Future of Nextbike in Berlin: Is the rental bike offer on the brink?

Future of Nextbike in Berlin: Is the rental bike offer on the brink?

The future of the popular rental bike provider Nextbike in Berlin is on the brink! Despite a high demand, the supply could be in danger from 2025. The contract with the Senate Department, which the Leipzig company has been supporting since 2017, expires at the end of 2024. A spokeswoman for the administration confirmed that so far no new tender for the public bicycle rental system has been made. The uncertainty remains, since an extension of the contract also depends on the budgetary situation that has not yet been adopted.

NEXTBIKE currently has around 6,500 rental bikes at around 2,900 stations throughout the city in Berlin. The wheels can be easily borrowed from the app at festivals and virtual stations as well as jelbi mobility points. However, if you park the bikes outside of these points, you have to expect higher fees. Around four million trips have already been registered by mid -November 2024, which underlines the increasing popularity of the system. Nevertheless, the Senate Department decided to delete 250,000 euros from the budget for 2024, which further restricts the financial support for Nextbike.

financial challenges and possible consequences

The state of Berlin has been paying 1.5 million euros annually since 2016, as the only publicly funded rental bike provider. This sum has never been increased despite increasing costs. Should NextBike be forced to maintain the offer without public funds, this could mean that the rental bikes will only be available in the city center, where demand is highest. In the outskirts, where the service has not yet run economically, the offer could be drastically reduced.

The central location and the high density of potential users, including tourists and commuters, make the city center a lucrative market for rental bikes. Most Nextbike stations are located in the Mitte, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf districts, where the bicycle infrastructure is well developed. The upcoming decisions of the Senate Administration will be crucial for whether Nextbike will continue to be an integral part of Berlin mobility or whether the bikes will soon be a thing of the past.