Bristol is to be the first city in Britain to get the next generation of e-scooters, after the founder of Voi defended the price rise for using them. The new ‘Voiager 5’ e-scooters will be switched in to Bristol and Bath in the next few weeks, Voi CEO Fredrik Hjelm told Bristol Live.
The move comes a week after Voi suddenly raised the daily hire costs for the e-scooters by 40 per cent in one go - from £5 to £7 for a 24-hour pass. The Voi boss said the prices were being raised for the first time in the 18 months the pilot scheme has been running, to allow the company to invest in new infrastructure and better scooters.
On a visit to Bristol, where Mr Hjelm appeared at a press conference with West of England metro mayor Dan Norris to discuss the issue of Russian investors in the Swedish company, the CEO of Voi also defended the price rise.
Read more: Voi could be axed from Bristol if they don't cut Russian links, Metro Mayor warns
Describing the 40 per cent increase in the basic 24-hour pass for using a Voi as ‘slight’, he said the key thing was that it was still affordable for those on low incomes and NHS workers. At the same time, Voi is also expanding the range of the scooters to include, for the first time, a third of the geographical area of Bristol that had previously been excluded from the trial.
Now, areas from Avonmouth to Westbury-on-Trym in the north west of the city and everywhere south of the ring road in South Bristol will be able to use the scooters - necessitating up to 900 extra scooters on the roads, and another 600 parking spots for them, as well as a bigger re-distribution service to make sure the scooters are available in those areas every day.
“We have increased the prices slightly for the base pricing,” Mr Hjelm told Bristol Live. “We have a mission statement that is to be ‘safe, reliable, sustainable micro-mobility for everyone’ and the ‘for everyone’ is important to us.
“So we keep the pricing for low income groups, for the project called Voi for Heroes, for example, for nurses and so on, while we increase the prices slightly for the base service to be able to invest in safe, reliable, sustainable micro mobility.
“One thing that we will do here in Bristol is we will swap out the fleet. We have the Voyager 4 here, in a couple of weeks you will see the Voiager 5, which is the next generation e-scooter from Voi, and it will be exactly that - it will be more reliable, it will be safer and it will be sustainable,” he added.
The scooters currently in circulation in Bristol are ‘Voiager 4’ models. The ‘Voiager 5’ were launched in Europe less than a month ago, and Bristol is understood to be the first city in Britain to get them.
When they were launched, Voi said they were the company’s ‘safest, most durable e-scooter yet’.
“Designed with a bigger front wheel and a bigger thread depth, to help you ride safer, while the improved GPS makes parking in different zones even easier,” a YouTube video explained. “Signalling becomes second nature with high comfort handlebars and new 360 indicators. And the new integrated phone holder helps you navigate safely. It’s our most circular e-scooter yet, easier to repair than any previous model,” it added.
The next generation e-scooter will be easier to repair for Voi and more robust and durable, which will increase the number of scooters on the streets of Bristol at any one time, the company said. And the new Voi e-scooters will also have a more accurate GPS system, which Voi hopes will reduce the number of issues riders have with getting the right spot in a parking zone.
A Voi spokesperson said the new Voiager 5 scooters would be arriving in Bristol in the next month or so.
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