TIER, the leading European e-scooter company, unveiled the most advanced scooter yet to hit the streets with user swappable batteries, a built-in helmet and indicator lights.
The company are attempting to bring the new e-scooter to Salford with the belief that the scooter can benefit residents and commuters massively.
The best-in-class e-scooter enables users to earn free rides by swapping out batteries at charging stations which TIER plans to set up across UK cities. These stations will form part of a charging network for e-vehicles which TIER has already started building across Europe.
Taking this approach creates an even more sustainable operation as much of the congestion previously associated with operating e-scooter fleets is eliminated while operating costs are also greatly reduced.
The charging technology was pioneered by the innovative London-based hardware startup Pushme, which TIER acquired earlier this year. Pushme has its manufacturing base in Aylesbury, Oxfordshire, where the charging stations are assembled.
Placed inside convenience stores, cafés, and other partner locations, the charging stations are fully-automated and require no store staff oversight, while requiring no installation either. Hosting a charging station comes at no cost for partners as TIER pays for all required electricity.
At the same time, the charging stations can help to attract new customer visits and increase sales, while reducing the carbon footprint of customer travel, helping businesses reach their own climate goals. TIER’s vision is to introduce the same swappable battery to its prospective portfolio of shared vehicles so that in the future all will be powered by the same user charging network across Europe.
“Today marks a step-change in safe and sustainable travel around our cities. By integrating this new kind of swappable battery technology, we are building a Europe-wide charging network that allows users to play an active part in adopting climate-neutral travel and building better cities. At the same time, by hosting the charging pods in local businesses, we are helping high streets to recover from lockdown.
This is a crucial step in TIER’s electric revolution to make mobility better. It is our plan that in time our charging network will not just service e-scooters, but other vehicles too.”
(Lawrence Leuschner, CEO and co-founder of TIER)
The unveiling of the new technology at today’s UK launch comes as local authorities in the UK work to introduce e-scooter trials as a safe and sustainable way of getting cities moving again in the wake of the COVID pandemic. TIER is currently going through several UK tender processes including London, where it believes it can replicate the approach which recently helped it to win highly competitive tenders in Paris and Lyon.
The latest features that Berlin-based TIER has added to its e-scooter cements their position as the most sustainable and safest operator in the industry. The new scooters will have a foldable helmet, and indicator lights on the steering bar and back fender that clearly signal the rider’s direction to other road users. This adds to other safety features developed by TIER, including the largest front wheel in the industry, a wider footplate, dual suspension, a double kick-stand and dual drum brakes for stable riding on uneven surfaces and conditions.
Since it was founded in 2018, TIER has launched in 70 cities and was the first micro-mobility provider to be certified as climate-neutral. The company plans to roll-out its swappable battery technology across all its operations by the end of 2021 and is actively seeking strategic partners to the charging pods.
