Voi – the UK and Europe’s leading micromobility company, with over 50% of the UK shared e-scooter market share – is today announcing it has hit the landmark milestone of 10 million UK rides. The milestone ride comes just 18 months after the first shared e-scooters arrived in the UK and is a testament to how forward-thinking the UK public is, and how willingly it has embraced the micromobility revolution.
Since September 2020, Voi and its partners in local authorities, charity groups and organisations, not to mention its riders and employees, have come together to establish an entirely new shared public transport system. This has sustainability, inclusivity and innovation at its core and is helping create a better future for all.
Voi operates in 17 towns and cities up and down the country and employs over 200 people. The company has now renewed its licences in major cities, including Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham and Northampton, to run until at least November 2022, allowing even more riders the opportunity to experience this latest mode of transport. To ensure it continues to offer the best service to its riders as demand continues to grow, the company expects to increase its warehouse and on the ground staff by 50% by the end of the year.
The popularity of its scooters and the willingness of people to seek out new ways of travelling has seen Voi’s e-scooters and e-bikes in the UK replace up to 39% of car trips. This means the service has saved over 2,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions since the trials began.
The top five cities for Voi e-scooter rides in the UK are:
– Bristol
– Liverpool
– Northampton
– Birmingham
– Cambridge
To put this latest milestone into perspective, it took Voi six months to reach its first million rides in the UK and, by late summer of 2021, it was achieving a million rides every month. Voi continues to see demand for its scooters increase, with over 400% year-on-year growth so far in 2022.
This UK milestone also follows a year of substantial growth across Europe for the Swedish firm. As a company, Voi has grown 240% year-on-year, its team has more than doubled, and it continues to lead the way in terms of fleet size, fleet efficiency and fleet lifespan. Additionally, since 2021, Voi has expanded into 76 cities across 12 countries, up from 45 in 2020.
Voi’s commitment to the UK and its riders
Voi riders are set to continue to be able to use scooters and e-bikes in their daily lives as the company is working with cities to extend its trial licences. This is the latest commitment made by the operator to help establish the UK as a micromobility leader.
In January 2021, Voi became a multimodal operator when it introduced e-bikes in Cambridge and other towns. As part of its commitment to safety, Voi has installed hundreds of parking racks and bays in several towns and cities in Northamptonshire, Hampshire, the West Midlands and in the West of England – the most compared to other cities where Voi is present.
These parking racks were designed in collaboration with the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to have extended and raised side panels as well as increased colour contrast to increase safety for blind or visually impaired people.
Voi continues to make micromobility more socially inclusive through its Voi-4-All and Voi 4 Heroes Passes whereby riders from low-income groups, the NHS and emergency workers are given discounts on Pass subscriptions.
In addition, in a bid to help close the gender equality gap in micromobility, Voi has commissioned Women In Transport, a UK non-profit organisation that empowers women to work in transport, to conduct research into why there is a gender imbalance in shared e-scooter use. The research will be published in April 2022.
Jack Samler, Voi General Manager UK and Ireland, said: “Since day one, the UK has proved itself to be one of Europe’s strongest micromobility markets and Voi is thriving as a result. Today’s 10 million rides announcement is a significant milestone for the entire Voi community of riders, our partners and teams right across the UK. Our leading operations, our commitment to safety, our dedication to inclusivity and our determination to make Voi the best service in the UK are all built with our riders and cities in mind. We are humbled that over half a million riders trust us to help them make journeys across the cities in which they live and work. We’re also thrilled that each of our UK licences is on track to be renewed until November 2022, allowing us to continue delivering our mission of providing sustainable transport options for all.”
