Category: EBikes

Keego Mobility Announces iQuTech as Fleet Management Partner in Ireland

iQuTech is also Keego Mobility’s logistics and support partner in Europe and will set up a new division called iQuTech Mobility that will leverage their extensive operations to provide Irish delivery companies and their couriers with Keego Mobility’s purpose-built, sturdy delivery ebikes and world-class maintenance and customer support.
“We are excited to help the last mile delivery market in Ireland become more sustainable. The couriers who deliver our food and online purchases deserve the best service,” says Mark O’Sullivan, Co-founder, iQuTech. “Keego Mobility’s high quality products and our extensive service network will ensure that couriers will maximize the use of their delivery ebikes.”
iQuTech also sees great potential in Keego Mobiility’s ebikes for the First Mile Collections business where couriers can also pick up goods being returned, saving consumers the need to drop a package off at collections points or a post office.#
In Ireland, the Online Food Delivery market is projected to reach US$1.16bn in 2024 and is still growing. The Grocery Delivery market is also expected to grow, reaching a market volume of US$0.91bn this year.
Using electric bikes to deliver greatly cuts down on CO2 emissions. And this is something that is appealing to the customers. According to a study made by the delivery platform Just Eats, more than half of delivery customers want to know more about the carbon footprint of their takeaway orders.
First unveiled at the Taipei Cycle Show in March 2022, Keego Mobility’s delivery ebikes are built to handle the hard work of daily deliveries with long range and low total cost of ownership. The front and rear racks save the couriers from having to carry their cargo in a backpack, making for better ergonomics and ensures the food arrives as the chef intended. The company is co-founded by Irishman Philip Corri. Born in Dublin, Mr. Corri moved to Spain for his studies and eventually moved to Taiwan for work where he eventually met his other two co-founders and started Keego Mobility.
“We are excited to partner with such a strong Irish company such as iQuTech. There are thousands of couriers in Ireland that spends every day driving around on a fossil fuel scooter. When they switch to one of our delivery ebikes, there are 98% less CO2 emissions, quieter streets and the couriers will not have to carry cargo on their backs, truly a win for everyone,” says Philip Corri.
Anyone interested in iQuTech and Keego Mobility’s offerings can visit this new website to sign up to receive more information: https://iqutechmobility.com.

Golden Ride launches innovative eBike and eScooter maintenance and servicing program

Golden Ride, the high-tech electric micro-mobility brand from globally renowned sustainable transportation pioneer Terravision Electric, has enhanced its operations in the UK following the launch of an innovative and wide-ranging maintenance and servicing program designed specifically for eBikes and eScooters.

The highly comprehensive package has been created to offer customers total ‘peace-of-mind’ throughout their eBike and eScooter ownership journey, eliminating concerns they might have on the safety and operational lifetime functionality of their eMobility products, encompassing all mechanical, electrical, hardware and software aspects.

Such a complete aftersales approach from Golden Ride serves to maintain the highest of safety levels of eBikes and eScooters while further enhancing reliability, performance and lifespan. The program is also available to customers with non-electric bikes of any brand as part of Golden Ride’s duty of care outlook for the wider micro-mobility community.

“The formation of Golden Ride was primarily driven by the need to create truly sustainable and affordable micro-mobility solutions that will help transform our urban areas,” says Niccolò Petroni, commercial director at Golden Ride. “But unlike so many other brands in this congested space, offering the market a high-tech but affordable product range is just one aspect to the Golden Ride eMobility vision, which is why we invested and opened a flagship store in London and today we’re delighted to launch our comprehensive maintenance and servicing eMobility program.

“We strongly feel that waving goodbye to the customer at a point of sale – be that for an eBike or eScooter; online or in the Golden Ride flagship store – just isn’t good enough. As a community-focused company we want to be with the customer throughout their ownership journey, making sure their chosen eMobility products remain at optimum operating levels across all key attributes – safety, reliability, functionality and performance. Our all-encompassing maintenance and servicing program guarantees total ‘peace-of-mind’ for the customer.”

Golden Ride implements total customer care

The new maintenance and servicing program launched by Golden Ride gives the burgeoning UK eMobility market access to a complete and high-tech aftersales service for eBikes and eScooters that is also dedicated to total customer care.

Overseen by leading eMobility technicians based at Golden Ride’s flagship store in London, the maintenance and servicing program has been designed to operate on a highly efficient yet detail-driven basis, offering customers access to high-level electric and mechanical eMobility engineering expertise.

A state-of-the-art electromechanical workshop – currently under development within Golden Ride’s flagship store – will soon become the brand’s hub for its all-encompassing aftersales, maintenance, servicing and customer care initiatives. When completed, the workshop will be equipped with advanced technologies and industry-leading tools.

The service, which has been designed to be rapid, launches with customers not needing to make any prior appointments – the Golden Ride technician team are on-hand each day during the flagship store’s regular business hours. Alternatively, customers can also message the technician team via WhatsApp on 07549 390 561.

A detailed diagnostic examination is performed on the customer’s eMobility product – the cost of which is just £25.00; this initial fee is then deducted from the price of the maintenance and service operations should the customer at that stage wish to proceed.

To maintain the highest safety standards of eBikes and eScooters, it’s advised that a safety inspection is undertaken between major mechanical services. As part of Golden Ride’s new aftersales customer care package, the brand’s complete safety inspection service sees the customer’s eBike or eScooter comprehensively assessed for state of health, functionality and performance.

Following the evaluation, the eBike or eScooter is then restored and advanced to optimal working conditions. This tailored customer care initiative comprises a full safety check of the frame, wheels and brakes – including a thorough inspection for damage and movement; frames and forks analysed for imperfections; wheels and tyres examined for wear; wheels and rims assessed for condition of use; chain tested and lubricated; and the gears and brakes optimally tuned.

‘Out with the old, in with the electric’ exchange

Golden Ride’s compelling ‘Out with the old, in with the electric’ offer has been extended in the lead-up to the busy Christmas period.

The exchange presents customers with the opportunity to take their old non-electric bikes into Golden Ride’s flagship store in London for an accurate pricing evaluation undertaken by the company’s expert eMobility tech team. The valuation of the old non-electric bike is then used as credit and exchanged for a new Golden Ride eBike or eScooter.

Philippe Grousset, director of operations for the Golden Ride flagship store in London, added: “Golden Ride’s journey into the UK market is only 12 months old but in that time we’ve made incredible progress: we’ve invested in a physical flagship store in London; we’ve launched a range of eBikes including our outstanding Classic Touring Bike; and we’ve recently introduced the A6 Pro, an eScooter that is already proving to be very popular. Today we’re adding the next element to the brand’s eMobility vision: comprehensive maintenance and servicing packages tailored for the customer.

“And by extending our ‘Out with the old, in with the electric’ exchange service, Golden Ride is continuing to support the growing eMobility community, helping as many people as possible to embrace sustainable micro-mobility solutions that will help revolutionize and revitalize our urban landscape.”

Shared electric bike company Bolt partners with Sligo council, Atlantic Technological University, An Garda Síochána & NCBI to discuss safe and responsible cycling with ATU students

European shared mobility leader Bolt has joined forces with Sligo County Council, Sligo Gardaí, ATU Sligo and the National Council for the Blind of Ireland to develop and put on a training school at the university where students can learn and practise how to use shared electric bikes safely and responsibly.

The Bolt Safety Academy will be open 12-2pm on Wednesday 4th October at “The Fish” on the ATU Sligo campus and will be the first of its kind in the country.

Attendees can test their knowledge with a localised online test about how to use and park a shared electric bike safely and responsibly across Sligo. In a move that demonstrates fruitful cross-industry collaboration, the content of the test was jointly developed with the NCBI, ATU Sligo, ATU Students’ Union and Sligo County Council. Attendees will then be able to put their knowledge into practice by cycling around campus with guidance from Sligo’s Community Garda team.

The Safety Academy is expected to be busy as it’s part of the Universities’ “Connect for Success”: Your First Five Weeks” orientation programme which is dedicating a week to highlighting the various health and wellbeing resources available to students on campus. To further encourage attendance and learning, Bolt is rewarding those who complete the test with 20 minutes of free Bolt cycling which can be used at a later date, whilst those who partake in the test ride will be given a free helmet. In order to encourage usage, attendees can personalise their helmet on-site.

The Estonian-based company is also taking the opportunity to debut a brand new safety feature called the reckless rider score. Bolt’s software will calculate if a bike is being ridden recklessly according to sensors which can recognise multiple behaviours such as skidding or abrupt braking. A user’s reckless rider score is evaluated every five rides. If it falls below a certain threshold, they will receive education, a mandatory lower speed and a suspension according to how long the score remains.

The objective of the Safety Academy is two-fold. It’s intended to teach students and locals how to use a shared electric bike service responsibly – Bolt’s service has received a warm reception since arriving in June 2022. The academy is also intended to educate how to engage safely with light electric vehicles more generally, with the legalisation of shared electric scooters expected by the end of the year. Bolt is the largest scooter provider in Europe with over 260,000 scooters and e-bikes in operation.

The credentials and presence of the Tallinn-headquartered firm continues to grow in Ireland. Though Sligo was the first town to embrace the shared electric bikes, there have been launches in Kilkenny, Wexford, Bray, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and Carlow just a couple of weeks ago. Bolt intends to roll out the Safety Academy everywhere it has operations in due course.

In addition to the reckless rider score, it has a strong suite of technology that encourages safe, responsible usage. For those with no or little experience of bicycles with pedal assisted motors, Beginner Mode limits the top speed to 15 km/h, down from the normal 25 km/h. Though the service operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the company employs an in-app cognitive reaction test 11pm-5am. This means prospective riders have to prove they are in a fit state to ride a bicycle through their reaction time and, if they’re unable to do so, are encouraged to take a taxi instead (including Bolt’s very own on-demand service in Bray and DLR).

Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Gerard Mullaney said: “Sligo County Council have been impressed with the usage of the Bolt e-bike scheme. Since launch in June 2022, Sligo has had almost 7,000 unique users, with almost 200,000 kilometres travelled on the bikes. This usage is contributing to modal shift away from the private car, which is very positive in our endeavours to reduce emissions from transport. Sligo County Council welcomes the launch of the Safety Academy in conjunction with Bolt and ATU. This is a significant opportunity to promote safety and awareness, and encourage correct usage of the e-bike system.”

Sligo Councillor Marie Casserly said: “The Bolt e-bikes have been a great addition to the whole town, but especially for providing students and staff at ATU with better access to hassle-free transport. We want to make sure the bikes are being used in a safe and responsible manner so I’m delighted to be working with Bolt, ATU, NCBI, the Students’ Union and the Council to educate students and help keep them safe.”

Head of Public Policy for Bolt Ireland, Aisling Dunne, said: “It’s been fantastic to see our shared electric bike service be so embraced in Sligo. With darker, wetter winter months approaching, and the regulation of shared electric scooters expected this year, it’s especially crucial to continue to remind riders how they can keep themselves and pedestrians safe. We’ve been delighted to collaborate on this important work with such respected partners.”

Healthy Campus Coordinator ATU Sligo, Yvonne Kennedy said: “ATU Sligo, through our Healthy Campus initiatives, aspires to create a learning environment and organisation culture that enhances the health, wellbeing and sustainability of its community, and enables our campus population to achieve their full potential.

“Our partnership and support of the Bolt e-bike scheme, along with Sligo County Council, has been a very positive one for us. We have embraced the Bolt e-bike service with open arms – we have several Bolt bike stations located all around our campuses, making them a convenient and alternative mode of transport. There are obvious health benefits (both physical and mental) to using an e-bike – as a mode of transport to get to and from the college campus – but it is also much more sustainable, which aligns with our Green Campus goals.

“The ATU Sligo campus population is one of the biggest users of the Bolt e-bikes and we want to ensure that they do so in a safe and responsible way. Healthy Campus, along with ATU Sligo Students Union, were delighted to work with them in the development of the Bolt Safety Academy, and are honoured to have them here at ATU Sligo for the launch. It is crucial that our campus population use the Bolt e-bikes in a safe, responsible, and respectful manner and I would encourage all our on-campus users to take part.”

Bolt and Snapchat reimagine cities without parked cars in new AR collaboration

Global mobility company Bolt has partnered with Snapchat to create a new Lens that gives every person the power to reimagine their city by visualising urban spaces with fewer parked cars in real time using augmented reality (AR).

The new Lens, which is called P.E.O.P.L.E. (Parked Environment Optimisation for Public Land Enhancement), recognises parked cars and turns them into environments built for people, such as outdoor cafés, cycling lanes and green spaces, and is available to millions of Snapchatters worldwide. It’s the world’s first augmented reality lens that detects cars and replaces them with people-friendly places with a single tap.

The Lens forms part of Bolt’s newest pan-European brand campaign “Feels Like Home”, which encourages people to aspire towards better urban environments with less congestion by highlighting how cities should feel like an extension of your living room, rather than a space for cars.

As the urban populations grow and cities are battling with rising transport emissions and congestion, shared mobility – including shared taxis, bikes and scooters – can help people switch away from using private cars by increasing connectivity to public transport and catering to people’s different mobility needs. Bolt offers taxis on demand in Dublin and Cork, and shared electric bike rental in Sligo, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Bray.

Research from the Tallinn-based firm revealed that only one-quarter of Irish drivers believe they are likely to give up their car in the next five years. Over half (54.55%) of the 1000 drivers that responded cited the overall expense of running a car as a potential reason for giving it up, whilst 52.35% mentioned rising fuel costs as a motivating factor.

A recent consumer survey from McKinsey found that nearly 50% of people are willing to swap private cars for different transport in the next decade, and almost 30% aim to use micromobility or shared mobility more in the coming decade. Bolt’s research also confirms that 63% of people believe shared mobility (ride-hailing, e-scooters, e-bikes, and car sharing) decreases the necessity for owning private cars.

Liisa Ennuste, a creative strategist at Bolt, said: “For decades, cities have prioritised cars over pedestrians, bikes and scooters. This is reflected in the space distribution in cities where more than 60% of urban areas are reserved for cars instead of pedestrians and infrastructure for more environmentally friendly modes of transport.

“Many cities have realised that and are moving away from a car-first mindset by building cycling roads, supporting micromobility, and turning parking spaces into small parklets. Our collaboration with Snapchat is a reminder of how cities can be improved by creating more spaces for people, not cars.”

Poli Dor, Head of Central & Eastern Europe Business Solutions at Snap, commented: “We’re really excited about our work with Bolt, not least because this project helps us to showcase AR’s ability to imagine and promote a more sustainable way of living. We have over 397 million daily active users on Snapchat, so to bring this type of creativity to our platform can have a massive impact, and can help educate people to make more informed lifestyle decisions, like how they get around their city.”

In addition to the Snapchat app, the Feels Like Home campaign will be activated across many other channels, including social media and OOH.

Feels Like Home is the latest Bolt campaign which highlights the potential for cities to be improved if more urban space was devoted to people and infrastructure for shared mobility options like ride-hailing, e-scooters and e-bikes, which reduce the need for owning a private car. Bolt’s suite of products offers viable alternatives to private car ownership: ride-hailing seeks to replace the need for owning a private car, while e-scooters and e-bikes are perfect for shorter journeys, and Bolt Drive can be used for longer journeys where ride-hailing is not suitable.

In past campaigns like Cities For People, Not Cars, Bolt has highlighted how urban environments have been transformed, showcasing historic photos of European landmarks filled with cars and newer photos from the same locations showing fewer cars and more space for people

Swedish Plumbing Company Abandons Vans for Professional Ebikes

Cyklande Rörmokaren is a plumbing company in Stockholm, Sweden. Their headquarters are in a former blacksmith forge in the oldest parts of Stockholm. They are an ambitious company that aim to soon grow to other cities like Gothenburg, Malmoe and Oslo.

According to the founder Hugo Wolgers, their rapid growth can be attributed to his team of creative problem solvers. And one reason that these professional plumbers flock to his company, is the fact that they for the most part get to and from their work sites on bicycles and ebikes.

 

If you knew Swedish, you would already know this since the name of the company, Cyklande Rörmokaren, literally translates as “The Biking Plumber”.

In the spirit of “right-sizing” – picking the cleanest vehicle that gets the job done, any heavy materials are delivered in advance and then the plumbers and their tools arrive on their bikes.

Hugo says “we got really tired of having to sit in traffic and we also realized that we could arrive both quicker and more environmentally friendly on a bike. That we are in continuous motion also means we arrive feeling more alert. Leaving the car behind benefits the customer, us and the environment.”

Finding the Perfect Ebike for Plumbing

Since the founding, the company has tested many brands of bicycles and electric bikes and have now zeroed in on their new main vehicle, the Keego Mobility KG4. Built mainly to service delivery couriers with a low center of gravity, 65 kg load capacity, 100 km range and all sturdy components, the ebike also happens to be perfect for the plumbers and their tools.

“We tested the KG4 for a couple of weeks. Turns out our toolboxes click in perfectly on the rear rack and if we need any other items they fit in the front box. We are now converting our fleet to KG4s because of great handling, load capacity and low service and maintenance costs,” says Wolgers.

Wolgers then took a KG4 on a 280-kilometer ride to the (relatively) nearby city of Motala to speak at a conference on using bikes in logistics. To get all the way and since he spent the night camping in the woods, he brought one extra set of fully charged batteries with him and also stopped for lunch at a restaurant where he could also get a quick charge.

 

Hugo Wolgers from Cyklande Rörmokaren and his Keego KG4 before his trip to Motala.

 

Keego Mobility, Swede From Taiwan

As so many other bike companies, Keego Mobility hails from Taiwan, but Keego was co-founded by Swedish serial entrepreneur, Elias Ek, from the northern city of Sundsvall.

Ek moved from Sweden to the US in 1994 to study and then moved to Taiwan in 2000. He has founded several companies, but Keego was the first one to also set up an office in Sweden.

“We now run all of our EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) operations from our office in Sweden,” says Ek. “For me it is really great to now have a professional connection to my home country. And on our way of helping all the world’s 30 million couriers to choose green and clean ebikes, we are proud of also working with Hugo and his fantastic plumbers.”

Keego Mobilitys medgrundare Elias Ek med sin KG4 i Taipei, Taiwan

 

Couriers from companies like Uber Eats, Getir, Foodora, Foodpanda and many other leading delivery companies around the world are using their KG4s in their daily deliveries.

Magnus Wall, Sales Director EMEA for Keego Mobility, has long experience in the bike industry. He adds, “by enabling thousands of delivery couriers and professional craftsmen to switch to strong, professional ebikes, we can save enormous amounts of carbon as well as cut down on noise pollution in our cities. For every 33 km we ride on a bike instead of in a van, we save 1 kg of carbon emissions, so the benefits are huge.”

Look out for the environmentally friendly plumbers on their blue Keego Mobility ebikes in Gamla Stan and other parts of Stockholm