Wednesday September 3rd 2025
Edinburgh's new Voi hire e-bikes
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Joe Sullivan
Edinburgh’s new e-bike hire scheme has gone live for a city centre trial – and we’ve put one through its paces to see what the experience is like.
The scheme launched on Wednesday, and brings hire bikes back to the Capital for the first time since the Just Eat bikes scheme collapsed in 2021.
Throughout Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, 50 dockless electric bikes were placed at various locations across the city centre.
And so, carrying some trepidation, given that I’ve not ridden a bike on a road in years – and some excitement, too – I set off to find a bike on Wednesday morning.
Voi’s app made it easy to find bikes, with a map showing which ones were nearby and what state of charge they were at.
It also shows the boundaries of the scheme, and designated parking areas for the hire bikes.
I was able to quickly locate some bikes available near Waverley Court, the offices of Edinburgh Council.
Before you can hire a bike you have to download and set up an account on the Voi app.
Setting up an account is quite easy, you just have to add a bank card and complete a safety quiz – which strangely only covered how to safely use the company’s scooters, despite the fact Voi only has e-bikes in Edinburgh.
There was an initial issue with ulocking the bikes – the company’s app told me that my payment was not successful every time I tried.
However, after installing the app on a different mobile, I was able to unlock a bike and once working properly, I was impressed at how swift and simple the process of getting underway was.
You just have to scan a QR code on the bike, press an ‘unlock’ button in the app, and then you’re free to ride it away.
After fudging around for a few minutes figuring out how you put the kickstand up – you have to nudge the bike forward a bit, instead of kicking it – I was off to the races.
The first thing that occurred to me was how quickly the bike accelerated – as someone who had never stepped on an e-bike before, it was a bit of jolt.
I felt I had a hang of it pretty quickly, after a few stressful minutes coming down the Royal Mile and along Queen’s Drive as I remembered what getting passed by a car while on a bike felt like.
But once I was comfortable with it, I was really impressed – the bike was quick, almost reaching 16 miles per hour at one point – but also very controllable.
The bike I picked up, despite being the smaller of the two types Voi offers, has a good deal of storage space in a basket in front of the handlebars, enough to comfortably hold my bag.
And it was very light, being easy to pick up and move around when I stopped to try it out.
Plus, having an electric motor means it can tackle hills with ease – a real bonus in a city like Edinburgh.
The only moments of discomfort came when dealing with stretches of cobbled or poorly maintained street.
Along Abbeyhill, I avoided potholes as best I could, but those I had to head over due to traffic sent shocks through me, and at one point I was worried I might come off.
And when coming up Calton Road, on my way to return the bike to Waverley Court, I felt my body vibrate quite vigorously as I went over the cobblestones.
I don’t imagine any bicycle would be comfortable to ride on a setted street, but I can’t help but think the small diameter wheels on board didn’t help the situation.
One thing that gave me pause was what happened when I tried to ride the bike out of the 8km2 coverage area in the city centre – the fact that nothing happened.
I was able to get just over a kilometre away from the edge of the area without any issue, before deciding to turn back.
When asked, Voi said that they were aware of the issue and were working to rectify it, and that the bike should have slowed down and eventually come to a stop after leaving the area.
At the end of my trip, after laying up my bike where I started and snapping a photo to show Voi I had parking it correctly, I was left happy with my experience.
The price I was charged at the end – £4.29 for 49 minutes riding – felt reasonable to me, given how quickly I was able to move around.
I did get a discount from the normal 11p per hour rate, which would have seen me charged £5.39, due to an automatic credit given as I was testing the unlock process for the bikes.
The app apparently assumed that, due to that trip lasting just 12 seconds, I had encountered some kind of technical issue.
And I can see how using the e-bikes could help many people make their journeys more quickly, and open up more of the city to people.
I imagine people will find a wide range of uses for them – I’m already thinking of how it could make big shopping trips easier, once the boundary expands further.
But, given the roughness of the ride I had, I will aim to grab one of the bigger bikes, with wider diameter wheels, that Voi has in the city.
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