Edinburgh Council and Businesses To Trial Electric Scooters

Edinburgh City Council staff are getting on their electric bikes this Summer. Electric scooter service provider Go Zypper is providing the Council with four scooters, for free, to be trialled over four to six months from 1st May. Staff will use the bikes to commute to and from work, go out on Council business and for personal use.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environmental Leader, who is taking part in the trial, says that the trial will help the council in reducing CO2 emissions, one of the goals of the Council's Sustainable Travel Plan 2009-2012 and Scottish Government legislation on climate change.

“We all need to make small changes on how we do things and this project is essentially a fact finding mission to see how electric scooters can further embed a low carbon culture within the Council. The vehicles also fit in with our plans for sustainable travel and improving environmental performance. I am very much looking forward to testing the scooter out around the city.”

The scooters have a battery which is rechargeable from any domestic plug point; the Council also has one charging point for the batteries.

The bikes have a low running cost of 8p per 50km of travel.

The Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Life are also taking part in the trial. Workers will keep a log book of their experiences and comment on how they found driving the vehicles. Go Zypper wants to collect enough data on vehicle performance, the economic and environmental benefits of urban scooters, to expand business in Scotland and other parts of the UK. 

Robert Steele from Go Zypper, said: "The electric scooter is the way forward for urban journeys with free town parking, zero vehicle tax, zero carbon emissions, low running costs and when rolled out across the UK a unique energy delivery system to ensure that only electricity from a sustainable source is used.”