• ebikes London Clean e-bikes, dirty tricks: e-bike company accuses competitors of sabotage A war appears to be brewing in London’s shared e-bike market, and it’s getting messy with new accusations of sabotage. • It’s a turf war, to be precise, and one company is now claiming that it is being set up by rival e-bike sharing company operators, resulting in its bikes being removed from the street and landing hefty fines. • According to reporting byThe Times, ride-hailing and micromobility operator Bolt has accused rival e-bike companies of deliberately moving its properly parked bikes into illegal positions to trigger council impoundments and fines. • Bolt says the alleged sabotage is happening in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, where operators including Lime, Forest, and Voi compete for limited parking space in designated shared e-bike stalls painted along public streets. • The company shared a dossier of evidence with The Times, including “before and after” photos that allegedly show Bolt bikes parked correctly inside designated bays at the end of a rental trip, only to later appear outside those bays when photographed by council enforcement officers. • Once deemed improperly parked, bikes can be impounded at a cost of £84.45 per incident (roughly US $115), plus daily storage fees, taking them out of circulation and adding up quickly.
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