Uber-rival Bolt boosts capacity and credentials with new XL offering in London

Ride-hailing app Bolt is introducing an XL category to cater for larger families and groups travelling in the capital.

This expands the options available to Londoners who want the convenience of app-based booking but need to hire a larger vehicle.

Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, is an on-demand transportation platform with over 25 million users in 30 countries.

The introduction of the new XL category follows Bolt’s successful launch in London in June 2019 and comes amid increasing demand from Bolt’s customer base for larger capacity vehicles.

Bolt are seeking to challenge the dominance of Uber by providing a wider variety of vehicle choice, as well as boosting their social and environmental credentials to position themselves as an ethical businesses within the booming gig economy.

The company has made a number of commitments as part of its environmental strategy.

In September, Bolt announced that all journeys taken using its platform in Europe are now carbon-neutral, making Bolt the largest ride-hailing platform in Europe to voluntarily commit to doing so.

With a €10m investment up to 2025, Bolt aims to offset its contribution to the European transportation sector’s carbon dioxide emissions by at least five million tonnes.   Bolt also charge drivers a lower commission than other ride-sharing platforms, allowing them to offer lower prices for riders, whilst providing more take-home pay for drivers.    Sam Raciti, Bolt UK’s country manager, comments: “Bolt is committed to delivering an exceptional service to its customers and offering larger capacity vehicles is an important element of that.

“It is also vital to achieving the aims of our ‘Green Plan’ environmental strategy, as large families and groups can now travel together in a single vehicle, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of each individual passenger.”   Bolt has multiple service offerings, including private hire drivers and electric scooter rentals, and is one of the fastest-growing transportation platforms worldwide. Its investors include Daimler, Didi Chuxing, Korelya Capital and TransferWise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus.

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