With the advent of many micro-mobility startups that are offering affordable e-scooter rides, the global micro-mobility market has intensified so badly that the establishment of the new micro-mobility startups has almost come to a standstill.

However, there are a few visionary entrepreneurs who launch an e-scooter mobile app in an overly intensified market with an ambition to perform better than big players and dominate the market. One such entrepreneur is Jonathan Viner.

Jonathan Viner has launched a micro-mobility startup named Wheels with his brother Joshua Viner and thanks to their impressive homework, their app has been attracting many users amid the availability of many popular e-scooter apps like Bird, Lime, and Jump.

So, if you are interested to know more about Wheels and how Wheels is making its way through the intensified market, keep reading this blog. In this blog, all your questions will be answered which will clear all your doubts, such as …

• Insight into Wheels and its funding details
• Cities where Wheels is operating its business
• Reasons why Wheels is winning the game against Bird, Lime, and Jump
• Things you should take into account to build an e-scooter app like Wheels
• How to select the most suitable e-scooter hardware?
• How much does it cost to build an e-scooter app like Wheels?

Insight into Wheels and its funding details

Jonathan and Joshua Viner who have previously founded the popular dog-walking app, Wag, founded Wheels in 2018. And rather than dropping their e-scooters in a small town, they selected San Diego as the first business terrain.

Wheels raised $37 million in its investment capital. And the major investors include Tenaya Capital, Bullpen Capital, Crosscut Capital, 3L Capital, and Naval Ravikant. To refine the business processes of the company and survive against Bird, Lime, and Jump, they have hired former senior Bird and Uber executive Macro McCottry as Chief Operating Officer and former Lyft director of product Ben Shaken as Chief Product Officer.

Cities where Wheels is operating its business

Wheels accommodate a dedicated City Relation team which actively establish better relationships with leaders of cities to make transportation easier and eco-friendly. Working parallel with the city council is the latest strategy all micro-mobility startups are following to avoid slipping in a legal battle.

As of now, Wheels is running its e-scooter sharing business in some of the most profitable markets such as Los Angeles, Austin, San Diego, and its neighborhoods like Little Italy, and Pacific Beach.

Reasons why Wheels is winning the game against Bird, Lime, and Jump

Though Jonathan kicked off the Wheels with a whopping $37 million, $37 million was not enough to face competitors with valuations in the billions. However, in one of his interviews, Jonathan Viner revealed the reason behind the outstanding performance of Wheels. He said that they have spent countless research and development hours on new servicing models as well as manufacturing models.

The following are the two upshots of Wheels’ ceaseless efforts to disrupt the market.

• Unique hardware

Unlike Bird and Lime, Wheels decided to use custom-designed electric mini-bikes rather than an e-scooter. And that was the game-changing decision!

Since an electric mini-bike is more familiar to many riders and it is having a lower center of gravity, it is much safer than an e-scooter. Its large 14-inch wheels also provide greater stability in navigating rough pavement. And most importantly, it is more durable and it has a greater lifespan than e-scooters.

Wheels also uses its uniquely designed hardware to increase the user satisfaction rate. Every electric mini-bike of Wheels is equipped with a mobile phone charger and Bluetooth speaker to listen to music!

Wheels E-Bike features

• Top speed of 22mph
• 30-mile range
• Padded seat
• Collapsible pegs to rest your feet – no moving pedals
• 14-inch bicycle tires
• Electric horn
• Bluetooth speaker

Going the extra mile to ensure the safety of riders

The safety of the riders is the rising concern in the micro-mobility industry. Thus, many micro-mobility startups are running awareness campaigns and encouraging riders to wear a helmet while riding an e-scooter. But the success rate of such initiatives is very low.

However, Wheels has successfully found a solution. They decided to make a helmet part of the e-scooter. Their one of a kind helmet locks into the rear fender of the bike and riders have to unlock it for free at the time of their ride. Sensors in the bike keep an eagle eye on the use of a helmet. If a rider uses the helmet, Wheels offers him the 20% discount. And when the rider ends the ride, the bike makes sure that the helmet was returned.

Isn’t this fascinating? By offering a unique hardware experience, a new startup has successfully locked horns with the billion-dollar micro-mobility startups. You can also push the boundaries and innovate either software or hardware to compete with big players.

Things you should take into account to build an e-scooter app like Wheels and conquer the market

An e-scooter sharing business is no longer a novelty. Meaning, you do not have to give a cold shoulder to a single aspect of the business. Talking about the aspects of the e-scooter sharing business, there are three major aspects – e-scooter mobile app, e-scooter hardware, and business permit. 

• E-scooter mobile app:

You can’t imagine the e-scooter sharing business without a mobile app as it is the only medium to book the e-scooter and pay for the ride. Your e-scooter mobile app which establishes the connection with e-scooter hardware and enables users to unlock the e-scooter should be feature-packed. Talking about the feature set of the e-scooter mobile app, it should have many futuristic and customer-friendly features.

The following are some customer-friendly and unique e-scooter mobile app features which we are able to integrate into your app along with some common features.

• Let a user book more than one e-scooter for the group ride.
• Employ geofencing technology that alerts a rider when he approaches school, park or market.
• When a user ends the ride, asks him to upload a photo of the location where he has parked the scooter. Later, show this image to the new user who books the same scooter so that he can discover it easily. 
• Add a chatbot to solve customer queries at a surprisingly fast pace.
• To motivate a user to use your electric scooter again, show him how much CO2 he has just saved by choosing an e-scooter over a car.

• Business permit:

It is a vitally important aspect of the e-scooter sharing business. Without the permit, you cannot drop e-scooters on the streets of any city. And if you do so, you’ll fall into a trap called legality! So, it is always advisable to study the e-scooter regulations and acquire the permit. And if you don’t want to spend days to get a permit, you can tie up with university and hospital to drop your e-scooters within the boundaries of private lands.

• E-scooter hardware

Wheels is winning the game against Bird, Lime and Jump with its unique hardware. And this is how significant e-scooter hardware is! E-Scooter hardware is also important because a durable and innovative e-scooter hardware increases the user experience and decreases the maintenance efforts and the cost.

But before selecting e-scooter hardware for the micro-mobility business, there are a few best practices you have to follow to not end up selecting the inappropriate e-scooter hardware. 

How to Make an e scooter App Like Wheels, Develop Alternative app of Wheels, Wheels alternative app features to consider

How to select the most suitable e-scooter hardware for e-scooter sharing business?

To select the most suitable e-scooter hardware, you have to consider 3 very important things – government regulations related to the e-scooter hardware, geographic conditions of the city and degree of innovation you need in the e-scooter hardware.

• Government regulations related to the e-scooter hardware:

In many cities, governments have set the standards for the e-scooter hardware to ensure the safety of e-scooter riders. And you as the micro-mobility startup should select the e-scooter hardware which meets the requirements of the government in order to get the permit.

• Geographic conditions of the city

If you want to run your e-scooter sharing business in a city where there are many hilly roads, your e-scooter should have a more powerful motor to let the riders ride e-scooters on those hilly roads without any hassle.

• Degree of innovation you need in the e-scooter hardware

Like Wheels, if you want to put forth innovative e-scooter hardware to attract more users, you have to opt for some of the very space-age e-scooter hardware which comes with a few groundbreaking features like wide tires, powerful motor, cruise control, and different riding modes.

You can read our dedicated blog to know top e-scooter manufacturers in the USA.

How much does it cost to build an e-scooter app like Wheels?

Coruscate is the top e-scooter app development company that has developed 10 e-scooter apps for different markets. We accommodate 100+ app developers, app designers, IoT engineers, business experts, and legal advisors who all work together to make your business journey painless.

Our app developers, app designers, and IoT engineers fit all futuristic features in your e-scooter app and make it unsurpassable.

Our business experts help micro-mobility startups to decide on business models, draft the business plan and select the most suitable and affordable e-scooter hardware. Whereas, our legal advisors help micro-mobility startups to get the permit.

Cost to build the e-scooter app like Wheels highly relies on the approach you choose.

• To develop a custom e-scooter app with all custom features, we charge somewhere between $15K to $25K.
• The price to develop a clone e-scooter app of some popular e-scooter apps like Wheels, Bird, Lime, Jump, starts from $10K.
• Our subscription plan of the white label e-scooter app starts from just $500. 

To know more about our cost structures and get a personalized quote, feel free to contact us. One of our senior business experts will welcome you with the free e-scooter app demo and free consultation.

Note: We do not make clones of any exact application, clone means to us is how better we can execute your app idea with existing app features and experience.