A transportation revolution is unfolding in Australian cities, with rental e-bike programs experiencing a remarkable surge in popularity. This boom comes at a time when e-scooter rental operations have hit a roadblock, facing a wave of safety concerns and a subsequent decline in usage.
The e-bike boom is most evident in Sydney, where the number of e-bikes on the streets nearly doubled in 2025. US operator Lime played a significant role in this growth, deploying thousands of additional e-bikes across the city.
E-scooters initially gained traction faster than e-bikes in Australia, with all capital cities, except Sydney, permitting their use in early 2025. However, safety concerns soon emerged, leading to a freeze on operations and a decline in their popularity.
Major e-scooter operators, such as Neuron and its subsidiary Beam, reduced their combined fleets by nearly 10% over the course of the year, leaving around 12,500 e-scooters across 24 locations.
Perth, for instance, removed approximately 1,000 rental e-scooters from its streets following a fatal crash. A subsequent inquiry in Western Australia suggested that e-mobility could be reintroduced under strict regulations.
In Bendigo, Beam's 250 scooters were withdrawn after falling short of expectations, with users taking less than 55,000 trips. Similarly, the City of Adelaide reported a decline in ridership, with the number of trips dropping from 543,000 to 514,000 between 2024 and 2025.
The slowdown in e-scooter usage has been attributed to what industry consultant Stephen Coulter calls a "moral panic" over safety and injuries. He believes that some local governments, like the City of Melbourne, overreacted by abruptly withdrawing e-scooters in September 2024.
Coulter suggests that state governments could play a pivotal role in bringing e-scooters back in 2026. The Victorian and New South Wales governments have already approved share scheme operators, while WA and Queensland are responding to state inquiries.
In the interim, residents of Melbourne have turned to Lime's e-bikes as an alternative. Coulter notes that "bikes are picking up in the absence of scooters, and operators are becoming better at aligning them with customer needs."
Cities that previously relied solely on e-scooters are now embracing e-bikes. Hobart, for example, adopted Beam bikes in May, while Canberra invited applications for e-bike and e-scooter operations. Adelaide is also set to issue a similar invitation this year.
Will Peters, Lime's Asia Pacific head, expressed disappointment when Melbourne forced out its e-scooters but remains optimistic about growing its e-bike offering. The company is currently capped at operating 1,200 e-bikes in inner Melbourne but has recently expanded its presence in the Darebin municipality and is eyeing opportunities in nearby Merri-bek.
Peters highlights that Sydney, where e-scooter use is illegal, has seen the greatest uptake of Lime's e-bikes. The company more than doubled its Sydney fleet to at least 7,000 e-bikes in 2025, with some industry sources suggesting the actual figure could be higher than 10,000.
Lime is aiming to further boost ridership in Sydney by offering redesigned bikes and subscriber discounts. The company is negotiating to expand its reach as far west as Parramatta.
"How do we make Sydney the best market?" Peters asks. "I think we can be bigger than London, we can be bigger than Paris."
The rapid growth of rental e-bike use in Sydney mirrors the experience in Paris, which became the first European city to invite shared e-scooters and subsequently banned them in 2023. This led to a boom in e-bike usage.
Sydney's lack of e-scooters has similarly supported the rapid growth of rental e-bike use. Government data suggests that 600,000 NSW residents now use a shared e-bike monthly, an increase of 100,000 since October.
The City of Sydney reported that shared e-bike trips in the CBD nearly doubled in 2025, reaching 3.7 million. This surge in demand has attracted competition, with HelloRide operating 3,000 e-bikes and Ario bringing a fleet of 2,700 since its entry into the market in late 2024.
Shared e-bikes are legal for road use and are restricted to speeds of 25 km/h and power of 250 watts. This distinguishes them from illegal and modified e-bikes, which have attracted government crackdowns due to a nationwide surge in injuries.
Preliminary police data from Queensland shows that e-scooters and other personal mobility devices were involved in 10 deaths and 440 crashes in 2025. Legal e-bikes, both privately owned and rented, were involved in four deaths and 235 crashes.
The relative safety of shared e-bikes compared to e-scooters has encouraged customers to make the switch, according to Adam Rossetto, general manager of Ario.
"[Shared] e-bikes are coming back into the fore," Rossetto said. "They provide a more traditional approach to mobility...that delivers less stupidity, I think, from a section of users."
So, while e-scooters face challenges, the e-bike revolution is well underway, offering a safer and more sustainable mode of transportation for Australian cities.
