While its inhabitants Paris they voted in the referendum in favor of a ban rent electric skates in the city, thereby dealing a blow to the companies that run them and raising questions about the future of a particular vehicle, new players are timidly trying to enter the Greek market, a market where the models in question have admittedly not lasted long. At that time, RideMoviewho rents electric bikes in Athens and Thessaloniki through the app Free Now (Formerly Beat)reintroduced them on an experimental basis in Marusi and Kifisia, shortly after the suspension of services in the capital due to theft and vandalism.

“The decision of the people of Paris is bad news for the future of electric skates in European cities. It’s a negative thing.” comments Panagiotis Tsouras in “K”.transport engineer and user of micromobility services, while noting that the Dutch solved the problem of sustainable mobility using a traditional bicycle, rather than a dockless (rented) model. skates. However, Greece also matters here, because the day before yesterday turkish hopsrepresented in three countries (Greece, Turkey, Montenegro) and 20 cities, announced the installation of shared electric skates in Thessaloniki, which marks the beginning of its work in our country.

“The hop began with the placement of 25 electric skates in places allowed by the municipality of Thessaloniki to first see how the model works. However, we brought more than 5,000 skates from Turkey for use in the city,” Georgios Karras explains “K” Managing Director of Hop Greece Technology, adding that the next stop will be Athens, as well as cities in Thessaly such as Trikala and Karditsa, which are getting to know micromobility.

With regard to theft and vandalism, he notes that it is true that in the first period of operation of such companies in Greece, the authorities raised the skate park from the bottom of Thermaikos, however, in his assessment, these phenomena were limited. “Because the company has experienced such incidents in other countries, it has developed an application that discourages misuse of skates.”

Hop charges the user €1 to unlock the skate and €0.20 for each minute of use, with Mr Karras explaining that the particular vehicle is ideal for short distances – up to about 3km – as an “add-on” to vehicles. . In the past, companies such as American Lime and then Hive entered the Greek market, but they left it due to both the pandemic and the lack of a legal framework, as well as problems related to their work. Users of such services refer to “K” that the demand in Greece is more from tourists than from the local population, given that rental costs are not profitable.

Free Now sources say that there is a demand for such services in Thessaloniki and that there are 500 RideMovi bike rides per day, and the sun and tourism are a big plus for such services to flourish in Greece. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation posted on its website yesterday a government policy guide on cycling that includes measures to increase its use by 2030.