Inside London’s booming E-Bike industryEver since so-called ‘Boris Bikes’ were introduced to London almost 15 years ago, the hired bike market has boomed in London, particularly since the introduction of electric cycles. There are more than 40,000 e-bikes available for hire in the capital and a quarter of them are run and owned by Forest, who invited the Evening Standard behind the scenes to check out their operation in Elephant and Castle.
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00:00They come in many colours and are on almost every corner of the capital, ever since the
00:10nicknamed Boris bikes were introduced to London almost 15 years ago.
00:16The hired bike market has boomed in London, particularly since the introduction of electric
00:21cycles. There are now more than 40,000 e-bikes available for hire in the capital and a quarter
00:27of them are run and owned by Forrest, who invited the Evening Standard behind the scenes
00:31to check out their operation in Elephant and Castle.
00:35So this is really the operations centre, so to fix and maintain and repair bikes, so bikes
00:42that ultimately get damaged on the street or require servicing, we'll make sure that
00:45they're brought in to this workshop where they'll go through a very thorough inspection,
00:51maintenance and repair, and then get tested and checked that they're adequate and safe
00:56to be rented, and then they'll be redeployed into various areas of our operational zone
01:01across London.
01:02Around 300 bikes flow through this hub every single day to be cleaned, have motors checked
01:08and have parts replaced.
01:11I think people would probably be quite surprised at how around the clock people are working
01:16to make sure that bikes are well maintained, well positioned, healthy levels of battery
01:23and that they work when they want them to.
01:25It's super important that when the user opens the app and they look for a bike, that they
01:30can actually find one and that it works, because we're trying to make this sort of shift in
01:36people's minds to choose a different transport mode, like an e-bike, rather than taking a
01:40car or a train.
01:42As more and more Londoners take to two wheels, the offering may be likely to change. TfL
01:47is drawing up new rules for what they call micro-mobility vehicles to prevent what's
01:52known as free-floating parking, where riders are allowed to leave a bike where they like
01:58after finishing a journey.
01:59If you've ever stepped over a randomly parked bike in the middle of a path or seen one in
02:04a random spot, this is what they're trying to stop.
02:07But companies like Forrest say this could stifle the attractiveness of bikes which they
02:11say are a green alternative to car travel, calling for a hybrid model to be considered.
02:17But if these plans are to go ahead by 2026, there could be a limit on the number of e-bikes
02:23per borough and citywide, and the free-floating parking model will be banned.