Norway - Road transport services - Market survey for the publication of a licence period for renting small electric vehicles on public ground in Oslo municipality.

The Agency for Urban Environment would like to invite market participants who rent "free flow" shared electric bicycles and electric scooters to a market survey. The aim of the invitation is to gain general insight about the interest and the possibility the market has to offer electric bicycles in combination with electric scooters to ensure that the criteria in the next notice are in line with what the market can offer and the city wants. We would particularly like concrete feedback on free floating e-cycles that are not offered in Oslo in the current period. Currently Oslo offers two different offers of micromobility; the permission scheme for small electric vehicles (electric scooters and electric bicycles) and a separate contract with Oslo bysykkel. The licence scheme is a free flow scheme with 2 years duration and is open for companies with permission to have both electric bikes and electric scooters. In the current period, only electric scooters are offered from the companies that have permission in Oslo. Oslo Bysykkel offers fixed installations of electric bicycles and regular bicycles within ring 3 and is a contract that lasts until 2030. The current permit for small electric vehicles allows companies to place a total of 16,000 vehicles that are distributed equally between three companies. There are 5,334 vehicles for each company. The distribution of vehicles will be distributed in 4 zones that are regulated in the local regulations. In zones 1, 2 and 3, the companies have the possibility to deploy 8,000 vehicles (inner town), the remaining 8,000 can be placed in zone 4 (outer town). Of the 8,000 vehicles that can be placed within zone 3, there is a maximum of 3,200 vehicles in zone 3, 3,200 vehicles in zone 2, and 1,200 vehicles in zone 1. In 2025, more than 20 million trips were carried out, and a further increase is expected by the end of 2026. On average, the trips last with electric scooters in Oslo about 7 minutes, which makes up a distance of about 2 kilometres in the airline. The Agency for Urban Environment would like the tender to be developed in a safe and good way with the city ́s needs and that as many people as possible use the offer in the city. We would therefore like the market to give feedback on the following questions: 1. There should be some concrete changes in the design of questions from the previous notice period 2025-27 (see the annex). 2. Should the next notice also include electric bicycles and which segments can electric bicycles attract that do not electric scooters hit? 3. Previous experience gave electric bikes challenges in the urban area. Are the current e-cycles offered by the market small enough and adapted to confined urban spaces? 4. What does the market think about requirements for the size and length of the bicycles (wheel size in inches, length in cm)? 5. If a limit shall be set on the size of the e-cycles. What is the smallest size of e-cycles in the market and what size is recommended in Oslo? 6. Should there be a minimum and maximum number of e-cycles and how should it be distributed in the zones? 7. Fees have been preventive in order to avoid repeated parking errors. The municipality has no way of doing the same with electric bikes. How do companies solve the parking challenges that arise with electric bikes? 8. What is the market ́s attitude in general to forced parking in the city centre and forced parking only for electric bikes in other local centres and areas with high use? 9. What type of new technology can the market offer that contributes to safer urban transport with many walking, especially on pavements, parks, public urban areas etc.? Give examples. 10. Do you have anything else you would like to comment on or give feedback on? The Agency for Urban Environment reserves the right to select feedback and the right to not take into account input that is not relevant for the pending announcement. This is done in order to avoid disproportionate work with the received inputs. The Agency for Urban Environment selects relevant input from the feedback based on capacity, need, wants and professional assessment. Due to staff holidays, questions asked from interested parties will not be answered until after 3 August. A deadline is set for 18 August to ask questions to the market dialogue, and questions received after this cannot be answered. The deadline for submitting feedback and replying to the questions posed in the market dialogue is set at 25 August. A summary of the received input will be prepared. Input that the Agency for Urban Environment does not consider relevant for the pending announcement will not be included in the summary.