Lime Electric Scooter Service Launching in Cape Town

After taking the US and parts of Europe by storm, the electric scooter company Lime is expanding to South African shores, with Cape Town being the first city to get a dose of rentable electric transport.

“Cape Town is helping lead the way forward on technology and innovation in Africa, and we’re excited to be a part of that story,” Lime Global Head of Operations and Strategy Wayne Ting said in a press release. “Our mission is to improve urban living through sustainable, affordable transportation, and we’re looking forward to extending meaningful mobility access and reduced carbon emissions to South Africans living in and traveling to Cape Town.”

So, how do they work? Using an accompanying app, you can go pick-up a scooter, unlock it using your unique ID, and are then billed for the time you use the scooter for, then stopping the clock once you drop it off or deactivate your session.

While the scooters are deployed on public sidewalks in the US and Europe, Lime will use privately-owned locations throughout the city as pick-up and drop-off points for their electric scooters.

Unlike its model in the U.S. and Europe where it deploys scooters on public sidewalks, Lime will deploy its initial fleet of scooters at privately-owned locations throughout the city.

In the coming weeks, Lime says it will also deploy scooters in the United Arab Emirates, as well Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Lime said the scooters will launch across Cape Town in early 2020.