Lime recalls thousands of scooters after reports of some catching fire

October 31, 2018

scooters

Lime has recalled 2,000 electric scooters in three US cities, it said Wednesday.
The company removed the scooters from service after the Washington Post asked about reports of some newer models catching on fire.
Some Reddit users noticed charging was unavailable in other cities beyond the ones affected by the recall.

Lime has recalled 2,000 of its electric scooters from the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego, and Lake Tahoe, the company said Wednesday, after the Washington Post contacted it about some catching on fire.

In a statement, Lime said it was investigating the "unconfirmed" reported and had pulled the vulnerable models, manufactured by the Chinese company Segway Ninebot, from circulation.

"At no time were riders or members of the public put at risk," Lime said. "Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we’ve recently received an unconfirmed report that another Segway Ninebot scooter model may also be vulnerable to battery failure, which we are currently investigating."

Until the problem is solved, scooters will only be charged in Lime facilities and not available to "juicers," people who are paid by the company charge scooters after-hours. These facilities will be monitored 24/7, the company said, and all scooters in Lime's fleet, regardless of manufacturer, will undergo a "new daily diagnostic training program."

While Lime said the problem was limited to the three Western US cities, would-be juicers on reddit said they had noticed an unavailability of harvesting late Tuesday in at least three other cities, including Washington D.C., Oxford, Ohio, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

"Lime takes full responsibility for our scooters," it said. "The safety of our riders, Juicers and community is our highest priority, and we will continue to hold our equipment manufacturers and ourselves to the highest possible standard."

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