Voi Wins Tender in Copenhagen and Re-Launches Carbon-Neutral E-scooter Service
Voi is returning to Copenhagen, having worked closely with the City to find a way for e-scooters to integrate into Europe’s most environmentally conscious city. Services from Voi, Europe’s leading micro-mobility company, will contribute to Copenhagen’s efforts to cut car journeys and lower carbon emissions, while providing an affordable, socially distanced way to get around the city.
As of New Year 20/21, all e-scooter operators in Copenhagen were required to pause operations until a tender process for shared e-scooters was in place. Today, we can announce that Voi has been selected as one of four operators and that our e-scooters are once again on the streets of Copenhagen.
Eric André, Voi’s General Manager for Sweden & Denmark, said:Voi is thrilled to be returning to Copenhagen, one of the world’s most climate-friendly capitals. As an operator with a presence in more than 70 European cities, we have learned a great deal about making micro-mobility work. Above all, we know that every city is unique and has its own soul.
Although we’re happy to offer our scooters in the city again, we are disappointed with some elements of the tender, such as the inability to park in the city centre where we know the majority of Copenhageners and visitors to the city would love to find e-scooters. While riders will still be able to ride through the city centre, seeing Copenhagen’s world-famous views, these restrictions will ultimately limit the full benefit of micro-mobility that the city’s residents and visitors can experience. Over the next 12 months, we will work closely with the city to provide an environmentally-friendly micro-mobility solution that is genuinely safe, sustainable and accessible for all.
Voi will have 800 e-scooters on Copenhagen’s streets for the next 12 months after careful negotiations between e-scooter operators and the city, to provide the safest, most sustainable way to operate shared micro-mobility. The service could possibly be extended for another two years.
Jens-Kristian Lütken, member of the Technical and Environmental Committee for the Liberal Party (Venstre), said:Copenhagen must be a city with smart green solutions that make it easy to be a citizen of the capital. Electric scooters are a great example of a green form of transport that makes it easier to live a green everyday life. Electric scooters had a difficult start in Copenhagen, but I am very pleased that we, together with the providers, have now found a framework that allows electric scooters to return to the streets, in a safe and secure way, that gives Copenhageners more green transport options.
The World’s First CO2-Neutral Capital
Voi’s electric scooters will help achieve Copenhagen’s goal of being the world’s first CO2-neutral capital by 2025. In the last two years, Voi scooters have replaced 230,000 private car trips and 105,000 taxi rides in Copenhagen, thus reducing pollution of both CO2 and particles in the city. Almost every third ride on an electric scooter is combined with public transport, and Voi will continue to work closely with public transport providers to increase this level of integration.
Launched in 2018, Voi Technology is committed to innovating micro-mobility to make its services both safer and more sustainable. Copenhagen will receive Voi’s latest e-scooter model, the Voiager 4, which is Voi’s most sustainable e-scooter yet with a 5+ year life span.
The new model, which is made up of a third of recyclable materials, has a number of safety features including indicator lights that allow e-scooter riders to signal where they want to go; improved suspension for cobble-stones; sub-one meter location accuracy to enhance navigation and improve geo-fencing; and Voi is piloting technology that will identify when an e-scooter mounts a pavement.
Other initiatives that Voi has taken to give Copenhagen the safest, most accessible and sustainable e-scooter service include:
Parking
- We have added double support legs to the e-scooter and introduced incentives in the app to nudge users to park properly
- We will use parking guards to monitor for fallen e-scooters and right them and work tirelessly to make sure our vehicles are legally parked across Copenhagen
Road Safety
- We will distribute thousands of helmets free of charge next year and host in-person traffic schools for new users of electric scooters throughout Copenhagen.
- To prevent drunk riding Voi has implemented a reaction test for users to complete before the ride starts. This feature will be live and mandatory in-app Friday and Saturday evenings between 10 pm and midnight, after which the e-scooters are put into sleep mode until 5 am the following morning.
- Users who fail the reaction test will be redirected to and encouraged to use Viggo, a Danish climate-friendly taxi service. When booking Viggo through the Voi app, users will get a 20 percent discount on their taxi trip. Voi is the first e-scooter operator in the industry to integrate a reaction test with a taxi service in its app.
Facts on Voi’s Tender to the City of Copenhagen:
- Voi will lease 800 electric scooters in Copenhagen. The total number of scooters in the city will be 3200 electric scooters distributed between four operators
- Voi will operate its latest electric scooter “Voiager 4” on the streets of Copenhagen, which has a lifespan of more than 5+ years, or 26,000 km
- Voi’s operations are completely CO2 neutral. The electric wheels will be driven by 100 per cent. green power from Ørsted’s offshore wind turbines, battery changes on the electric scooters will be made on electric cargo bikes, and the rest of Voi’s service cars and vans are electrically powered
- E-scooter riders can travel through the city centre but there will be restricted parking spaces in the inner city and in the bridge districts
- Voi is fully committed to getting rid of parking problems. In the next 12 months, e-scooters will not be given physical parking racks or marked areas for parking on public ground, as the municipality wishes to further explore where these should be located in the city. However, Voi is collaborating with owners of private ground at several locations in Copenhagen, including within the city centre, where the e-scooters can be parked in racks. These locations will be clearly displayed in the Voi app
- Voi will at all times coordinate with Bolt, Tier and Lime, to ensure appropriate parking city wide
- Voi e-scooters can be found in Copenhagen’s Inner City, the bridge districts, Amager, Bispebjerg and Brønshøj
Voi first launched in Copenhagen in January 2019 and is currently live in six Danish cities, including Aalborg, Aarhus, Frederikshavn, Gentofte and Odense.
This article was originally published by Voi Technology.
