China's Mobike enters Italy's Florence

ROME — A new kind of bicycles designed by China's leading smart bike-sharing company Mobike have entered Italian city of Florence, the company announced Tuesday.

The silver-orange smart bicycles had been placed in strategic locations across city of Florence to help alleviate automobile traffic and sustainably enhance mobility.

During the initial trial operation phase, several hundred Mobikes will be launched in selected high-demand areas with a promotional rate of 30 euro cents (35 cents) per 30 minutes.

Starting from August, formal services will be provided to all residents in Florence as well as Milan, with a plan to launch around 4,000 bikes in each of the two cities, according to Mobike.

A launch ceremony was hosted by Florence Mayor Dario Nadella at the "Palazzo Vecchio", home of the Mayor's office on Monday. Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala also attended the ceremony.

"Florence has made an irreversible choice towards sustainable mobility today. We are proud to be launching this innovative system as Italy's first stationless bikeshare," Nadella said.

Sala said: "We strongly welcome the launch of Mobike in Milan. This launch shows that cities with a touristic and international profile like ours understand the strategic importance of investing in this form of sustainable mobility."

Mobikes are designed with a series of proprietary high-tech features that benefit both users and partner cities. Every Mobike is equipped with unique smart-lock technology and built-in GPS connected via the Mobike IoT network. This is an invaluable feature for cities, which no other bikesharing company provides.

Mobike's technology locates and monitors the condition of each bike, as well as location-based demands for bikes in real-time to manage supply and help solve the "last-mile" challenge.

Mobike was launched in Shanghai in April 2016. Italy is its fourth overseas market following Singapore, Britain and Japan.