Lime to expand from bikeshare into carshare in Seattle

SEATTLE — Lime has bikes and eBikes across the Puget Sound region, ready to rent on the spot. In Tacoma, the company offers electric scooters. Now, Lime wants to get into the carshare business, and has already started the process of rolling out the service in Seattle.

GeekWire reports that Lime applied for a carsharing permit with the Seattle Department of Transportation over the past month. It has yet to offer any cars in town, however.

 Lime is providing very little details about its carsharing ambitions in Seattle, other than to confirm that it will add to its list of options. It has only released a single statement to local media, such as the Business Journal: "You can expect electric vehicles to be an additional micro-mobility option for Lime riders to choose from within the Lime app soon. More details on timing, specs of the vehicle, locations for the first rollout, etc. will be announced in the coming weeks."

It has been known since last summer that Lime was planning to test "ultra-compact electric cars" in the fourth quarter of 2018 in a couple markets. Initial reports indicate the company would rent the tiny electric cars out for $1 to start, and 40 cents per minute after that.

Lime carshare

Carsharing companies are already in Seattle, such as ZipCar, Car2Go, and ReachNow. Customers either buy a monthly plan, or rent them on the spot. They are parked throughout the city, generally where they are needed. Customers walk up, unlock the car with their smartphone, drive to their destination, park the car, and walk away — similar to how free-floating bikeshares operate.

 According to Axios, Lime is using $50 million to kick start its carsharing initiative and is modeling its product off of Daimler's Car2Go service.

Among the vehicles Lime is rumored to be considering is the a two-seat Renault Twizy vehicle, which falls just short of being a small car. It's technically a quadrocycle, and has been in European markets since 2012 where many models only have a single seat. If Lime goes with another model, it will likely be among the same class of small electric vehicles.

Ahead of the move into carsharing, Lime has also hired its first ever chief business officer and interim financial officer, David Richter. Richter comes from Uber. Lime's co-founder and chief executive officer Toby Sun told TechCrunch in a statement:

As Lime continues to grow, David will bring in unparalleled expertise, particularly in the realm of business development and corporate partnerships, as well as in managing our overall business strategy and deal flow. His leadership experience, coupled with his keen understanding of the fast-moving shared mobility industry will be a huge advantage to our company as we continue to expand our global footprint.

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