Beam e-scooters won’t be back in Whanganui this summer - or possibly ever again

The scooters arrived in Whanganui in July 2022. Photo / NZME

Beam electric scooters will not return to Whanganui this summer as planned.

The company, in partnership with the Whanganui District Council, brought 100 e-scooters to town as a trial in July 2022.

In March 2023, the Chronicle reported the scooters would disappear over the winter months due to low demand but Beam planned to bring them back that November.

The scooters racked up more than 37,000km in the first eight months of the trial but that was not enough to maintain the fleet when the weather got colder.

Now they will not be back at all, even with the district experiencing a stretch of sunny skies and high temperatures.

A spokesperson for the company said after reviewing its New Zealand operations over the past several months, it did not forecast enough demand for operations to restart in Whanganui on a seasonal basis.

Beam pulled out of Palmerston North in December but remains in Whangārei, Auckland, Queenstown, Porirua, Wellington, Napier, Taupō and Tauranga.

A Whanganui District Council spokesperson said it would welcome another e-scooter operator setting up in the city because “e-mobility has a place in modern urban transportation”.

Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.