Report: Spokane is welcoming a range of electric transportation

Spokane is evolving into the future of transportation with a handful of new developments from bikeshare and scooters, to manufacturing electric cars.

RELATED: Spokane trying to attract unhappy Seattleites
RELATED: Seattle dislikes biking in the rain, but shuns bikeshares in the snow
RELATED: LimePod carsharing service starts in Seattle

For starters, the Associated Press reports that Mullen Technologies of Brea, Calif. intends to manufacture electric sports cars in the Spokane area. The company signed a letter of intent with the West Plains-Airport Area Public Development Authority last week. The PDA agreed to build a 1.3 million square foot facility for the operation, which it will lease to Mullen Technologies.

The electric sports car operation will initially create 55 jobs, but the electric vehicle company aims to have 860 people working in the Spokane area by 2026. The company makes a model called the Qiantu K50, which will hit the market in 2020.

AP notes that there is potential for the company to move a lithium battery research and development center to the area as well, which would up the new jobs to about 3,000.

Bikeshare in Spokane

Following a pilot program, the city of Spokane is moving forward with bikeshare and shareable scooters, The Spokesman-Review reports.

The city has contracted with Lime to provide its service starting in May. It was among four companies up for consideration. Lime will start with 400 scooters and 100 e-bikes. It will work up to 1,500 total over time.

To operate in the city, Spokane is charging Lime 75 cents per bike and scooter, per day. The fees are expected to bring in between $50,000 and $80,000 annually. That’s a sizable discount compared to Lime’s other operations in Washington state.

After its own pilot, Seattle made bikeshares official in July 2018. It started with three companies, but two dropped out after the city imposed a $250,000 fee just to operate in town. That’s on top of the $50 the companies have to pay per bike on the street. There’s also $224 for the permit, or $170 to renew it. And then $260 per hour to pay for staff time to process the permit.

Seattle also does not currently allow shareable scooters in the city. Many bikeshare companies are favoring scooters over bikes (and Lime has even expanded into carshare). When Spin bikeshare left town, it cited Seattle’s resistance to scooters as one reason for leaving — the high fees was the other reason.

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest