In Catalonia there are 119 companies that manufacture or manage services related to electric motorcyclesthe bikesthe scooters and other motorized transport systems such as the ‘segways‘. It is the first time that the Generalitat has drawn up the list, and it has done so in a report that also shows that this group of companies has a turnover of 255 million euros a year and employs 1,300 people.
This study, carried out by the public agency for the competitiveness of the company action, and to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access, concludes that almost 4 out of 10 of these companies are vehicle manufacturers (especially traditional bicycles), slightly less than 30% are dedicated to rental and more than 10% to services of shared mobility. The rest are manufacturers of components and chargers, developers of service applications and engineering.
As for the predominant profile, the vast majority of these organizations are micro-enterprises that, in 70% of cases, are less than ten years old. As an example, although the automotive industry it has twice as many companies as micromobility, its turnover is more than 70 times higher.
potential growth
“Compared to other sectors, it is small, but its virtue is that it has a lot of growth potential, as we see is happening in other countries around the world,” contextualizes the Generalitat’s Director General of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Luis Junca. This public official He reasons that by 2030, 65% of the world’s population will live in cities, so micromobility will be an essential element in them. “We will not look at it passively, we will contribute to making it so,” she says. Thus, in his opinion, it is essential to identify the actors working in the sector so that they get to know each other and begin to interact to accelerate their growth.
In this sense, according to Juncà, ‘start-ups’ are key. The document identifies twenty, including wall box (already ‘unicorn’), Cooltra, silence, Yego either Reby. In total, the micromobility sector has received 222 million euros in the last five years, between national and foreign investments, and merger and acquisition operations. The largest, according to the same Acció data, was an investment of 150 million euros in July 2019 from the bicycle manufacturer and distributor trekking to open a maintenance and repair center in Barcelona.
future jobs
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“It’s about working proactively so that two things happen: that the actors dedicated to micromobility grow, as is already happening in neighboring countries such as Portugal, but also that the traditional actors, who have to see that the weight of mobility will not be in the car”, concludes this spokesman.
Regarding the particular future of micromobility, the Acció report points out several areas of work that will be key: the increased driver safetyThe incorporation of new visibility equipment on helmetsthe development of new autonomous emergency braking systems or sensors that detect obstacles and pedestrians. It will also be the design of more original vehicles, as well as the development of new product modalities: three-wheeled scooters, folding electric bikes or tricycles adapted for people with functional diversity.