OUR STORY
Our mission is to reduce the carbon impact of urban transportation by providing our customers with the highest quality and most sustainable micro-mobility solutions
FROM THE BEGINNING.
Electric scooters revolutionized short- distance transportation only a few years ago. The thrill of the open air, the ease of use, and the affordability of these vehicles meant we at rhyde became avid fans since our first ride.
A conversation was had in January 2021 that would transform us from fans to entrepreneurs. The topic of the conversation? The poignant fact that "green" micro-mobility is not as sustainable as we thought. In fact, the materials and manufacturing alone of a single standard electric scooter emits 178KG / C02eq - the equivalent of removing nine fully-grown trees from the planet for a year.
This issue had to be tackled. That is why we created rhyde - the most sustainable electricity powered urban mobility solution. We increase each scooter's life time and add the equivalent of nine fully-grown trees to our planet every time we sell a scooter. Want to know how? Read more about our sustainable business model and climate initiatives here.
our commitment is to never compromise.
The reason we created rhyde, and why we keep getting up in the morning, is to tackle urban mobility's sustainability problem. However, one of our core principles is to never, ever compromise the product.
What does an uncompromised product mean to us? It means that from the second we take ownership of a piece of inventory, to the end of its 6-month warranty with our customers, we are 100% committed to ensuring a premium product. A rhyde employee personally quality controls every product before we make it available for sale to ensure precisely this.
Stranger things do happen, however, and that is why we offer a best in class satisfaction guarantee and 12-month warranty combo to all our customers. Check it out here.
Sustainability at rhyde
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do at rhyde. Our belief is that the cities of the future will only be become truly sustainable by embracing the circular economy to its fullest extent. This circular approach is the most consistent way to achieve climate goals while simultaneously driving economic through innovative operations, business models, and services.
One way to drive circularity in our cities is by creating shared services. Over the last few years, the emergence of micro-mobility sharing companies has tackled the largest urban pollutant of all: transportation. By allowing the shared use of electric scooters, these companies have revolutionized the way we move across our cities, and most importantly, provided a greener alternative to legacy means of transportation.
Their rise in popularity also means you can now own your own vehicle that is liberating, affordable, and miles more climate friendly than any motorized alternative.
Nevertheless, a fundamental sustainability problem continues to persist with electric scooters - and we are out to solve it.
The life of an electric scooter begins long before your scan the shared vehicles' QR code on your street, or indeed before pulling it out of it's packaging at home. In fact, over 50% of an electric scooters' lifetime carbon emissions arise from the materials and manufacturing of the vehicle alone. In total Global Warming Potential, the production of a single new electric scooter thus emits approximately 178 KG/CO2eq - the equivalent annual environmental impact of chopping down nine fully grown trees from the planet for a year. You can read more about their environmental impact here.
The primary motivation for our existence is to create an opportunity for every person to consume consciously by having a concrete positive impact on our planet. By preventing the need to manufacture a brand new e-scooter every time you buy a product from us, you are able to do exactly this. Choosing a rhyde refurbished product over a brand new one means you effectively plant new nine trees - and we plant one more to make it 10!
Take a look at the ticker on our home page to see how many trees we (our customers and the rhyde team) have planted! We also have our own forest growing in Madagascar, which is where we plant a tree every time we sell a product. Our forest is also how we compensate the environmental impact of running this website.