More than The 15,000 opinion-dividing mini-machines are now expected to vanish from central Paris at the end of August when the city’s contracts with the three operators expire.

City Hall asked voters in a citywide mini-referendum on Sunday was: “For or against self-service scooters in Paris?”

Only 103,000 people voted, but 89 per cent rejected e-scooters and just 11 per cent supported them.

The low turnout — just 7.4 per cent of those registered — has been criticised by the scooter companies.

“This unprecedented referendum ... was heavily impacted by very restrictive voting methods. This led to an extremely low turnout, heavily skewed towards older age groups, which has widened the gap between pros and cons,” said a joint statement from Lime, Dott and Tier.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed the consultative referendum as a success and said its outcome was “very clear.”

“There will no longer be any self-service scooters in Paris from 1 September. We regret that Parisians will lose a shared and green transport option ... It is a step back for sustainable transport in Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympics,” it added.

In the five years since their introduction, following in the wake of shared cars and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have also built a following among some Parisians who don’t want or can’t afford their own but like the option to escape the Metro and other public transport.

But many Parisians complain that e-scooters are an eyesore and a traffic menace, and the micro-vehicles have been involved in hundreds of accidents, some fatal.