TOP STORIES 🔥

🛴 Brussels: The Ban Before the Plan

Last week, Barcelona ended private bike-sharing amid concerns over tourism pressures, heavy use by visitors, and mounting parking-related sanctions. This week, Brussels decided to end shared e-scooters altogether — and the rationale could hardly be more different. No tourism angle, no competing public alternative under immediate pressure, just safety, public order, and — remarkably — organised crime.

The market as it stood

Brussels has 8,000 shared e-scooters, alongside roughly 6,500 free-floating shared bikes and 4,000 Villo!. The scooter market had already undergone significant consolidation — Brussels was one of the first European cities to regulate free-floating scooters back in 2019, and had progressively tightened its licensing regime down to two operators, Bolt and Dott. This was not a chaotic, oversaturated market that had been dumped onto the streets overnight. It was a managed one, with two compliant operators running under city-set conditions, fleet caps, and parking zones. The ban does not reflect a failure of regulation; rather, it challenges the viability of the product itself.

Why Brussels is pulling the plug

On 11 June 2026, the Brussels government voted to end shared e-scooters from 1 January 2027. The licences held by Bolt and Dott expire at the end of 2026 and will not be renewed. Minister-President Boris Dilliès summarised the decision bluntly on social media: "Too many accidents, too much disruption, too much abuse: Brussels is turning the page on rental scooters."

Safety is the government's primary justification. 666 people were injured in e-scooter accidents in the Brussels-Capital Region in 2025, up 26% year-on-year. Mobility Minister Van den Brandt argued that injury severity is structurally higher for e-scooter users than for cyclists: "Anyone who falls off a scooter is more likely to be injured than someone who falls off a bicycle, and haphazardly parked shared scooters make pavements even more difficult to navigate for people with reduced mobility, parents with pushchairs or the elderly."

Yet the most striking — and arguably most unusual in Europe — justification concerns crime. Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil stated that e-scooters were used in 25 shootings across the city in 2025. The government's official statement went further, describing the ban as "additional support for judicial authorities and police services in their fight against crime." This appears to be a novel framing in the European debate: most bans cite pavement clutter or accidents. Brussels may be the first major European city to explicitly link shared scooters to organised crime as part of its policy justification.

The injury figures arrive against a backdrop of significant growth. Shared e-scooters recorded around 9.5 million trips in Brussels in 2025. Against that volume, 666 injuries represent roughly one reported injury for every 14,000 trips — a rate that, taken in isolation, is difficult to interpret as evidence of a crisis. The 26% year-on-year rise in injuries did outpace trip growth, meaning the injury rate per trip has worsened slightly. Whether this reflects genuinely riskier conditions, a larger and more diverse user base, or simply improved incident reporting is not addressed in the government's announcement. And it's precisely the kind of context that would help settle the debate between operators and the Region.

What fills the gap

The current Villo! concession, operated by JCDecaux, was due to expire in September 2026 — but will now run until September 2028 at the latest while the Region develops a replacement scheme. Minister Van den Brandt framed the trade-off in terms of mode substitution rather than mode removal: "It is about choosing a city with enough alternatives to get around quickly and efficiently. That is why shared bikes are staying, and we are giving Villo! a long-awaited update."

But the challenge is no longer hypothetical — it is now a confirmed implementation gap. Scooter licences end on 1 January 2027. The renewed Villo! system, by the Region's own admission, won't be ready until September 2028 at the earliest — a full 20-month window where Brussels will have shared bikes running on ageing JCDecaux infrastructure and no shared scooters at all. Some of that displaced demand will shift to the 6,500 free-floating private bikes already in the city, but bikes and scooters serve overlapping, not identical, trip profiles. The remaining demand will inevitably shift elsewhere: walking, public transport, or — potentially undermining the city's safety rationale — privately-owned e-scooters used outside many of the operational controls applied to rental fleets, including parking requirements and fleet-management rules.

Brussels has made a clear political statement and, unlike Barcelona, accompanied it with a formal replacement strategy on paper. Whether that plan can withstand a 20-month transition period, or whether "long-awaited update" becomes the defining phrase of Brussels' 2027, remains the key question for Brussels' shared mobility landscape.

🚲 More Bikes Today, No Scooters Tomorrow?

Marseille has just confirmed the operators selected under its renewed e-bike tender — and the timing is revealing. Voi and pony will join Marseille's shared e-bike scheme from 1 July 2026, bringing 1,500 vehicles, including pony’s signature two-seater e-bike.

A setback for Lime

Until now, Lime had been the sole operator of Marseille's 1,000 shared e-bikes under an authorisation expiring 30 June 2026. The new framework expands the fleet by 500 vehicles — a 50% increase — split across two lots: 1,000 bikes for the city centre and southern waterfront, and 500 for the northern districts. The new authorisations initially run until October 2027, with possible extensions to October 2029.

Pony enters the market with its Double Pony, a two-seater designed to address a broader range of mobility needs. Voi, which already operates e-scooters in Marseille, diversifies into bikes — a strategic diversification move given the regulatory context ahead.

The scooter question

The new e-bike authorisations run until autumn 2027 — which coincides with the expiry of Marseille's current e-scooter authorisations for Voi and Lime, which Mayor Benoît Payan has repeatedly stated he does not intend to renew. The alignment of these timelines appears deliberate. While city officials have not explicitly presented the new bike tender as a replacement for shared scooters, the expansion of cycling capacity arrives just as Marseille prepares to phase scooters out.

Intermodality, with public bikes in the mix

Operators will offer discounted rates to RTM public transport subscribers — an explicit attempt to strengthen intermodality, as Deputy Mayor in charge of Urban Mobility Nicolas Hue described it. In parallel, the Métropole Aix-Marseille-Provence is adding 2,000 bikes to its public Levélo fleet by the end of 2026 — a long-awaited expansion that, combined with the private tender, suggests Marseille is strengthening the resilience of its shared two-wheeler ecosystem before removing shared scooters from the mix.

LAUNCHES & EXPANSIONS 🚀

Bit Mobility
Upgrade and expansion in Pescara (IT) 🛴 (300) & 🚲 (300) & 🛵 (50)

CME
Launch in Alcoutim (PT) 🚲 (14)

ENKbike
Launch in …

You’re missing out on 7 launches & expansions. Subscribe to premium to read on.

TENDER WATCH 👀

🟢 Open

Astana (KZ) | 🚲
◾️Supply tender for 1,300 ebikes
◾️Contract amount €3.5m
◾️Attempt from the city to revive Astana Bike

🔴 Closed

Marseille (FR) | 🚲
◾️Voi and pony take over Lime
◾️18-month licence to operate 750 ebikes each

You’re missing out on 2 crucial tenders. Subscribe to premium to unlock all.

CITY UPDATES 🌐

Brussels (BE) | The city decides not to renew its shared scooters licences when it expires on January 1st 2027.

Castello (ES) | The city inaugurates 26 parking stations for private scooters.

Subscribe to premium to reveal 8 more city updates.

INDUSTRY NEWS 🗞️

CoMoUK reports that the number of shared scooter riders rose by 55% in 2025 in the UK.

hop partners with Ford Otosan to upgrade its operation fleet and dedicated supervision software.

A Lime study reveals that price and safety are the main barriers to shared micromobility adoption in Germany (DE).

Voi will invest €3.5m for safety improvements in Northamptonshire (GB).

Voi teams up with foodora and offers Pro subscribers 20% off Voi rides.

Forest launches a World Cup commercial offer in London (GB).