How to Start an Electric Scooter Business within 30 Days
The demand for electric scooters and bicycles is growing every year, and it is not surprising, because this type of transport is a good alternative to cars and city transport, which allows you to avoid traffic jams and quickly move around the city (Micromobility).
According to Grand View Research, the annual growth of the e-scooter sharing market in the USA reaches 20%.
Electric Scooter Business Opportunities in 2024
For entrepreneurs, e-scooter sharing is a good opportunity to start a business in a market that has not formed yet and is developing every year. electric scooter business has a number of advantages:
Fast business start-up process
Within 2 months, you can start an electric scooter business thanks to ready-made solutions from software suppliers and manufacturers of electric scooters. About everything you need for this, read further in this article.
Low or no competition
The electric scooter business is prevalent in large and tourist cities. But if you look at small cities, the situation is apparently the opposite and you have the opportunity to start an electric scooter business without competition.
Profitability up to 50%
The high profitability of the Electric scooter business allows you to return the initial investment for starting a business in the 1st year of operation. Also, this business is easily scaling in other cities thanks to the franchise.
What Do I Need to Start an Electric Scooter Business?
The following components are required to start an electric scooter business: registration a business and obtaining a permit from the city authorities to conduct business in the city, purchasing electric scooters with spare parts, client app and CRM for managers, staff, office (warehouse), marketing. Let's look at these stages in more detail.
Business registration
First, you need to register a legal entity and open a bank account. Next, you need to obtain a permit for running an electric scooter business from local authorities. Each city independently forms rules and restrictions for electric scooter companies (procedure for obtaining a license, allowed areas for movement on scooters, speed limits, etc.)
Electric scooters (+ spare parts)
You need to buy electric scooters that are intended for the kick-sharing business. Scooters must support Cloud Monitoring support and/or IoT technology, must be made of durable material (Vandal-resistant), Waterproof, powerful (min 450 watts) to overcome hills, and with Replaceable battery because batteries can be replaced 3-4 times in a day. In addition to scooters, you need to form a fund of spare parts. The list of necessary spare parts, which have to be purchased together with scooters, is compiled by suppliers or scooter manufacturers.
Software
You need a client app and CRM for managers. The application is necessary for your customers to be able to use e-scooter sharing services (unlocking/blocking scooters, topping up the balance, trip history, etc.). CRM is necessary for electric scooter business management (roles and access management, user management, user information, analytics).
Staff
For the normal functioning of your scooter-sharing company, you need to hire chargers, managers, and scooter repair specialists. Chargers replace discharged batteries of scooters, move them, or take them away for repair/maintenance. The manager responds to user requests, reviews analytics, and also is engaged in marketing (sending messages, and publishing news on social networks). A mechanic repairs scooters and charges batteries.
Office (warehouse)
You need a room in which there will be a warehouse of necessary spare parts, a place for repair/maintenance of scooters and charging batteries and a workplace for managers. Also, the premises should have enough space for storing scooters in the off-season. The premises must be on the first floor and preferably have industrial doors (blinds) for easy loading/unloading of scooters.
Marketing
The success of your electric scooter business depends on marketing. Marketing allows you to popularize your brand among the target audience and help them understand how scooter sharing can help them and how to use this service. Advertising should be everywhere - on social networks, in search, on Google Play, App Store.
How Much Money is Needed to Start an Electric Scooter Business?
€55,000 to €150,000 is needed to start an electric scooter business for 50 electric scooters. Let's go through the main items of expenses.
Electric scooters (+ spare parts) - €35,000-60,000
The cost of electric scooters for the sharing business is from €500 to €900. The cost depends on the manufacturer, costs for branding, customs clearance, and delivery. Spare parts are calculated by suppliers or manufacturers individually and their cost depends on the model and number of scooters ordered. From experience, we can say that the cost of spare parts is 4-7% of the cost of scooters, which is €7,000-12,000. For 50 scooters, additional 70 batteries are needed to replace the main batteries after discharge. The cost of the battery is ≈€150. Battery costs - €7,000-€8,000
Electric scooter sharing software (Ready-Made Solution by 4sharing) - from €8,100 to €80,000
There are two options for getting the necessary software for the electric scooter business - using ready-made solutions and custom development. The cost of customizing ready-made solutions from 4sharing is €8,100. For this amount, you get all the necessary software (client application and CRM for managers) customized to the specifics of your electric scooter business. Custom development is a better and longer option for obtaining the necessary software because the full software functionality is developed "from scratch".
Purchase of cars for chargers - €15,000-40,000
A truck is needed to service the scooter park, the ideal option is a minivan with a cargo compartment. Thanks to the car, chargers will be able to move around the city quickly to replace batteries and transport scooters.
How Much Time is Needed to Start an Electric Scooter Business?
It takes 2-4 months to start an electric scooter business if all steps are taken in parallel. Let's review the main steps of starting an electric scooter business in terms of time.
● Business registration and obtaining the necessary permits may take 1-3 months. ● Production, branding, delivery of scooters, and necessary spare parts can take 2-4 months. ● Software setup (Customized Ready-Made Solutions by 4sharing) - 1-2 months, or custom development - 3-5 months.
How to Start an Electric Scooter Business Quickly and Inexpensively?
Sequence of steps
A typical mistake of entrepreneurs is as follows: First, entrepreneurs buy scooters and only then move on to finding and configuring the necessary software. In this case, the terms of starting an electric scooter business increase by 2 times to - 4-6 months. There is no need to wait for the scooters to be delivered to their destination to set up the software. To configure the software, the technical specification of the scooter is required, provided by the manufacturer immediately after ordering the scooters. While the scooters are manufactured and delivered to you, specialists customize and publish the necessary software.
Franchise
Ready-made solutions allow you to quickly start an electric scooter business under your own brand, avoiding a number of mistakes. Consulting, employee training, technical support - all of this, you get under the terms of the franchise from 4sharing. Ready-made software solutions that are customized for you will save you time and costs for starting an electric scooter business. The arithmetic is very simple. The cost of the franchise is 10 times cheaper than the custom development of the necessary software. Customization of ready-made solutions is 2-3 times faster than development "from scratch"
Our specialists will answer all your questions if you need a consultation on starting an electric scooter business. With us, you can build a successful electric scooter business within 30 days.