Fact Check: Green E‑Scooters Were Removed Because Demand Fell — Not Because Battery Replacement Was Too Expensive

A widely shared video showing rows of green electric scooters stacked together is real, but the claim that they were abandoned because replacing their batteries was too costly is false. Available evidence indicates the scooters were taken out of service for commercial reasons — primarily falling demand and an unsustainable sharing‑fleet business model — not because battery replacement was unaffordable.

What the video shows
The footage resurfaced on social media with a TikTok watermark and an original, short caption posted in November 2022. The clip appears authentic and matches other images and recordings from the same time period, but neither the video nor accompanying metadata show proof that batteries were the reason for decommissioning.

What the reporting and photos show
Independent checks and industry reporting at the time found no evidence that high battery replacement costs drove operators to abandon scooters. Instead, companies across the shared-micromobility sector scaled back large fleets after initial rapid expansion produced oversupply while user demand slowed. A photo from February 9, 2022, on Wikimedia Commons shows similarly styled scooters bearing the Meituan logo in active service, supporting the timeline that these vehicles were circulating rather than being dumped because of dead batteries.

Background on operators
Large platforms once invested heavily in shared bikes, e‑bikes and e‑scooters; some firms acquired competitors and built massive fleets. As the market matured, many operators reduced or retired vehicles to cut losses and reallocate capital to core services. For example, a major acquisition of a bike‑share operator for roughly $2.7 billion in 2018 was followed by a corporate retrenchment from large‑scale bike‑sharing activities as strategies shifted.

Why the battery story spread
The idea that batteries alone triggered mass abandonment is appealing because it ties to environmental and safety concerns. In reality, shared micromobility companies regularly manage battery maintenance, replacement and recycling as part of operations. When fleets are retired, the driving factor is most often economics — low utilization, high operating costs and failed growth assumptions — not a single cost line item such as a battery swap.

Bottom line
The viral "graveyard" video is genuine footage of decommissioned shared scooters, but the best available evidence attributes their removal to business and market forces rather than unaffordable battery replacement. The footage was repurposed on social media with an inaccurate explanation about batteries.

Sources: original social media post (Nov 2022), Wikimedia Commons photo (Feb 9, 2022), and contemporaneous industry reporting and independent fact checks.