World premiere: Poppy introduces free e-scooter rides to its shared cars
Poppy, the shared mobility venture of D’Ieteren Automotive, introduces a new feature named Combo Rides. This feature, the first of its kind globally, enables users to transition between Poppy's wide range of vehicles within one journey.
The company announced this new development to help its users face urban challenges like increasing congestion and parking issues in city centers. By allowing to plan and book a trip with multiple vehicles – from e-scooters to city cars, SUVs, breaks, and vans – Poppy hopes to improve the convenience of shared mobility and reduce car usage where it is inefficient.
Poppy’s CTO Thibaut Nguyen - who led the development of Combo Rides - explains: “We believe in simplifying every journey, empowering our users to effortlessly transition from an e-scooter to a car, and from a car to a van, all in a single reservation with a smart recommendation engine. This is a world-first commitment to making shared mobility more convenient, efficient, and enjoyable. It was our most requested feature!”
Poppy lists three use cases that are now possible with Combo Rides:
- E-scooter to car
One of the primary functionalities of Combo Rides is the ability for users to ride an e-scooter to their reserved Poppy car or van. The company offers the e-scooter trip for free. - Flexibly changing vehicles
Another use case allows users to interchange between different car models during their trip. Such flexibility caters to varying user requirements, be it a need for more space or a different vehicle type. - Last-mile by e-scooter
For those navigating through congested city centers or facing parking challenges, Poppy's Combo Rides provides an option to conclude the journey on an e-scooter after parking the car. This solution targets the often-cited "last-mile" problem in urban commuting. Users are incentivised to drop off their cars in Park & Rides and enter the city by e-scooter.
From multimodality to intermodality While multi-modality allows access to a range of different vehicle types within one offer, intermodality is about using multiple types of transportation in one journey. In recent years it has become a key objective of many city authorities, as it provides flexibility for commuters, helps reduce traffic jams, and promotes a greener urban environment by reducing inefficient car usage in city centers.