Electronic bikes could be set for Glasgow's streets

Glasgow City Council has met with operators nextbike who want to bring e-bikes to the city after a successful pilot in Exeter.

If the plans are approved, the city would be part of the firm’s first full e-bike roll out in the UK.

An e-bike is a bicycle with an integrated electric motor which can be used for propulsion.

Julian Scriven, nextbike UK managing director: said: “We’re currently in talks with Glasgow City Council about the possible introduction of e-bikes to the scheme. Both nextbike and the council would love to see this happen if the necessary funding can be found.”

The firm also said that they will be introducing even more bikes to the city in coming months.

Julian added: “In addition, the scheme will soon benefit from 150 additional bikes over the coming months that will take numbers up to 650.

“Glasgow is our flagship scheme in the UK - it recently reached the impressive figure of 500,000 rentals – and we want to ensure Glaswegians continue to see cycling as a reliable way to get around their city.”

A spokesman for Glasgow City council said: “E-bikes are something we would like to see available for hire in Glasgow.

“Electrically-assisted bikes can encourage people who don’t normally cycle to get on a bike and hopefully kick start a longer term interest in cycling.

“Further work is needed before e-bikes can be introduced to Glasgow as part of the nextbike cycle hire scheme.”

An incredible 1,125,000km have been clocked up on the nextbike Glasgow fleet since its launch in 2014 – the equivalent of cycling 28 times around the world around the equator.

The record was achieved with Glasgow now offering 500 bikes and 62 stations across the city.

Nextbikes are available 24 hours a day and users can register and hire bikes in just a couple of minutes.

The cycle-share scheme is one of the cheapest ways to get around Glasgow, with fees starting from as little as 16p per day.