Lime acquires Jump to put its red bikes back in London

Lime has bought the Jump e-bike brand from Uber and is returning the familiar red bikes to the streets of London.

According to TechCrunch, London will be the first European city to see the return of Jump bikes after Uber took them out of service in May. Thereafter followed a bad PR run for Uber after it emerged the company was scrapping thousands of the bikes rather than recycling them.

Following the news that Lime had picked up the brand and will now run the hiring of them in London alongside its own green Lime bikes.

Reports also say that although Lime saved bikes from the scrap in Europe, the red vehicles won’t be returning to every city they were once in, with roll out starting in London, Paris, Rome and Barcelona.

Confusingly, the bikes will initially be available again through the Uber app in London and will be transitioned to the Lime app at a later date. Hires will cost £1 to unlock and then 15p per minute. They will only be deployed in the boroughs of Camden and Islington.

Lime is ramping up its presence in London with this move following the recent legalisation of e-scooter rental trials in the UK capital. Lime is expected to roll-out its e-scooters in reaction to this