Voi is calling on Transport for London (TfL) to take urgent action over the operation of the London e-scooter trials – which the company’s CEO says is the worst out of over 100 cities in Europe where the company operates.
The company’s CEO and co-founder Fredrik Hjelm said the heavily regulated e-scooter trials cannot compete with the capital’s rental e-bikes, which are unregulated with e-bike companies able to deploy as many bikes as they like, wherever they like.
He says Voi may have no option other than to withdraw from the trial or deploy 20,000 e-bikes to level the playing field and is calling for an urgent meeting with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London.
One operator, Dott, has already pulled out of the trials, blaming the “rapid and unregulated rise of e-bikes” for making it impossible to run a financially sustainable shared e-scooter service.
In a letter to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, Fredrik says: “I am sure you will agree that micromobility is crucial to reduce dependency on cars and to increase sustainable and accessible forms of transport. It also plays a major role in improving London’s air quality.
“We were thrilled to launch in London last September to support this goal. However, we are increasingly concerned about the direction of micromobility in London.
He adds: “E-scooters have been extremely successful in cities across the UK and the rest of Europe. Of the 100-plus towns and cities Voi operates in, London is the lowest-performing due to a heavily regulated trial that cannot compete with largely unregulated rental e-bikes. Urgent action is required to address this.”
He continues: “As things stand, it is financially unsustainable to continue operating in the city. If we are not able to work with TfL to improve the situation, we are faced with just two options:
- We withdraw from the city, effectively signalling the failure and end of the TfL-led e-scooter scheme, and creating an effective monopoly for a single operator.
- This summer, we invest in and deploy 20,000 e-bikes across London.
The e-scooter scheme is only available in nine London boroughs and the City of London, has too few parking spots and is hampered by no-go and slow-go zones – whereas e-bikes operate with very little regulation on where they can be ridden or parked.
Image: Voi
