The future of Aberdeen’s ebike rental scheme has been cast into doubt after its operator took most of its bikes off the streets and told the council its intentions to pull out.
The red and white Big Issue Ebikes became available for Aberdonians to start renting and pedaling around the Granite City on November 9, 2022.
Although the initial roll-out was beset with issues such as vandalism, in the time since it has attracted thousands of users.
Just a few months ago in November, the operations coordinator for the project told us there were around 10,000 people actively using them in the city.
But today, after a period of most of the bikes being conspiciously absent from many of their parking locations, the city council has confirmed Big Issue’s intentions to pull out of the contract.
Is there any future for the Aberdeen ebike rental scheme?
A spokesman for the council said since the start of the contract to operate the scheme in Aberdeen, the project has attracted 12,000 separate registrations, and about 300-1,700 active users per month depending on the weather and season.
The initiative had 360 ebikes, with 200 of them in operation at 66 GPS-ringfenced parking spots around Aberdeen.
Despite this, the operator Big Issue Sharebike has confirmed it wants out of the scheme.
But there could be hope yet for ebike fans.
The council spokesman told us: “Big Issue Sharebike informed council officers that it wished to pull out of the contract, however, we are working with them to engage a new private company to take over the contract.
“The council understands it was part of a decision made by Sharebike, a Norwegian-based company, to withdraw from the UK market and not a reflection of the Aberdeen scheme which has been operating well.”
Sharebike has been approached for comment, however, attempts to email or contact the Big Issue Ebike team have resulted in emails and phonecalls bouncing back.
The website homepage is also down.
What’s happening with the ebikes currently on the streets of Aberdeen?
Around the city’s ebike parking spots, hardly any of the eye-catching red and white ebikes can currently be seen.
There are also none showing on the app as available for rent.
The app currently tells users there is an ongoing “upgrade process for our bikes”, which has extended “beyond our initial timeframe”.
It also says: “We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the unavailability of our bikes. We are working diligently to complete the upgrades and will share further updates at the earliest opportunity.”
However, there are still some bikes around the city… but the ones we came across were unable to be rented.
This afternoon, we spotted two bikes on Holburn Street, close to but not exactly inside the registered parking zones.
Both produced error messages when we tried to use them.
More on the Aberdeen ebikes:
Just a few months ago in November, we interviewed the operations coordinator for Big Issue Ebikes, who told us he thought they were now “part of the city”.
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