operators are seen as a solution to the cities problems, so city authorities want to talk and work with us. But we must now live up to this expectation. We cannot abuse their trust by hiding away and not sharing our data. We need to be honest about our public impacts and what we are doing for public health is a crucial component of this.”
It is clear there is momentum behind the micromobility movement as more and more people realise its benefits. We caught Dott’s COO and Co-Founder Maxim Romain at the end of the day who summarised this sentiment.
“Shared micromobility will become the main transport service within cities in the next five years.”
