Voi scheme replaces more than 850,000 car journeys in Portsmouth
More than 850,000 car journeys in Portsmouth are estimated to have been replaced since June last year due to the rising popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters.
In June 2024, Solent Transport, a partnership between Hampshire County Council, Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council and the Isle of Wight Council, appointed Voi as the sole operator to secure the scheme’s long-term future.
Since then, Voi has delivered over 5m rides covering 12m kilometres across the region – the equivalent of travelling to the moon and back 15 times. The company says this has replaced around 2 million car journeys, cutting 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions from the region’s transport footprint.
A record 150,000 rides were logged in May 2025, the highest since the scheme launched in 2020.
James Bolton, Voi’s UK General Manager, said: “Reaching this milestone in the Solent reflects the growing demand for quick, green and safe ways to get around our cities and towns. We’re proud to work alongside local councils to improve existing micromobility schemes, drastically increase usage and make them thrive.”
Trevor Mose, Head of Sustainability and Energy at Portsmouth Hospitals University and the Isle of Wight NHS Trusts, said: “As a large workplace with over 3000 staff on site each day, Voi e-scooters and e-bikes provide an affordable, sustainable alternative to driving for staff commuting.”
Hampshire County Council has approved plans to expand e-bikes into Totton and Gosport early next year. The company has also invested in new e-scooters with interchangeable batteries and redesigned handlebars based on rider feedback.
In Portsmouth, the scheme continues to prove popular.
Councillor Peter Candlish, cabinet member for Transport, said: “Since we’ve got both bikes and scooters together we’ve seen a big uptake in overall use and especially in the e-bikes — they’re going down an absolute storm.
“Something like 10 per cent of trips are made by bike but it’s increasing pretty steadily month by month.”
He added that scooters appear more popular with younger users, while bikes are often used by older adults.
“Transport is getting more and more diverse – you’ve got car clubs, scooters, e-bikes, electric buses, regular buses, new minibus service up in Paulsgrove – all of them fit a particular group of people and that’s something I expect to see more and more in the future.”
Voi told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that since taking over in Portsmouth specifically, there have been 1,948,705 unique rides replacing 857,430 car trips saving 382.2 tonnes of CO2e.