Car-sharing and e-scooter providers found association

Although e-scooters and rental cars have long since become an integral part of the cityscape, they do not enjoy the best reputation. Nine providers have now founded an association to change this.

In their opinion, e-scooter rental and car-sharing providers have too often been left out of key discussions. That is why nine of them are now organizing themselves into their own association. They also want to become a central point of contact for politicians on the subject of shared mobility - and improve the image of the industry.

They are all free-floating companies, which means they do without fixed stations and distribute vehicles throughout the city. However, they often face criticism, for example because the scooters get in the way of residents. According to the German Carsharing Association (BCS), free-floating car rental companies operate around 14,200 vehicles in Germany - and that's only in 15 cities. Station-based providers, on the other hand, have 12,000 cars, which they offer in more than 850 cities.

The companies that have now joined forces founded the "Shared Mobility Platform" in mid-January. The association now includes the e-scooter rental companies Bird, Dott, Lime, Tier, Spin and Voi as well as the carsharing providers Miles, Share Now and Weshare.