Micromobility and batteries

The e-bike keeps growing. Private buyers are not the only ones behind it: companies and governments want to respond to it as well. In several countries employees can get an e-bike for commuting through their employer, and some governments subsidise the purchase. Sustainability is often the reason given for getting people onto a bike. Cutting traffic in busy cities is another.

Larger companies aim at the mass market and invest in shared micromobility. Think of the shared electric kick scooters you see parked all over the bigger cities. You book and pay in the app, and within seconds you are on your way. Very handy if you want to get across a big city quickly. The same model is used for electric bikes and scooters too.

Demand keeps rising. People want transport that is sustainable and convenient, and this fits both. So we will see this kind of mobility more and more often, in quieter towns too.

The delivery market also accounts for a large share of electric mobility, from the meal delivered every evening to small grocery orders. It is hard to imagine the streets now without electric bikes and electric scooters. Big players are moving into this market to win a growing share of sustainable mobility, because customers, businesses, local councils and the government all want to switch to sustainable transport.

Because micromobility grew so quickly, safety and enforcement came up more and more often. Kick scooters shooting past you at 25 km/h, with no helmet and no checks, are a real irritation for local residents and for visitors. Kick scooters and scooters that everyone parked and left lying around wherever they liked did this simple form of transport no favours either.

More vehicles also means far more batteries: the e-bike battery, and batteries for kick scooters, scooters and every other mobile vehicle. That in turn means high demand for raw materials that are becoming scarcer. As a result, more and more companies are starting up in recycling and repair, and in refurbishing these products too. That way the raw materials this planet has are used sustainably. KWS Seuren is one of those companies.

The next development expected in this sector is that new kick scooters and scooters become safer and smarter. Think of more advanced GPS tracking and lighting, camera security and better monitoring of the rider.

Plenty of companies want a share of this as well, and they are taking their chances. If every rider has to wear a helmet, why not make it a smart helmet straight away? And once we have a smart helmet, why not build more interesting things for it? Augmented reality, for instance, that shows you the highlights of the city as you ride.

Development is moving fast, but the products are also getting simpler and easier to use. Soon everyone will be able to find this form of transport anywhere in the world, on every street corner. The possibilities for micromobility are far from exhausted and we will hear a lot more about it.

Micromobility matters more and more in healthcare, above all for keeping patients and older people mobile and independent. Mobility scooters are a good example, as are electric wheelchairs. People who use these electric vehicles depend on them every day, for getting around and for their quality of life. But a mobility scooter is only as good as its battery, and that is where specialists such as KWS Seuren come in.

At KWS Seuren we improve the service life and performance of mobility scooter batteries through repair and cell replacement (all the cells are replaced with new ones). We start with a thorough analysis of the existing battery to establish its capacity, its current condition and any wear. Depending on that diagnosis we offer a repair or a cell replacement, which costs less than buying a new battery. Some users can also choose an upgrade to a more modern battery technology such as lithium-ion, which lasts longer and performs better.

Range is the other thing to take into account. This is the distance a mobility scooter covers on a full charge, and it depends heavily on the capacity of the battery. That is why we give advice for each user, so that the range of the mobility scooter matches what that person needs in a day.

Micromobility in healthcare is about more than making movement possible. It is also about sustainability, and about working efficiently and saving money. A specialist service such as the one KWS Seuren provides addresses all of these at once.