Micromobility is the rental of electric scooters and bicycles by the minute, near metro stations and offices, with the vehicle unlocked, tracked and paid for in an app. It is meant for short trips, such as the last kilometre between a metro station and the office.
You find a vehicle on the map in the app and scan its code to unlock it. A small device on the vehicle sends its position and battery level to the company over a mobile network, using IoT connectivity management. You ride, and the app charges you by the minute. You pay through a UPI app. When you finish, you park at a marked spot, and the app locks the vehicle. The marked spots keep scooters off the pavement, and they let the company find its vehicles.
Say you step out of a metro station in Delhi and need to reach an office 2 kilometres away. You unlock a scooter, ride for 12 minutes, and pay ₹30. For a short trip like this, it costs about the same as an auto, and you do not wait for one. Many of these vehicles are low-speed electric models, which in India need no driving licence or registration, so a student can ride one too.
The company's main cost is keeping the vehicles charged and in the right place. Staff collect low-battery scooters and replace the battery, or use battery swapping, where the battery is changed in seconds instead of charged on the spot. The company also needs to move vehicles to places where demand is high, such as outside metro stations in the morning.
Micromobility differs from a ride-hailing app: nobody drives you, and the vehicle is a single-person scooter or bicycle that you ride yourself. It is a cheaper way to cover a short distance. It is also not meant for long trips, since a scooter reaches only a limited distance on one battery.