Lime is leaving Memphis, but the scooter company isn't sour about it.

The company said Friday that it plans to pull its 450 scooters off the city's streets starting on Monday and that they would be gone by the end of the week.

Robert Gardner, director of government relations for Lime, said the company failed to gain the foothold it was seeking in Memphis' competitive scooter market for a variety of reasons.

"As we move into winter, we didn’t have the fleet size to really be able to compete....We’ve had some fairly high labor costs," said Gardner. He said no one specific factor drove those labor costs.

Scooter companies rely on workers to collect and charge the electric scooters during off-peak times.

Gardner did not attribute Lime leaving the market to geography — the general sprawl of Memphis — or demographics. Lime likes Memphis, he said, and did not rule out a return.

The City of Memphis declined to comment on Lime's departure.

Lime was the second scooter company to come to Memphis, following Bird. Lime initially launched in October 2018 without City of Memphis permission and its scooters were pulled from streets. The company relaunched in late November with about 100 scooters. Over time, Lime expanded its fleet to the 450 it had in early October.

Gardner declined to comment on what role competition from companies such as Bird had on its decision to leave.

Scooters have proliferated across Memphis, and the U.S. in recent years. Besides Lime, three scooter companies will still operate in the city — Bird, Bolt and Spin. Bird launched last June. Bolt and Spin came within weeks of each other this summer.

At present about 1,700 scooters are permitted in Memphis. However, there are about 800 on the streets, according to city data.