Shared e-scooters and ride-hailing may seem to compete for the same urban journeys, but five years of Belgian Bolt data suggest that many customers increasingly use both.

In August 2026, 44% of active Belgian users of Bolt’s shared e-scooters and e-bikes also booked a car through the platform during the same month.

That was 5.8 percentage points more than a year earlier and the highest share Bolt has recorded so far. The number of customers using both services increased by 73% year-on-year, compared with 37% growth among users relying exclusively on micromobility.

Rather than choosing permanently between a scooter, e-bike or car, Bolt says more users are selecting the mode that best suits each individual trip: a scooter for a short urban hop, a car for a longer journey, bad weather or a late-night return.

Brussels leads the crossover

The trend is strongest in Brussels. There, 56% of Bolt micromobility users also used its ride-hailing service. Ghent followed at 32%, and Antwerp at 26%, while the overlap was smaller in Charleroi at 15% and in Namur and Liège at 12%.

Bolt also sees a fairly consistent adoption pattern after launching micromobility in a new city. Ride-hailing use among scooter and e-bike customers generally becomes visible after about six months. After one year, about 10% use both services, increasing to roughly 25% after 18 months.

That suggests that as shared mobility becomes more established, users gradually develop a broader set of transport habits rather than sticking to a single mode.

Brussels appears particularly suited to such behavior. More than half of the households in the capital do not own a car, meaning public transport, bicycles, scooters, and occasional ride-hailing can together replace the need to have a private vehicle permanently available.

European research points into the same direction. Studies in cities including Brussels, Munich, and Vienna have found that shared-micromobility users tend to be more multimodal than average, switching relatively easily between public transport, walking, cycling, scooters, and shared cars.

One app lowers the barrier

There is also a simpler explanation for Bolt’s numbers. Anyone already using a Bolt scooter has the app installed, an account set up, and a payment method stored. Booking a car therefore requires almost no additional effort.

Bolt is actively encouraging that crossover. Eligible scooter and e-bike users who have never booked a ride through the platform are currently offered a 40% discount on their first car trip.

That makes the figures interesting from a commercial perspective too. Bolt is not simply trying to win individual taxi or scooter journeys. Its broader aim is to become the app users open whenever they need transport.

There is, however, an important limitation. Bolt only sees journeys made within its own platform. The figures do not show whether customers subsequently use their private car less, travel more or less by train, tram or bus, or simply switch from another taxi provider.

Bolt therefore cannot prove that micromobility itself causes more ride-hailing or that it reduces car ownership.

What the data do show is a growing willingness among urban travelers to mix and match. Instead of replacing the private car with one single alternative, the emerging model may be a combination of several modes, chosen trip by trip, with platforms such as Bolt hoping to provide as many of those options as possible.