Here's why fewer and fewer electric scooters are being sold in France

Les Français achètent de moins en moins de trottinettes électriques. gabriel12/Shutterstock

Après une année record en 2021, au sortir du Covid, les ventes de trottinettes électriques en France sont en chute libre. Entre un pouvoir d'achat en berne et une réglementation de plus en plus contraignante, les explications de cette baisse sont nombreuses.

In 2021, sales of electric scooters crossed the symbolic bar of 900,000 copies sold in France. Since then, manufacturers have looked grim, with sales continuing to fall. According to the latest barometer published by the Federation of Micro-Mobility Professionals (FPMM), 678,000 new electric scooters were sold in 2023, a drop of 10% compared to 2022, a year where the market was declining. already 16%. How to explain such a phenomenon ?

The decline in purchasing power is obviously the first explanation. With an average price of 408 euros, purchasing an electric scooter represents a real investment. If we add to this the increase in the price of electricity with regard to recharging, and the obligation to have insurance to be able to drive with it legally, you obtain an important position of expenses. However, the decline in sales of electric scooters cannot only be explained from an economic point of view.

Indeed, the evolution of regulations makes the practice of scootering more restrictive than in the past. As a reminder, the regulations stipulate that you must be at least 12 years old to drive an electric scooter and that their speed is limited to 25 km/h. It is imperative to use cycle paths where they exist and not to ride on the sidewalks (unless the mayor authorizes it, at a maximum of 6 km/h in this case). Recently, certain signs usually reserved for cyclists now apply to scooter users, such as driving bans or traffic lights featuring bicycle figures. Year after year, the regulations concerning scooter circulation therefore offer less freedom than before and hinder certain users.

Finally, the scooter remains a potentially dangerous means of transport. In 2023, 42 scooter riders died in France, compared to 35 a year earlier. 640 others were seriously injured, a figure up 7% in one year.

Generally speaking, scooters are less and less popular, especially in big cities. Since September 2023, for example, no self-service electric scooters have been authorized to circulate in the streets of Paris.