#Promised electric Citi Bike rollout fizzles

Citi Bike’s fleet of pedal-assist e-bikes has barely grown since its February launch despite a pledge to put “thousands” on city streets by the summer, its parent company admitted on Monday.

Lyft now promises only “hundreds” of e-bikes this summer, Gothamist first reported — a marginal increase over the 300 or so currently service.

Lyft rep Julie Wood told the site the delays were caused by coronavirus-related supply chain issues, as well as limited labor capacity. Lyft laid off 17 percent of its workforce in April.

The slowdown comes almost two years after Citi Bike, under previous ownership, introduced 1,000 pedal-assisted electric bikes to its massive 12,000-bike fleet in November 2018.

The e-bikes were enormously popular in the few months they were out on the street, averaging three times the number of rides per bike per day than the company’s non-electric models. But the fleet lasted just seven months before being pulled due to rider complaints of over-responsive brakes.

Lyft unveiled the current e-bike model this past February, with an initial rollout of just 250 bikes, according to Streetsblog.

At the time, the company promised a “gradual” increase to “thousands” by the summer.

As of Monday afternoon, however, just 80 pedal assist bikes were available for rent across the city, according to publicly-available Citi Bike stats posted on Twitter.

An e-bike trip costs 10 cents per minute for Citi Bike subscribers, 5 cents per minute for “reduced fare” subscribers and 15 cents per minute for non-subscribers.

The company did not immediately return a request for comment.