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| Extending vehicle and fleet lifespan: Bird case study | |
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| Scooters need to withstand frequent use, occasionally harsh weather conditions, and prevent tampering. Bird, the first company to offer shared electric scooters, has taken a number of steps to improve fleet durability and retention. | |
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| DURABILITY: CUSTOM DESIGN AND REGULAR MAINTENANCE | |
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| Bird invested in R&D to internally design its own e-scooters | |
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| (Bird Zero, Bird One, and Bird Two) to improve on the consumer models used in earlier operations. The improvements included: | |
| Custom battery with battery management system; | |
| A frame more adapted to a shared used, with reinforced parts; | |
| Long-lasting tires with flat protection; | |
| Tamper-resistant components (i.e., no exposed cables); | |
| A regenerative front brake and a rear drum brake with no electronic failure vulnerability. | |
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| Regular maintenance also contributes to a longer usable life. | |
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| Investment in local service centers and streamlined maintenance processes allowed for a reduction in the proportion of Bird Zero fleet damaged from 40% to 12%. Key features that contributed to this improvement include: | |
| Staff presence on street, in-app reporting, and sensors that alert to maintenance needs; | |
| Regular maintenance performed by in-house mechanics; | |
| A stock of spare parts in service centers, with part reuse from retired vehicles; | |
| Weather analytics to remove scooters in case of extreme weather. | |
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| VEHICLE RETENTION | |
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| The proprietary design in itself prevents risks from hacking and resale for parts. In addition, specific design developments are made to enhance retention: for instance installation of a superior GPS system, sensors, and algorithms that detect suspicious movement have improved retention of the Bird fleet to close to 90% retention after 6 months. | |
| In the future, retention is expected to increase even more as the Bird proprietary models are becoming more numerous in the fleet: between September 2018 and July 2019, the proportion of consumer models went from 98% to 25% of the worldwide fleet, the fleet being now composed of 57% of Bird Zero, 19% of Bird One, and Bird Twos beginning to be deployed in Summer 2019. | |
| There is wide variation among providers. Establishing an e-scooter business that is sustainable requires investment in vehicle R&D, technology, and personnel. It can be assumed that providers who have not made these investments have an environmental impact that is moderately to significantly higher than those companies who have. | |
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