Paris swappable battery scooters set for Spain, Italy

Paris (AFP): Paris-based startup Zeway announced Wednesday it will expand its swappable battery scooter service to Spain this spring and Italy by the end of the year.

Customers can change Zeway batteries within seconds at designated stations, rather than relying on charging them at home.

In France, it has installed battery exchange stations in popular supermarkets, banks, and car parks, to make using an electric scooter convenient for clients who lease the scooters.

The company has a adopted a lease model, with prices 145 euros ($157) per month, including battery changes.

“Customers are sometimes cautious and prefer to rent rather than buy (scooters),” co-founder Amaury Korniloff told AFP.

He said Zeway is doing “quite well” despite sales of electric scooters in France falling in 2023 and the electric scooter sharing service Cityscoot struggling.

By the end of 2023 the company had 2,000 scooters available for lease in Paris, Nice and Bordeaux and exchanged 8,000 batteries per week.

Zeway plans to begin operating in Lyon, Toulouse and Madrid in the coming months, then Milan by the end of the year.

The company, which raised a further 29.5 million euros in 2023, aims to break even by 2025.

A new scooter model is due to be launched in June, adding to the six models already on the market.