Bird scooters return to Germany via FreeNow collaboration

Freenow is a mobility app focusing on ride-hailing and taxi services, which was acquired this year by American ride-hailing company Lyft. The former mobility brand of Mercedes and BMW has recently been officially renamed ‘FreeNow by Lyft’. The red FreeNow logo has been supplemented with small lettering in Lyft pink. Freenow is active in nine European countries, including Germany.

The brand has now announced that it is expanding its offering in this country with 3,350 electric Bird scooters in three cities: “In Munich, Würzburg and Reutlingen, users now have even more choice and can easily locate the nearest e-scooters and rent them using their existing account and payment methods,” according to an email statement sent to us. The roll-out to other cities is planned in the medium term. Users in Spain, Italy and France have also been able to book Bird electric scooters via the Freenow app for several months. A total of 16,000 electric scooters are to be available in all three countries.

According to Freenow, it now has around 20 partners in Germany, enabling it to offer a wide range of mobility services. Alexander Bräutigam, Global Head of Partnerships at Freenow, comments: “We are delighted to now be integrating Bird in Germany. This allows us to offer our customers another mobility alternative and the opportunity to get around city streets quickly and without traffic jams. At the same time, we are strengthening our multimodal offering in the Freenow app. Our goal is to make mobility in Germany and Europe as easy and flexible as possible, and with Bird, we are making that possible.”

For Bird, this marks a return to Germany. The brand had previously withdrawn from the German market in October 2022. The scooters also disappeared from other countries, and Bird Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the end of 2023. According to an agency report, the Miami-based company was said to have debts of up to US$500 million at the time. The company subsequently underwent a restructuring under its own administration.

“The return comes at a time of dynamic growth for Bird: cities around the world are increasingly turning to micro-mobility to alleviate traffic problems, reduce emissions and improve access to sustainable mobility,” Bird wrote about its comeback in Germany in the early summer. It added that Munich, Würzburg and Reutlingen were specifically chosen because of their strong operational conditions, regional partnerships and clear mobility goals. While only 200 and 150 vehicles are being used in Würzburg and Reutlingen, respectively, Munich is the clear focus with around 3,000 units.

Source: Info via email,  bird.co (in German)

This article was first published by Cora Werwitzke for electrive’s German edition.