E-scooter Sustainability – Our Way Towards Zero Emissions

The first 18 months of Zwings e-scooter trials have been a resounding success, with almost 1 million kilometres travelled across Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and South Somerset. Introducing e-scooter schemes to these trial areas has given residents an opportunity to use convenient, socially distanced, and more sustainable transport. So, you may be wondering why e-scooters are a more sustainable form of transport? And what is Zwings doing to maximise their benefits as a sustainable means of getting around?

 

E-SCOOTER SUSTAINABILITY

In the UK, the transport sector is the single largest contributor to carbon emissions. Whilst other sectors, such as Manufacturing and Energy, have significantly cut emissions in the past 30 years, transport has remained at a similar level. Within the transport sector, the private car is by far the largest contributor to carbon emissions, with the number of cars growing from 19 million in 1971 to 35 million in 2019.

 

 

E-scooters provide a convenient and accessible alternative to car usage as they are one of the easiest forms of transport to learn how to use. 58% of car trips are less than 5 miles in length, many of which can be switched to e-scooters. 38% of Zwings riders have indicated that they have used e-scooters to replace a more polluting form of transport.

MORE SUSTAINABLE E-SCOOTERS

Zwings is committed to improving its operations to reduce carbon emissions from the usage of e-scooters. The re-charging and maintenance of the e-scooters are a large contributor to their emissions, alongside the production of the e-scooters themselves. So, how have Zwings reduced their operational emissions? And what are we looking to do in the future?

Scheme Design

Zwings designed our schemes with emissions in mind. We started with swappable batteries and designated parking bays meaning much lower mileage is travelled to service the scooters. We also tailored our parking bay placement around key intra-city routes and transport hubs, emphasising the replacement of car journeys above active travel.

Electric Vans Usage

In our operations, we are constantly working toward more efficient, lower carbon operations practices by using electric fleet vehicles. For our locations use electric vans to re-locate scooters and transport batteries for swapping. This significantly reduces emissions for miles travelled by our vans by two thirds.

 

100% Renewable Energy 

We partner with OPUS Energy to charge our scooters and our electric vans with 100% renewable energy. The partnership isn’t just a boon for the environment, it also saves the company money, demonstrating that sustainable choices can both drive growth and reduce operational costs.

E-scooter Lifespan and Recycling

Zwings’ e-scooter is designed for the demands of the sharing economy. The expected lifespan of our vehicles is on average 5 years meaning that the carbon emissions from manufacturing are spread further. Any e-scooters that need to be taken out of service are stripped of parts that can be used for other e-scooters. By increasing the modularity of the components, we can more easily repair our vehicles and use parts to keep other scooters operating longer. Our extensive repair and reuse program focuses on getting scooters back into operation whenever possible and, when a scooter cannot be repaired, it’s broken down for parts to be either reused or properly recycled.

The lifespan of the batteries depends on the frequency of use of each scooter. Our scooters’ batteries can undergo more than 1000 charge and discharge cycles and have a useful life of two or more scooters. For the end of life for our batteries we are partnering with a local, Gloucester-based company Viable Waste Solutions to recycle our batteries.

 

TOWARDS ZERO EMISSIONS

Zwings has come a long way on the journey towards net zero emissions in 2021. We still have more to do, however… Here’s a sneak peak of some of the projects we are undertaking to further lower emissions:

1. We are introducing Ride Pass, Bundle Packages, and special discounts – our new subscription programs designed with commuters in mind in order to encourage regular trips on Zwings vehicles rather than in cars. It gives frequent riders access to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable way of getting around and will hopefully reduce reliance on car travel in every town we operate in.
2. Introduce e-cargo bikes for battery swapping that will further reduce the operational emissions from our electric vans. They’re a resource that allows our local teams to move comfortably and ecologically throughout our locations while supporting city councils in the development of sustainable traffic solutions.
3. Micro Fulfillment centres in our locations to reduce mileage traveled to and from warehouses to collect re-charged batteries.
4. Re-using our batteries as portable battery storage.

To stay up to date on the latest developments in sustainable micro-mobility, subscribe to our blog or download the Zwings app to take a carbon-free ride in your town.