Lime Jumping Into the Car Sharing Business

Liume, which formerly rented bikes and electric scooters, plans to have 1,500 cars to rent on the streets of Seattle early in 2019.

1 minute read

November 21, 2018, 2:00 PM PST

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


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Joshua Brustein reports:

Lime is launching a car-sharing service in Seattle this week, starting with the placement of 50 vehicles on city streets. The company plans to add more cars weekly until it gets to 500 by the end of the year. By early 2019, Lime says it aims to have 1,500 cars in Seattle, which would make it the single largest free-floating car-sharing program in a U.S. city. 

The new service is called LimePod, and it reverses a narrative that has emerged in recent months of "ride sharing" companies getting into the active transportation business. Here we have an active transportation company getting into the car sharing business.

"Users will be able to use its app to find cars, then unlock them for $1 and pay 40 cents per minute to drive around the city," adds Brustein.

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