AUSTIN (KXAN) — For the first time, Lime Micromobility is opening the doors to its Austin warehouse, giving KXAN an exclusive look inside.
Thirteen full-time staff members are based out of the east Austin warehouse, joining the 1,180 scooters and dozens of e-bikes currently inside.
The warehouse also doubles as an office space, serving as the nerve center for Lime’s operations. The building is staffed 24/7, allowing the company to surge resources toward potential issues.
Those problems can range from broken scooters to vandalized bikes to parking issues flagged by the city.
Micro-transportation remains as popular as ever in Austin. Lime saw an 86% year-over-year increase from March 2024 to March 2025. During South by Southwest specifically, users took more than 139,000 trips, including 2,000 users riding for the first time.
Lime Mobility Museum
Right inside the front doors at Lime, the company has what it calls a “museum” of its products in the order they were released, starting with the LimeBike when the company launched in 2017.
Parts department
Lime’s parts department is made up of 225 individual components stored on shelves inside the warehouse. Keeping the parts on hand allows mechanics to fix the scooters in-house without delay.
Scooter intake
Lime currently has 1,180 scooters and dozens of bikes sitting inside the warehouse. Scooters often only come in if there’s an issue or if they’re going to be transferred out to a different location. Lime surged scooters to Austin during SXSW to meet the demand from tens of thousands of visitors.
Repair stations
Lime’s Austin warehouse has five full-time mechanics who work to repair the scooters and bikes that come in. While tire inflation and brake adjustments can be simple fixes, the team also deals with more complex challenges like electrical issues.
Brake test
Before sending the scooters back onto the street, mechanics test out their brakes to make sure they’re performing as intended. To do that, they get the scooters up to full speed, before slamming on the brakes just before reaching the red rectangle. If the scooter stops in the red rectangle, the brakes are too tight. Stopping in the lime green rectangle means they’re working just right. The brakes on scooters that stop beyond the green rectangle aren’t tight enough.
Outgoing scooters
Once scooters have been repaired, they’re placed outside the warehouse for delivery back onto Austin’s streets. A team of more than 50 workers helps transport them to and from the warehouse.
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