Paris Electric Scooter Rentals Are Getting Even More Competitive

Get your international driver's license ready.

Paris: the city of light, love, and... electric scooters. As if you needed another reason to go to the French capital, the Berlin-based company Coup has just launched its electric scooter sharing service in Paris, making the city's long-standing bike sharing seem substantially less cool.

Coup isn’t the first e-scooter service in the city—that would be Cityscoot, which launched in 2015 and operates in a similar fashion. The mobile-based service requires users to download the app and view a map to find available scooters parked nearby, the same way as Citi Bike in New York; you then unlock the scooter with your phone and open the seat’s storage space to get your helmet, providing security you don't get with traditional bike share services.

More than 600 Coup scooters are parked throughout Paris, though they’re mostly concentrated around the city center. You’ll need an international driver’s license (or a regular Class B driver’s license) if you want to reserve an e-bike, which are available 24-hours and fully charged when picked up. It costs €4 for the first 30 minutes, then €1 for every ten minutes after that. You can also pay a daily fee of €25 (available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.), or if you’re looking for some nighttime thrills, a fee of €15 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. As TechCrunch points out, pricing is the big differentiator between Coup and Cityscoot; the latter offers pre-paid packages that charge €0.20 per minute, so if you plan to take longer trips, Coup's day passes might prove a better value.

Electric scooter sharing services are on the rise across European cities, which should come as no surprise, given the continent was a pioneer in bike sharing. In May, Rome introduced more than 200 scooters to the city through eCooltra, a service that’s also available in Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona. Though riding an electric scooter will invariably make any tourist look like a local, perhaps more importantly, it’s a sustainable mode of transport. The eco-friendly vehicles run at zero-emissions, so if you aren’t getting around by foot, they might be your best option—provided you’re familiar with local roads and traffic laws.

If you don’t have that international driver’s license, now might be the time to get it.

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