Pure Electric founder: “Those who need electric scooters most are missing out”

Adam Norris, the Founder to light electric vehicle chain Pure Electric, has penned an impassioned blog stating that “Lack of government action on electric scooters means those who need them most are missing out.”

Dismayed at being able to sell the same products in many mainland Europe countries as his business does here in the UK, but with critical legal differences for users, Norris recently set out to discover “why so many people risk prosecution for riding electric scooters on the road” in the UK.

“I went away and started talking to people,” he writes, going on to report his discoveries as unit affordability and lack of space to store a bicycle or electric bike among many city dwellers.

Citing prior research, Norris says that 38% of UK workplaces catering poorly, or not at all, for those who cycle to work is a problem to address in bringing about a shift to sustainable light mobility forms.

A similar problem is raised in people’s personal living spaces with the vast majority stating they have now viable way to store a bicycle in tower blocks and even in many homes. Safe bike parking on site remains a contentious point, with some councils even removing resident’s safe storage units and press reports revealing there is an enormous backlog of residents requesting safe spaces to store bikes.

The most recent National Travel Survey backs the points raised, showing the factors that weigh into a consumer cycling do include workplace provision and price. Safe cycling infrastructure remains the top priority for consumers.

Norris puts up some business estimates against his piece, revealing that while his French and Spanish business took a share of roughly one million electric scooters sold last year, “in contrast, in the UK market probably only 100,000 new scooters were purchased last year.”

He continues “I would estimate we have turned away nearly 200,000 people from buying a scooter over the last year. I am sure the other responsible retailers like Halfords have done the same. Over the last 2 years there must be over 1,000,000 disappointed, law abiding people in the UK who want to ride an electric scooter because the other transport solutions don’t work for them.”

These people, points out the Pure Electric founder, are from all walks of life and generally are not able to be upsold to an electric bike down to either cost or space constraints.

Turned away, but not turned off

Norris believes that the net effect of turning customers away has not turned people off the idea of micromobility. Instead, he writes, “If the government does not introduce new laws I believe people will continue to buy unsafe, very fast and dangerous electric scooters from unregulated ecommerce sites, outside of the UK government’s control.”

It is here that Norris calls on the Government to progress trials beyond the share scheme trials currently live alongside operators like Lime, Tier and Voi, to name a few. On this note, he encourages regulation akin to Germany’s rules “as a priority”.

He signs off by reminding the consumer not to ride illegally, stating their time would be better spent writing to Ministers and MPs encouraging acceleration of legislative changes governing micromobility forms.

Electric scooter trials are expected to have moved along once an adequate volume of data has been collected to analyse usage and incident rates, as well as causes of any crashes. The trails have been extended beyond their original date in respect of the pandemic creating abnormal patterns in transport.

CyclingIndustry.News’ annual research has just revealed that more than half of bike shops are now reducing their electric scooter stocks year-on-year, some having given up in the face of the aforementioned issues raised by Norris. To enquire about purchasing our 2022 report, email here.