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Bike-share startup LimeBike adds e-bikes to fleet at CES 2018

The electric assist bicycles will come to existing markets, including ​Seattle, Miami, ​Southern ​California ​and ​the ​San ​Francisco ​Bay ​Area.

Headshot of Joan E. Solsman
Headshot of Joan E. Solsman
Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials
  • Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)
Joan E. Solsman
2 min read
A bright green LimeBike e-assist bike

LimeBike is adding thousands of electric-assist bikes to its fleet.

 LimeBike

LimeBike wants to make that uphill ride home a little less terrible. 

The dockless bike-share startup announced Monday at CES that it will roll out between 4,000 and 5,000 electric-assist bicycles to its fleet this year.  Called Lime-E, the bikes will be available starting this month in existing LimeBike markets, including Seattle; Miami; Scottsdale, Arizona; Southern California; and greater San Francisco Bay Area.

LimeBike is one of an emerging crop of bike-sharing services, which use your phone and GPS tracking to sprinkle cities with bikes available to hop on wherever the last rider left one. Unlike bike-share programs that require you to rent and return your bike a docking station, LimeBike bicycles can be located by a smartphone app, unlocked by scanning a QR code on the bike and then parked anywhere when you're done, ready for the next rider to track down and borrow. Rides cost only $1 per half-hour rental.

LimeBike, which launched in June, already has traditional bicycles in one-, three- and eight-speed models on the roads. Adding Lime-E electric-assist bikes opens up the possibility of luring new riders who want to go longer distance, take uphill routes or need to arrive at their destination in less of a sweaty mess.   

The extra firepower costs a little more. Lime-E bikes will cost $1 to unlock and an additional $1 per every 10 minutes of riding time. The bikes have a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour, and the power adjusts to adapt to the users' natural pedaling.

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