E-scooters: Who's in, and out, as Wellington begins a new licensing period

Wellington City Council's evaluation panel gave Beam dibs for its "Beam Booster" programme to support cafes, restaurants and shops in the capital. Photo / Supplied

Homegrown Flamingo and Singapore-owned Beam were the two successful contenders for Wellington City Council's new three-year licensing period.

Each will get to put 400 e-scooters onto the streets of the capital (Beam will have an initial 150, ramping up to its full complement over the next few weeks).

Flamingo was one of the incumbents in an 18-month trial.

Beam will replace Lime (which recently bought Uber's Jump in something of an inhouse reshuffle; Uber is the major investor in both e-scooter operators).

Singapore-owned Neuron, which operates in Auckland, joined Lime in missing the cut in Wellington.

An independent evaluation of Beam (awarded a total score of 83.9), Flamingo (83.2), Lime (82.0) and Neuron (80.2) said all four had strong proposals over criteria such as safety and sustainability.

But Beam got extra dibs for its "rangers" who pick up fallen scooters, a programme of small financial incentives to reward those who scoot a few meters further to park in GPS designated areas out of pedestrians' way, and safety initiatives that include a helmet with every scooter.

Beam also got kudos from the evaluation panel for "Strong sustainability response including whole of life approach to recycling and disposal of scooters, swappable batteries and Climate Neutral Certified status."

The report added: "Beam demonstrated good understanding of Wellington, including intent to develop local business partnerships"

Mad Mex has been an early sign-up to the business partnership programme, dubbed Beam Booster - which offers GPS-triggered messaging in Beam's app for local shops, restaurants and cafes that provide spaces outside for Beam's virtual dock parking.

Both Beam and Flamingo promise Wellington fleets based on the latest Segway Ninebot Max, featuring hot-swappable batteries.

Beam's customised take, the "Saturn+" promises "an industry-leading range" of 120km, dual kick-stands and ... a cup holder.

Flamingo - founded by recent graduates Jacksen Love and Nick Hyland, got points for its knowledge of the city, carbon-neutral certification, good-parking incentives and discounts for certain groups such as students.

Lime also missed the initial cut for Auckland but made it back into the market by dint of its purchase of the incumbent Jump by Uber.

The e-scooter operator had a patchy safety record after its initial NZ launch, which saw it get temporarily pulled from Auckland streets, but got positive comments on safety and education from the Wellington evaluation panel, including a determination it had "Good incident response and safety approach including a cognitive test for late night riding."

Ultimately, however, that was not enough to make the cut in the capital.