Lime is adding Jump e-bikes to its app for the first time since the the company acquired the former Uber division in May, the company tells The Verge. The Jump e-bikes will be exclusively available in the Lime app while the company irons out any software kinks, at which point Jump e-bikes will continue to appear inside Uber’s app as well.
Uber handed the money-losing Jump bike and scooter sharing service to Lime in May as part of a $170 million investment, which Google’s parent company Alphabet was involved in as well. But Uber quickly caused a stir as, weeks later, the company started scrapping tens of thousands of the bright red e-bikes around the United States because it apparently couldn’t find a way to donate them. An Uber spokesperson told The Verge at the time that “maintenance, liability, safety concerns, and a lack of consumer-grade charging equipment” were concerns, and that the “best approach was to responsibly recycle them.”
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Lime, for its part, said at the time that it took possession of tens of thousands of newer Jump e-bikes, spare parts, and tools, as part of the deal. The company ultimately bought thousands of the remaining e-bikes around the world from Uber in an effort to save them.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for micromobility companies like Lime and rival Bird, which has been a shame because many people were avoiding public transportation in an effort to stay distant from one another. While this has driven a major boom in both bike and e-bike sales, car ownership is also on the rise.
That said, Lime has been pushing the Jump e-bikes into new markets. The company says they’ve launched in London, Paris, Denver, Seattle and Washington, DC, with Rochester, MN slated to get them later this week. The Jump e-bikes will appear in red in the Lime app on the map alongside its scooters.