Marseille expands ride options with 500 new electric bikes
Voi and Pony replace Lime bikes to bringing total to 1,500 electric vélos. The city has also added 150 new stations as it pushes greener transport options
Published
Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) has welcomed 500 additional electric bikes since changing its service provider on July 1.
The city switched from Lime, an American transportation company, to Voi and Pony, respectively Swedish and French companies, providing 750 e-bikes each, for a total fleet of 1,500 – 500 more than Lime operated.
Their contracts run until October 2027. Lime began operating in Marseille in 2021.
Voi and Pony were chosen for their strong focus on innovation and Pony in particular for its signature two-seat e-bikes. Pony already operates in 23 cities.
Another 150 e-bike stations were created to accommodate the new fleet, the mairie said.
There were no political motives behind dropping the American company, a spokeswoman for Marseille’s mairie told The Connexion.
Both companies add to ‘Levélo’, the municipality’s bicycle service, which gives access to 2,800 bikes distributed across Marseille’s 200 stations. It announced 1,200 more bikes by the end of the year.
The push for more e-bikes comes as socialist mayor Benoît Payan called for the suspension of free-access electric scooters by 2027, one of his campaign
pledges to answer mounting complaints from pedestrians and drivers.
Many were found submerged in the Vieux-Port, destroyed or abandoned. Drivers have also complained about the reckless behaviour of some cyclists.
Mr Payan joins many other mayors who have already suspended free-access scooters. They are banned in Paris, Nice and Toulouse, and increasingly in pedestrian areas of towns such as the city centre of Valence and Saint-Brieuc.
