Local E-Scooter Rental Company Expands into Bathurst
BATHURST – Cruze, a local e-scooter rental company, is expanding out of Fredericton and into Bathurst. Joel Robichaud, co-owner of Cruze, says he and the rest of the team are very excited for this upcoming season.
Cruze, previously known as Mint Rentals, is an e-scooter rental company based in Fredericton. Being extremely well known throughout the community, you can’t go downtown without seeing these zooming around.
Having opened in 2021, Robichaud says that he and his business partner have always had a desire to go into business at some point.
“We thought of this idea way before, maybe in 2015, we said we’d like to rent something downtown [Fredericton] and it just kind of stayed like that,” Robichaud tells Huddle.
Years later, the idea had finally been put into action. Robichaud says that they had started by renting out hydro bikes and e-scooters from the Delta Hotel in Fredericton.
After two years, they had moved to 150 Smythe Street, where they are currently located, and getting even more scooters. Due to this move further away from the water though, they had to place a hold on their hydro bike rentals.
This year, they are expanding out of Fredericton and into Bathurst, right by the water. Robichaud says that their Bathurst location will provide everything that the Fredericton location has and more.
“I’ve always wanted to operate from Bathurst because I’m from Bathurst, and so we started the process last year,” says Robichaud. “It took a while, but the city was nice enough to help me.”
Located at 655 Queen Street in Bathurst, Robichaud says that they are hoping to be open with their hydro bikes by this coming Monday, June 19th, but that it all depends on how the construction is by that time. Along with this, he hopes to have a grand opening event once all the equipment is delivered, with the hopes that that will occur by July 1st.
When asked how the Bathurst location would differ from the Fredericton location, Robichaud said that the main difference would be that they are run out of a shipping container by the water. This then allows them to bring back their water equipment, such as hydro bikes and kayaks.
Along with this, Robichaud says that Cruze is working on designing a new sort of hydro bike with some help from CCNB in Bathurst. He says that it is currently just in the prototype phase, but that it will be an electric hydro bike once everything is good to go.
“We’re just working on a few tweaks to make sure it’s good to go but we should be able to rent this one this summer as well,” says Robichaud.
Robichaud says that each type of rental found at Cruze provides people with a completely different experience. The kayaks are very different from the hydro bikes, and the new e-hydro bikes will be very different from the e-scooters.
“They’re totally different experiences. If you’ve tried an electric bike before, an electric scooter is completely different, it’s much smaller and it just feels different. There’s something for everyone,” Robichaud tells Huddle.
With Cruze already being a big success in Fredericton, Robichaud says that he is excited to bring back all the water equipment and expand into his hometown. Having not a lot of rental companies around the area that provide the same type of service, he is excited to bring something new to Bathurst.
In the future, Robichaud says that they are looking into expanding Cruze more across the province, and adding even more equipment to their available options, but that it is not all set in stone yet.
“We’re really excited to get this going and [we’re] just looking forward to the beautiful weather and I’ve heard that this is supposed to be a hot summer, so perfect to be in water.”
Ryley Roach is a Huddle student intern, based in Fredericton. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].