The city of Richmond is trying to figure out how to remove hundreds of electric bikes that are no longer working after it’s having trouble getting in contact with the company that owns the bikes.
“They found that none of the bikes were set up to work,” said Brian Draper.
The Richmond resident said the electric bikes next to Keller Beach weren’t working when he and his wife tried using them about a week ago.
“So they went and tried two other stations, didn’t work at any of those either,” he said.
A city transportation official said the e-bikes are owned by a startup called Bolt and the partnership began about a year ago. The city thought everything was going well with the company, even telling them it received a huge investment in April.
Fast forward to June, and the e-bikes suddenly stopped working and since then, the city has yet to hear back from the startup. Richmond mayor Tom Butt said it’s unfortunate, especially at a time when folks are looking for cheaper ways to get around the city.
“We wanted to provide clean inexpensive transportation to people, and also they wouldn’t have to have a car,” said Butt.
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Bolt released a statement on its website saying in part: "On June 30, 2022, with equity investors failing to deliver on committed investment, Bolt Mobility was forced to significantly scale back operations. Prior to this decision, Bolt Mobility had every intention of remaining fully operational and even to expand into additional markets. Any suggestion otherwise is wholly inaccurate."
The e-bikes were originally created by a company called Gotcha before it was sold to Bolt.
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The mayor said he spoke with the founder of Gotcha who is actually flying into town next week to help unlock the e-bikes so the city can remove them.
For some residents, it can’t happen soon enough.
“It seems now like it’s just taking up space and just a waste of time and energy,” said Draper.
Full statement on Bolt website:
"In 2018, Bolt Mobility was launched with a goal of revolutionizing transportation through safe, smart and sustainable transit solutions aimed at reducing traffic gridlock, parking congestion and carbon-footprint impact.
"In late 2019, Bolt Mobility transitioned from heading all operations in each of its respective markets to instead providing a superior technological platform that enabled independent owners/operators in each market to run day-to-day operations.
"On June 30, 2022, with equity investors failing to deliver on committed investment, Bolt Mobility was forced to significantly scale back operations. Prior to this decision, Bolt Mobility had every intention of remaining fully operational and even to expand into additional markets. Any suggestion otherwise is wholly inaccurate.
"As of July 2022, independent owners/operators were running day-to-day operations in 25 of Bolt Mobility’s 33 markets—which enables these markets to continue to operate today. As for the eight markets still then-operated by Bolt Mobility headquarters, the intention had been to continue their respective operations via forthcoming, agreed-upon investment.
"Bolt Mobility has worked and will continue to work with independent owners/operators to provide support in collecting any assets (bicycles and scooters) that remain in non-operational markets.
"We greatly value and profoundly appreciate the extraordinary contributions Bolt Mobility employees, ambassadors, investors and partners have made in our efforts to provide safe, smart and sustainable transit solutions. Investors failing to deliver on their commitment toward funding Bolt Mobility in no way reflects upon our team’s substantial achievements of the last five years."
