RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Lime sent an e-mail to customers in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro advising it will no longer operate in these two cities: it will interrupt e-scooter rental in Brazil over the coming weeks.
This leaves Grin and Yellow as the main options for this micro-mobility service. The company has also left ten other cities around the world and dismissed 100 employees.
“Unfortunately, we made the difficult decision to close Lime’s operations in São Paulo and exit the market in the coming weeks,” reads an email received by Tecnoblog on Wednesday, January 9th. “This means that Lime scooters will no longer be available for rent.”
Should you have a balance in your Lime account, there are two options: keep it for use in one of the 100 cities with the electric scooter service, or request a refund by filling out a form provided on the website.
This also affects Rio de Janeiro and the following cities: Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego and San Antonio in the USA; as well as Bogotá (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Linz (Austria), Montevideo (Uruguay), Lima (Peru), and Puerto Vallarta (Mexico). In a statement, Lime says that “micro-mobility has evolved more slowly” in these markets.
Lime dismisses 14 percent of employees and seeks profitability
The company advises that it will lay off 14 percent of its workforce, some 100 employees, to cut costs and try to profit from electric scooter rentals.
“Part of accomplishing our vision of transforming urban mobility is achieving financial independence; that is why we have shifted our main focus to profitability,” the statement explains. According to Lime, the “vast majority” of its more than 120 markets are profitable.
Lime began operating in Brazil in July 2019. Its operations are restricted to upscale neighborhoods in São Paulo, including Pinheiros, Vila Olímpia, Itaim, Brooklin and Vila Nova Conceição. In Rio, the scooters can be found on the south zone beaches – including Leblon, Copacabana and Ipanema – and in Barra da Tijuca.
The electric scooter market is in consolidation: companies such as Bird, Scoot and Lyft have stopped operating in a number of markets and dismissed employees.
In Brazil, the Mexican company Grin merged with competitors Ride and Yellow, and is now called Grow. Uber began offering these vehicles in Brazil, initially only in Santos (SP).