Dockless e-bike hire company Voi has withdrawn from the London Borough of Ealing whilst claiming the council conducted an “unfair” and “informal” licencing process. The withdrawal ends weeks of escalating words and action that has been seen as emblematic of the capital’s “Wild West” system of e-bike regulation.
Having operated in Ealing since May 2025, the council chose not to renew its contract with Voi in September, instead agreeing a memorandum of understanding with rival operators Lime and Forest, in a process the council said was “in line with a majority of London boroughs”.
However, Voi disputed the council’s authority, saying in a statement: “There is no statutory licensing regime that requires a council’s permission to operate dockless e-bikes on the public highway, and we do not believe that the selection process used gives the council grounds to exclude a compliant operator.”
It added that it was unfair to local residents to exclude their price-competitive services in the borough, and continued operating in the borough. In an exclusive statement shared with ebiketips, Voi clarified it “has not deployed bikes in Ealing since our previous agreement expired, though riders could continue to ride in from neighbouring boroughs and park and rehire, in line with Ealing’s own enforcement and parking rules.
“Following recent complaints, CoMoUK, the national charity for shared transport, asked us to cease operating in the borough and said it would revoke our Bike Share Accreditation if we did not. Some local authorities make accreditation a condition of their contracts, so we reluctantly decided to withdraw from Ealing to protect our local authority partners and the communities we serve elsewhere.
“We disagree with CoMoUK’s approach: we asked it to help bring Voi and Ealing together, and it did not engage with the concerns we raised about the Council’s process.”
Voi did not refer to Ealing Council’s decision four weeks ago to begin seizing poorly parked or non-permitted e-bikes as a factor in their decision. Voi would have been required to reimburse the council for the cost of recovering their fleet from the council-owned garage where they would have been impounded.
> Poorly parked and unlicensed e-bikes to be seized and impounded in council garage to curb “Wild West” operators
Voi, which continues to operate a pilot e-scooter scheme in the borough, also offered a stinging criticism of Ealing Council’s licensing procedure which led to their exclusion, accusing the council of not following a formal procurement process and instead followed an “unprecedented”, “money-shaped” and “informal” route that produced “an unfair exclusionary outcome”.
It also added the council’s request for a higher financial contribution was “difficult to reconcile” with previously published criteria for e-bike licensing, whilst rival fleet operators were not immune from criticism.
Lime was accused of not sharing its data with the council, whilst Voi also claimed Forest had operated in the borough without a licence before April, and still did not provide e-bike coverage across the whole borough. ebiketips has not been able to verify those claims in Ealing, though more recent council agreements elsewhere have included stronger data-sharing provisions between the council and operators.
A report published by the London Assembly in September observed that there are four e-bike operators currently operating in the capital – Lime, Voi, Forest and Bolt. Voi operate in ten boroughs stretching from Hounslow to Barking and Dagenham, though its operating map is not currently joined up, meaning Barking residents can theoretically only ride within the borough.
Voi has also shared with ebiketips its policy proposals which will be fed into the public consultation of e-bikes that was launched last week. Among the proposals are a maximum of three licences issued to be issued across London, with fleet numbers to be allocated equally.
Voi is also demanding that the roll-out of e-scooters be “a mandatory requirement of any future framework”, “mandatory parking bays” installed at 2-3 minute walking intervals in Central London boroughs – partly undercutting a unique selling point of dockless bikes – and equitable fleet provisions across all 32 London boroughs. In comparison, Lime and Forest operate in 20 and 18 boroughs respectively, covering all of Inner London but leaving outer councils unprovided.
Voi conclude by asking for clear operating costs to be laid out by Transport for London, as well as third-party liability insurance to be provided on all e-bikes and scotters, and for longer, five-year licences to be issued to operators “to justify capital investment in vehicles”.
The public consultation on e-bike hire schemes is due to advise the government on the shape and scope of statutory guidance provided to regional authorities in managing their own licencing. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been calling for the powers since 2017, and his description of the city’s present e-bike arrangements as a ‘Wild West’ has been adopted by many of the operators.
The introduction of the new regulations and powers, which was signed into law in April, is not expected until next spring at the earliest. The proposals have been welcomed by e-bike companies who are set to benefit from a wider reach of users than the current ‘patchwork’ borough-by-borough approach provides.
The government has framed the public consultation around the tackling of irresponsibly parked or obstructive e-bikes on pavements, something the prime minister Andy Burnham has described as “a real frustration”.
The consultation is likely to give local authorities more powers to move and seize obstructive e-bikes, whilst also placing greater responsibility on the e-bike operators to move and re-distribute their fleet accordingly.
In the meantime, despite the warring words, Voi says it “remains ready to meet the Council at any time”, though it also says previous attempts to address its concerns in the borough did not produce a substantive response.
