We’re wrapping up Bolt’s 10th year with a traditional highlight reel. Thanks for being with us in 2023 and helping make cities better.
In this blog post, we’ll share the year’s biggest news and most interesting stats. We’ll also reveal how you can do more to make your city people-friendly — and get rewarded.
Ride-hailing
Bolt’s now in its 10th year and is available in more than 500 cities worldwide.
We’re thrilled to have been part of your adventures in 2023. And thanks for helping us make our cities better places to live.
Bolt’s at your service in 45 wonderful and unique countries. But some traditions are universal — the most popular time to request a Bolt ride across all regions, for example, is Friday and Saturday evenings. And 1 of the most popular pickup points is the airport.
What’s not common, though, is the length of 2023’s longest Bolt trip.
This title goes to the person who took a 175 km journey. That’s almost the distance grandparents claim they had to walk to school back in the day! We hope they didn’t run out of topics to talk about and that the driver got a nice tip.
You can order rides for all occasions, including transporting your pet. This year, around 5 million journeys were taken with a furry friend.
Bolt Food
Bolt Food is keeping more and more people full and happy.
As always, the most popular time to order in is the weekend, specifically Friday evening.
Now, we don’t want to start a (food) fight, but the best comfort food is still… the cheeseburger! And the most popular food category is ‘Meals’ — at least based on this year’s Bolt Food rankings.
They say people who like to eat are the best people. So, we’re happy to introduce these 3 saints.
There’s hungry, there’s very hungry, and then there’s that ‘€1274 Bolt Food order’ feeling. Or just having lots of friends.
1 Bolt Food customer certainly knows how to enjoy life. With 894 orders per year, they had a delicious meal more than twice a day.
There’s no point in fighting cravings. 1 dedicated food lover ordered from their favourite restaurant, making the courier cover a 17 km journey.
Bolt Market
Bolt Market is constantly improving its selection and pricing to offer you all the benefits of traditional supermarkets but without the hassle.
360orders went to the same address. Since the average person spends over an hour a week grocery shopping, they won back over 10 days using Bolt Market.
Bolt Market is the ideal choice if you don’t want to carry heavy vegetables. Or if you run out of ice cubes during a party and need some delivered fast. Or if you want to feed a village, apparently. We’re not sure what this Bolt Market customer was up to, but they placed an impressive €697 order.
And to answer 1 of the most popular questions — globally, the most in-demand Bolt Market item was the banana.
Micromobility
With scooters, you can beat traffic, get fresh air, and do some sightseeing — all at once. And 1 Bolt user knows that all too well, as they scooted into the record books with 2152 trips in 2023!
Bolt scooters and e-bikes are perfect for shorter trips up to 4 km — with ride-hailing and car-sharing more suitable for longer journeys. In 2023, that proved to be true, as the average scooter ride was 2.1 km.
But 1 Bolt rider really put our 2-wheeled cruisers to the test with a 64 km voyage! To be fair, our new sixth-generation scooters can go up to 90 km on a single charge.
Our e-bikes are also available in hundreds of cities worldwide. The longest Bolt e-bike ride was 43,6 km. That’s longer than the shortest stage of the Tour de France!
Bolt Drive
Bolt Drive car rental offers a convenient, affordable alternative to personal cars. This year marked another year of growth as we expanded our electric car selection.
Bolt Drive is the perfect option for longer journeys, as proved by a record-breaking 2044 km drive in Germany this year.
The person who took advantage of Bolt Drive’s benefits the most rented a car a staggering 898 times in 2023.
And to satisfy the curiosity of any car enthusiasts out there — the most popular car model on Bolt Drive was Audi Q2.
Driving towards zero
While the end of the year is about looking back, it’s also about making plans.
2023 marks the adoption of our Environmental Strategy, which builds upon our Green Plan launched in 2019.
We’re now working towards the following environmental sustainability goals:
Reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Use 100% renewable electricity in Bolt-controlled offices, warehouses, charging docks, and Bolt Market premises by 2025.
Direct at least 90% of waste into circular economy solutions by 2030.
But we understand these high-level corporate metrics may not mean much to you. That’s why, for the first time, we included the environmental impact of your Bolt electric rides in our end-of-the-year stories. Be sure to check yours in the Bolt app!
And to be as transparent as possible, here’s how we calculated the metrics we show you:
The mileage you covered on our electric vehicles, scooters, and e-bikes* (average life-cycle emissions of a fossil fuel-powered car per km — average life-cycle emissions of the EV/scooter/e-bike per km).1
We hope you found the information interesting and useful. For more on our environmental efforts, see the Green Plan.
1 Internal combustion vehicles: 209.5 gCO2e/km (source: IEA*) Fully electric vehicles (EVs): 110.8 gCO2e/km (source: IEA*, own calculations) Scooters and e-bikes 42.8 gCO2e per km (source: own calculations based on life-cycle assessments) * IEA, Comparative life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of a mid-size BEV and ICE vehicle, IEA, Paris Licence: CC BY 4.0
Help make cities for people and win
Thank you for choosing Bolt and helping us make your city a better place.
You can support our mission (and get rewarded) by submitting your ideas on how to make your city more people-friendly.* We’ll pick 1 idea and bring it to life — keep an eye on our social media channels for more information.
Until then, check out your personal stats from 2023 on the Bolt app!