Kick Scooter Market Set for Prosperity in Future

The increasing adoption of kick scooters in kick scooter sharing services is fueling their sales across the world. As compared to the other types of vehicles used by shared mobility service providers, electric kick scooters can be easily leveraged for solving the issue of last-mile connectivity and they can also be hyper-localized. Moreover, these vehicles are highly compact, easy to operate, and do not need any physical exertion, which further boost their popularity among shared mobility service providers. 

Additionally, many companies have started providing their scooter sharing services in different locations, which has also propelled the growth of the kick scooter market. For example, Sharing Muving SL, which is a Spanish electric scooter sharing company, announced in 2018 that it has started offering its service in Atlanta, the U.S. Furthermore, Neutron Holdings Inc., which operates under the name LimeBike, launched dockless electric kick scooters and bikes for sharing in many cities in the U.S. in 2017. 

Apart from the surging adoption of kick scooters in shared mobility services, the burgeoning requirement for last-mile transportation is also fueling the demand for kick scooters. Additionally, with the escalating air pollution levels and rapid deterioration of the environment, many governments are encouraging the adoption of micromobility solutions such as kick scooters. Moreover, these vehicles assist in mitigating the surging road congestion levels, which are majorly responsible for long traffic jams in many countries. 

For instance, in the U.S., cars that are used for short-distance traveling (less than 3 miles) account for around 45% of the traffic on the roads. Lithium-ion (li-ion) and lead-acid batteries are the two most widely used types of batteries in kick scooters. Between these, the demand for kick scooters equipped with li-ion batteries is predicted to rise rapidly in the coming years. This is credited to the various advantages of these batteries over the lead-acid batteries such as their greater energy density, lower weight, and ability to hold charge for a long period of time. 

Furthermore, the declining prices of these batteries are also boosting their sales across the world. Geographically, the demand for kick scooters is currently the highest in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, as per the observations of P&S Intelligence, a market research company based in India. This is attributed to the large-scale deployment of these scooters in China. The existence of many major electric kick scooter manufacturing companies, rapidly developing electric vehicle value chain, implementation of favorable government policies, availability of affordable batteries, and the presence of a large customer pool are the main factors propelling the sales of these vehicles in the country. 

Hence, the demand for kick scooters will surge sharply in the upcoming years, primarily because of their soaring adoption in shared mobility fleets, growing popularity of micromobility solutions, owing to the increasing road congestion levels, rising requirement for better last-mile connectivity, and falling prices of lithium-ion batteries all over the world.