Lime recalls thousands of scooters after reports of some catching fire

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

• 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.”

Read more:
Scooter startup Lime hires former
Uber executive to oversee its future growth

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.”

Do you work at Lime? Got a
tip? 

Contact this reporter via Signal or
WhatsApp at +1 (646) 376-6102 using a non-work phone, email at
[email protected], or Twitter DM at 


@g_rapier


 
You can also 


contact
Business Insider securely via
SecureDrop


.