How To Develop An e-Bike Sharing Mobile App

A survey conducted in the year 2018 states that the e-scooter app sharing market has a market size valued at 17.43 billion and that it is growing rapidly at the rate of 8.5% annually. While we can’t recollect any such concept being present few years back, today it is a game-changer. Ever since the launch, the apps succeeded so much that it ended up in startups and entrepreneurs seeing a huge invest opportunity in this industry. And this is the reason why businesses are eager to get a scooter sharing app developed and looking for app development partners who can be helpful in the process of app development.

If you are looking to create a scooter sharing app for your business, then this article can serve as a great guide as here we discuss in depth about the various aspects of e-Bike scooter sharing app. Let’s begin.

What Is The Concept Of e-Bike Scooter Sharing App?

Apart from the fact that there is a profitable business opportunity lying here, there are a lot more aspects that makes this industry exciting. Mainly it is a big initiative in making the planet greener as the trend of e-scooters, i.e., electric scooters (no usage of petrol, diesel here) makes the economy of ride-sharing greener and economical.

These are usually two-or-three wheel hybrid scooters powered with electricity and for storing the energy that powers the motors, a panel in a rechargeable battery is used. It is a known fact that e-scooters ever since their launch has been in news for being better for the environment. With time this concept of e-scooters has only gained more prominence and recognition. And today despite being a new entrant, not just the stakeholders but even the urban multimodal users have openly embraced this riding mode.

What Makes e-Bike Scooter Sharing So Popular?

Just as mentioned above, an on-demand scooter sharing mobile app allows people to find and commute with an e-bike easily and this is a big shift towards sustainability. Today, on a global level, sustainability is gaining popularity as a way of life and people are adopting to this lifestyle in many ways, taking every step possible to cut down the carbon footprint. And this e-bike sharing concept very well suits sustainable lifestyle and this makes more and more people deviate towards it and resultantly opening a big business opportunity for the entrepreneurs.

And not just sustainability but e-bike sharing is also gaining popularity due to other reasons, such as:

• Constant increase in fuel cost
• It is fun and light to ride
• For its safety
• It is an ideal ride for the locals who are familiar with the navigation
• The app can be maintained easily at very low cost
• It is time-saving
• Easy-to-use
• License Free
• Eco Friendly (less Noise & air water polution)

All in all, it is a very successful investment and developing this app will help in pushing your business curve to new heights.

Now that you are in mood to create a e-bike sharing mobile app, let’s understand how it works.

How e-Bike Scooter Sharing App Works?

So, the working of e-bike Scooter sharing app is quite simple and this is why anyone can use it. Here we have explained the entire process in a few simple steps, such as:

• Download the app from App Play-Store
• Complete registration process & Verify your profile
• Turn your GPS on and then enter in your location
• Search & Select the nearby station and pick the bike for the ride
• Schedule ride and check the estimated ride cost
• Visit the selected station to pick up the bike
• Scan the QR code on your selected bike using the app
• Unlock bike and begin the ride
• Make payment at the end of the ride when you end the journey on your destined station
• Scan the QR code again and the bike will be locked

These steps clearly explain how to easily book and launch a ride using an app for the electric scooters.

Common Rules For eBike Scooter Sharing Business

Here are some of the common rules & regulations that eBike scooter sharing business should abide by, such as:

• The e-bikes must not exceed the speed of 20mph on level ground.
• The app must have a geo-fencing functionality
• Print the contact information on all the e-bikes
• In case an e-bike is not functional, then it must be retrieved within 2 hours of knowledge
• The business can be asked by the government to share usage & usage data with them.
• The business has to maintain a minimum of 10 percent of their fleet in each ward by 5 a.m.
• There has to be a 24-hour toll-free number so to offer quick assistance to the users
• The e-bike rental business cannot be operated after 10 p.m.

Why You Should Invest In e-Bike Scooter Sharing App?

Do you know by 2030 the e-bike market is estimated to grow to $41.98 billion USD? Also, during this 2030 forecast period, it is Asia Pacific expected to reign the market estimated to be reaching to USD $26.25 billion.

In the year 2018, it was 5 million units of electric scooters were sold and by the year 2020 their sales are expected to be reaching 50 million units. By the year 2025, the eScooter & motorcycle market is expected to be reaching a mark of $13, 864 million by growing at a CAGR of 7.3 percent. We can expect that by 2028, there will be 129 million units of eScooters & motorcycles to run on the roads and the e-bike market will be accounting for 8 percent overall two-vehicle on road.

Global Bike-Sharing Service Market Size 2020 – 2026 in bn USD

In the next five years, an e-bike sharing mobile app is going to be in high demand. There will be more competition and the investors are going to pick the best venture and this is why this is the best time for leveraging this opportunity when the competition is less.

Right now, this industry is growing. And the time is perfect to begin as soon as now. Simply step in and build a loyal customer base.

What Are Essential Features To Be Included In e-Bike Sharing Mobile App?

Map Integration
This functionality is important to be integrated into the e-Bike sharing app as it will allow the users to locate nearby bikes on the map. It will allow them to hire the bike easily with just one tap on their mobile screen.

QR Code & Unlock Ride
One crucial feature which will allow the users to easily scan the QR code to unlock the bike to start a ride and then lock the bike as the ride ends.

Payment Gateway Integration
It will offer the users to secure payments options so the amount can be paid easily.

GPS Tracking
In this functionality you can use this feature of real-time tracking so the users can easily locate location of corresponding parking area.

Smart Lock (Key/Card less)
This system will allow the users to lock e-bike with the use of mobile app. This way the next user would be able to use it.

Search nearby Scooters
This feature allows the app users to search nearby scooters in order to start riding the bike.

Multi-lingual Support
The functionality allows the app users to easily use the app without any trouble in understanding the language. This multi-language support feature can be really useful for the app users looking to e-bikes in a new city where they are not very familiar with the language.

Admin Panel Features

User Management
In this section, the admin will be able to edit, view and delete user profile.

Rider Management
This functionality allows you to keep an eye on your riders, and their contact details, their number of rides and their status.

Vehicle Management
This will show all details of the e-bikes you have, like speed limit, remaining battery, vehicle status, number of rides, total kilometers.

Ride Management
This feature will allow to easily track ongoing, reserved, canceled, completed rides, and also the riders’ details, along with e-bikes ID, remaining battery power, total kilometers taken during ride, stop time and total fare.

Payment Management
In this feature, the admin would be able to know all successful, failed, and remaining payments along with ride request number and contact details of rider.

Dispute Management
This feature enables to store and exhibit each customer query.

Fare Management
Here the admin would be able to easily change fare with regard to location and hours.

Generate Stats & Reports
It allows the admin to generate app statistics and reports in real-time so that the required decisions can be taken for further improvements.

User Panel Features

Registration
Here the users can easily register in to the app using their email id or can even chose to register via their social networking accounts, if the app offers.

QR Code Scanner
This is a crucial functionality for an app like e-bike as this allows the users to easily scan the QR code each time they have to start a ride and then to end the ride.

Online Booking System
Again, quite a useful feature as it will allow the users to easily book online and make the entire booking process swift and hassle-free.

Lock & Unlock a Scooter
This feature is pretty important for an app like e-bike, where the user would require to lock and unlock the bike. Here it is done through QR code scanner that we mentioned above. Each time the user has to lock or unlock the bike, they would require scanning the QR code.

Push Notification
This feature makes things easy for the app users as they will receive constant alerts and updates via notifications.

eBike Information
This feature is available for the app users where they will be able to find the bike rating, battery information, how old the bike is.

How e-Bike Sharing Apps Solve Real World Problems?

The e-bike apps help in solving big and concerning issues, and they give users and the world relief from a number of different problems, such as:

• Surge pricing in cabs: e-bikes sharing apps are quite economic and looking at the surge pricing in cabs, e-bikes come around as a useful alternative.
• Reduction in traffic congestion: With more and more people leaving their vehicles at home and using e-bikes sharing apps, there sure will be reduction in traffic congestion.
• Zero Carbon emission: e-bikes lead to reduction in CO2 production thus are environment friendly.
• High commutation cost: On an average the cost e-bikes and sccoters is less than other vehicles running on fuel.

Challenges In e-Bike Sharing Mobile Apps

So, we discussed the various benefits of e-bikes sharing apps, now let’s shed some light on the challenges as well:

Data Storing

Today there is a huge amount of data being produced and it is rapidly growing. However, it is not easy to store data and there has to be a module that stores the data of every user activity, like e-bike finding, destination, pickup location, payment, stopping time, riding time, and a lot more. But the most obvious data that e-bike sharing companies collect are regarding trips. Once that is achieved, it is time for next big challenge, i.e., infrastructure.

So, data occupies space, surely, but big data occupies loads of space. Hence, in case you plan on storing the riders’ usage & user data, then you require an online platform where every data of riders automatically gets stored. However, there is another big challenge in big data storing, which is data security. There are several security threats and even though they can cause major damage to the business processes, the best part is that they’re solvable.

Benefits
To derive the business benefits from Big Data, data storing is necessary. When you succeed at storing every usage & user data of the riders, it is easier to decode next big challenge associated with the Big Data.

Data Processing

Data that is stored in the big data storing phase is similar to maze that can’t be used anywhere and to make it usable, it is vital to bring meanings out of it, and these meanings are in relations with at least one or more data entities, excluding the data with no dependency on the other entities, such as start time.

In order to bring out meanings of the unorganized data, some state-of-the-art machine learning or AI algorithms have to be employed. Few of the most useful data processing algorithms is a Genetic Algorithm, which takes an unorganized large data set as ‘population’ and then finds fittest ‘population’, i.e., the data entities with highest chances of similarities between more than one data entity.

Benefits
A successful data processing phase presents useful relations between various data entities and at the same time it allows to access and avail benefits from remaining two of the most essential big data challenges.

Data Sharing

Data Sharing allows to use your data to attain a relevant target. There are a number of research institutions that generally share their data with the entrepreneurs, companies, and investors, helping them satisfy their business requirements. In the context of e-bike sharing business, the data sharing consists of sharing raw data that is stored in data storing phase or it can be sharing meaningful relations that is brought out from raw data from anyone, even including the government.

In a number of cities, the local authorities impose a rule for sharing entire usage data with them at the end of every operational day. After that the governments use this data of the e-bike sharing business to create effective traffic management system and to find streets that are in major need of redesigning. However, sharing Big Data is not as easy as it sounds and it is quite a challenge, which comes in form of cost, security, and legal norms. However, by getting the right help from the right source you would succeed in smoothly decoding this challenge and efficiently sharing this data

Benefits
When running a e-bike sharing business in a city where it is compulsory to share the usage data with the local authorities, then the data sharing module in admin panel can be pretty useful as it makes everything really easy. It not just identifies the vital data from raw data and organized data, but it automatically sends these data to the local authorities. Also, if your business in not in such kind of restricted place, then these data can be shared to government & other companies and you can ask them for money.

Data Usage

Taking strategic decisions highly increases the chances of success for any business, however the success of online e-bike sharing business relies highly on data-driven strategic decisions. As you have raw data & meaningful relations between data entities, then your business decisions can be made on the basis of these data and not on the basis of your gut feeling. However, this entire process of understanding raw data and also organized data is very tedious and thus big data usage is considering challenging.

For decoding this challenge, it is crucial to have an admin panel that is equipped with business intelligence (BI). The BI module or admin panel functionality analyses historic data of the business and it exhibits some of the most key aspects or your business, like time and location-based demand, customers’ queries, and battery consumption. So, once this data is studied, precise strategic business decisions can be made.

Benefits
The BI module of admin panel does the job of analyzing big data and it offers a broad perspective of your business in quite understandable manner. It can be beneficial in a number of ways, such as it allows deploying a fleet of e-bikes as per demand of various locations. It allows to make required changes into hardware or increase charging force as per battery consumption rate. You will know location-based customer satisfaction rate and factors that are responsible for high/low customer satisfaction rate of a specific location.

A Few Popular e-Bike Sharing Mobile Apps?

There are quite a few prominent e-bike Sharing mobile apps and here we have discussed the top five, they are:

Bird

This dockless e-bike sharing company is based in Santa Monica, California, and currently it is offering its e-bike share services in more than 100 cities of North America, Europe, and Asia. The app allows the rider to quickly locate and then unlock the e-bike. For opening the bike, the rider requires to pay a base fare of $1 and post rider is charged $0.15/minute. This app has raised $415 million in the funding and this startup recently secured funding of $300 million in a round by Sequoia Capital.

Lime – Your Ride Anytime

This pioneering e-bike app offers best kind of services to its users in the arena of bikes, bicycles & rental cars. On the app, the user can check availability and then ride vehicles for reaching their destination. This app is both for iOS & Android and it provides and eases public moves in cycles, bikes, allowing users to choose easily and reserve various electronics at the time of need. Currently, the app is serving in over 50 places in the US countries.

Spin – Electric Scooters

This app offers its services to the local consumers by providing dockless, bike and e-bicycle within the rental policy that can be taken by the users in need to travel. The app allows the users to select and book vehicles, view destination distance through map. Here, the entire payment details are available and the program eases QR code procedure for unlocking vehicle to drive.

Wind – Smart E-Scooter Sharing App

With Wind app, the users get a convenient, healthy, reliable and natural transportation alternative. This micro-mobility firm was started by Eric Wang in 2017, and today it is providing its e-bike services in different cities, to different hotels, companies and universities with various solutions, like hourly/daily rents. Lately, this Berlin-based mobility startup raised $22 million and it gave competition to Lime and Bird.

Skip Scooters

This San Francisco-based dockless e-bike startup was launched by Boosted Brands and it provides an e-bike sharing system in the three American cities. It has differentiated itself from other e-bike companies like Lime, Spin, Bird, as it makes sturdier bikes with the larger batteries and offers instructional classes, and worked with the cities before it rolled out. So far, the firm has raised $25 million.

Technology Stack For eBike Sharing App Development

• Push notifications: Twilio and Push.io
• Payments: PayPal, Braintree, e-Wallets
• Cloud environment: AWS, Google, and Azure
• Voice, SMS, and phone verification: Nexmo and Twilio
• Database: MongoDB, Cassandra, Postgress, and Mail Chimp Integration
• Real-time analytics: Cisco, Spark, Hadoop, IBM, and Big Data
• Mobile platforms: Android and iOS

How To Find An e-Bike Sharing App Development Company?

As we start looking for e-bike sharing app development firm, it is important to look for an organization that has good knowledge about the app. And then can explore the other factors, to explore the evaluations & testimonials. This is quite easy to do with the availability of various websites operating in market nowadays, like AppFutura, Clutch, etc. Also looking into the portfolio offers a decent idea on what to expect from the firm in terms of the development process but even the design guidelines that they follow. In terms of the team size employed in-house, it is important to ensure that the team consists of e-bike program developers. It helps to check the website of the development firm to find post evaluations and reviews of various clients and also check the history, previous app functionalities and market review. Following these steps will help you in finding the right development partner for your e-bike app.

Find The Cost To Develop An e-Bike Sharing App

The e-bike sharing sector is growing every day and most businesses are keen on stepping into this arena. Now everyone willing to create an automotive app is always looking to an answer to this most common question, which is “How much the app will cost in this particular category”? And the answer to this question is, if you are willing to create an e-bike sharing app with basic features and functionalities, then the app cost will fall somewhere around $25000-$35000, while the app will advance features should cost around $50000. Now these prices depend on the number of hours the programmers has put in to create this e-bike app, here the price structure may vary on the basis of customization in the features.

So now that you are aware of everything that you need to create an e-bike app and how much will such an app cost, you can go ahead with the app development process.