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I suspect the margins are high enough. These things are cheap, and it doesn't take a whole lot of rides to pay for themselves. If they last a few months on aver

I suspect the margins are high enough. These things are cheap, and it doesn't take a whole lot of rides to pay for themselves. If they last a few months on average before being trashed, that's probably good enough. It's also possible that these companies are taking the loss to gain market penetration, hoping to find a solution to the vandalism problem before the VC money dries up.

IshKebab 8y ago
Not as cheap as bikes though, and they aren't profitable in many cases. I think a lot of people are being quite optimistic about the economics of these. That said I really hope they are successful. Anything to reduce car traffic.
kenhwang 8y ago
They cost <$500 at retail prices. Assuming they have 15 miles of range at max speed (15mph), worst case one charge only gets them $10 ($1 to start + 0.15/min * 60min), $5 of which goes to the person who picks it up and recharges it. That's 100 cycles to breakeven on worse case (one person rides one scooter until it dies). They've disclosed that an average scooter does 5.5 trips/day ($5.50), assuming everyone rides at max speed nonstop, that still ~$14.50/day. Pays for itself in under 2 months.
- solatic 8y ago
  But that's just the cost of the scooter. On the one hand, they're paying wholesale prices for the scooters, but on the other they need to pay for marketing/sales/engineering/legal/local gov liaisoning/customer + catcher support etc.
- marsRoverDev 8y ago
  Full retail price in china is 1,999 RMB ($289-300). Wholesale on Alibaba for more than 300 is $153USD per scooter. Bird probably manages to get a further $25-30 off that, so perhaps as low as $120 per scooter, plus perhaps $10 for the bird brain modification and shipping by container, another $10-15. So theoretically, a scooter could pay for itself in 10-20 days if used that heavily. I'd say that they are very capable of absorbing the cost of the occasional one going missing

IshKebab 8y ago

Not as cheap as bikes though, and they aren't profitable in many cases. I think a lot of people are being quite optimistic about the economics of these. That said I really hope they are successful. Anything to reduce car traffic.

kenhwang 8y ago

They cost <$500 at retail prices. Assuming they have 15 miles of range at max speed (15mph), worst case one charge only gets them $10 ($1 to start + 0.15/min * 60min), $5 of which goes to the person who picks it up and recharges it. That's 100 cycles to breakeven on worse case (one person rides one scooter until it dies). They've disclosed that an average scooter does 5.5 trips/day ($5.50), assuming everyone rides at max speed nonstop, that still ~$14.50/day. Pays for itself in under 2 months.

solatic 8y ago
But that's just the cost of the scooter. On the one hand, they're paying wholesale prices for the scooters, but on the other they need to pay for marketing/sales/engineering/legal/local gov liaisoning/customer + catcher support etc.
marsRoverDev 8y ago
Full retail price in china is 1,999 RMB ($289-300). Wholesale on Alibaba for more than 300 is $153USD per scooter. Bird probably manages to get a further $25-30 off that, so perhaps as low as $120 per scooter, plus perhaps $10 for the bird brain modification and shipping by container, another $10-15. So theoretically, a scooter could pay for itself in 10-20 days if used that heavily. I'd say that they are very capable of absorbing the cost of the occasional one going missing