Voi Completely Withdraws its e-bikes from Ealing Borough
Complaint to industry body prompted end of operations
Voi e-bikes are being completely removed from the borough
November 12, 2026
Dockless e-bike operator Voi has withdrawn its bikes from Ealing borough following a warning from the industry body CoMoUK.
The company, which had been operating in Ealing since May 2025, stopped allowing customers to start or end journeys in the borough on 6 November. Riders can still travel through Ealing on Voi bikes hired elsewhere, but can no longer hire or park them there.
The withdrawal follows Ealing Council’s decision over a year ago not to renew its arrangements with Voi, instead agreeing a memorandum of understanding with rival operators Lime and Forest.
Voi had continued to allow its bikes to be hired and parked in Ealing after the council's decision saying that there was no valid grounds for the local authority to exclude them.
The company says it was asked to stop operating by CoMoUK, the national charity for shared transport, following complaints made under its bike-share accreditation scheme. Voi says it agreed to withdraw rather than risk losing its accreditation, which is a condition of its contracts with some local authorities.
A CoMoUK spokesperson confirmed that it had investigated complaints concerning Voi's operations in Ealing. The spokesperson said: “CoMoUK investigated complaints received under our accreditation scheme regarding Voi’s operations in the London Borough of Ealing.
“Voi agreed to cease operations in Ealing by 6 November and remains accredited by CoMoUK.”
Voi says the decision was also brought to the attention of another local authority outside London with which it was about to sign a new contract.
The company is unhappy with the circumstances surrounding its exclusion from Ealing, arguing that the council did not have the authority to select operators in the way it did. It maintains that there is currently no statutory licensing regime requiring operators to obtain council permission to run dockless e-bikes on public highways, and disputes that the relatively informal selection process gave the council grounds to exclude an operator which it considers compliant.
Voi also insists that the council's decision to introduce new powers to seize badly parked e-bikes was not a factor in its withdrawal. The council adopted the additional enforcement powers last month, although its decision did not specifically refer to Voi. The company says it was already sharing live information about the locations of its bikes with the council, enabling compliance with parking requirements to be monitored.
This is in contrast to Lime, which does not share equivalent live location information. The issue was raised at a recent London Assembly meeting by Ealing and Hillingdon Assembly Member Bassam Mahfouz, who questioned Lime about its approach. The company said it could not share the information because it was commercially sensitive.
A Voi spokesperson said: “We remain disappointed with the circumstances that have led to Voi removing its bikes from Ealing. More than 50,000 riders currently use Voi in the borough a month, making around 90,000 journeys. We are the borough’s cheapest standard pay-as-you-go e-bike, meaning riders will now pay more.
“Our position has not changed. We believe Voi should be able to operate in Ealing under fair and transparent arrangements. However, 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. We therefore reluctantly decided to withdraw from Ealing to protect our local authority partners and the communities we serve elsewhere.
“We remain ready to meet Ealing Council at any time to discuss a way forward.”
Voi has also criticised the council's process, saying it was not a formal procurement and that it had written repeatedly to Ealing Council seeking discussions about its concerns without receiving a substantive response.
It believes the situation illustrates the problems created by London's fragmented approach to regulating dockless e-bike hire, with individual boroughs making separate arrangements with operators.
A London Assembly report published in September identified four companies currently operating shared e-bikes in the capital: Lime, Voi, Forest and Bolt. Voi operated in ten boroughs, compared with 20 for Lime and 18 for Forest.
The Government is now consulting on proposals for a statutory licensing framework for shared micromobility services, including dockless e-bikes. The consultation is intended to inform the guidance that will govern how regional authorities manage licensing.
The new powers, which were signed into law in April, are not expected to come into force until next spring at the earliest. Operators have welcomed the prospect of a more consistent system, arguing that it could replace the current patchwork of borough-by-borough arrangements and allow them to operate across wider areas.
Voi believes the new licensing arrangements may not be fully operational until the second quarter of 2028 but says it would hope to return to Ealing once they are in place.
The company's separate e-scooter pilot, operated in partnership with the Department for Transport, continues in the borough and is unaffected by the withdrawal of its e-bikes.
Ealing Council has been asked for comment.
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