Cooltra’s switch to a new scooter sharing platform

Cooltra is the leading company in sustainable mobility solutions on two wheels in Europe. The company offers sharing services, such as the rental of scooters and electric bicycles by the minute, as well as renting services for both individuals and for companies and public administrations. Born in Barcelona 15 years ago, it is currently present in 6 European countries (Austria, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and the Czech Republic), and has a fleet of more than 16,000 vehicles, of which 64% are electric scooters that operate with a zero-emissions footprint.

Launched in 2016, Cooltra’s motosharing service is the leader in Europe when it comes to presence and recognition. The solution allows anyone over the age of 18 with a driving license to rent the nearest scooter through the Cooltra mobile app (compatible with iOS, Android, and Huawei devices). The scooter can be rented by the minute or by the hour, or even by the day if the user opts for one of the passes that the company offers. The energy used for the vehicle batteries is 100% clean. Cooltra offers its users 24/7 customer service.

This shared mobility service is currently available in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Paris, Rome, Milan, and Lisbon has a fleet of more than 8,500 electric vehicles and more than 1.3 million users.

Cooltra’s rapid growth exceeded their expectations, and for further strategic growth, they knew a more powerful technology stack was needed to continue scaling up. In order to operate more efficiently and scale faster, the company decided to switch to the INVERS sharing technology ecosystem.

The Bottleneck: Managing Uptime

Uptime is one of the fundamentals for profitability in shared mobility. With shared electric scooters, uptime largely depends on battery levels and usability. One of Cooltra’s key processes is battery swapping and any time saving for this process is a must. With INVERS the swapping process can be done with no need to shut down and reboot the telematics unit, something that could otherwise take up to 5 minutes per scooter. Improving the efficiency of a process that is being repeated thousands of times per day has a direct impact on productivity, something that Cooltra also considered in the decision of choosing INVERS as a partner for their scooter sharing platform.

The Opportunity: Leveraging Experience to Scale Successfully

Transitioning a large fleet to a new technology stack is a decision where the benefits need to outweigh the risks. Cooltra knew they needed a reliable technology partner in order to have a frictionless transition.

By selecting INVERS, Cooltra chose the leading sharing solution as well as a team of experienced industry experts. INVERS’ proven track record of launching and scaling successfully shared mobility operations for 25 years convinced Oriol Marimon-Clos Sunyol, B2C General Manager of Cooltra, that INVERS was the right partner to grow with. With the dynamic shifts in shared mobility, having an experienced partner at its side gives Cooltra the peace of mind to be able to adapt swiftly if the need arises.

“To have the team of experienced industry experts is incredibly valuable to us. Our relationship is great. The INVERS engineering and support team is always available, and we can 100% rely on their experience and market knowledge!”

The Alliance: Transitioning to New Technology

After analyzing Cooltra’s needs, INVERS prepared the necessary steps to ensure a smooth transition – from setting up the hosting for Cooltra and offering API implementation support, to managing logistics. Installation was done in close coordination between the INVERS engineering team and the Cooltra tech team.

The detailed installation instructions and prefabricated installation parts provided by INVERS allowed Cooltra to carry out installation during their routine scooters’ inspection, which made it a time-efficient and swift process. The modularity of the INVERS tech stack also utilized certain modules that were already installed in the scooters from their previous solution – another time-saving factor.

INVERS also developed a custom, cross-vendor wiring harness for the scooter models Cooltra had in their fleet. Being able to operate a fleet of various scooter models and makes with the same system and application and being able to further grow the size and type of scooters in the future, is another aspect Cooltra valued.

Boost operational efficiency

During the transition to INVERS, Cooltra also made changes to their fleet management software, user app, and even customer service solution. All of those were easily integrated into the INVERS sharing technology ecosystem via its open API. Since these feature changes were launched, Cooltra was able to improve their user retention while also signing up new customers, further supporting their continued expansion and scaling.

With a solid technology foundation, Cooltra is able to concentrate on the bigger shared mobility picture – bringing about a lasting change in people’s mobility habits and showing them electric scooters as an alternative to owning a private vehicle.