Onzo abandons plans to enter New Zealand's e-scooter rental market

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Onzo have pulled out of the New Zealand e-scooter rat-race to focus on their bike ride-sharing scheme.

Onzo has decided not to unleash its 1000-strong e-scooter fleet upon Auckland streets.

The dockless bike sharing company said on Wednesday that it would be packing up and 'shipping out' the yellow scooters.

The decision comes as another company, Wave, released its e-scooters in Auckland, joining Lime in the New Zealand micro-mobility market.

Onzo's decision to pull out was made in a recent meeting, said spokesman Jamie Li.

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'We originally were a bike company, we just want to focus on our bikes.'

He said the decision had nothing to do with the stringent conditions put on e-scooter operations by Auckland Council in light of Lime's wheel locking glitch.

'We had those decisions made before the new conditions,' Li said.

The glitch caused 155 random braking events across New Zealand over the summer, resulting in 30 injuries.

Auckland and Dunedin Councils suspended Lime's operating licences while the company fixed the bug.

Until now, their scooter fleet had been stored next to their bike fleet in Onzo's Te Atatu Depot.

Lime e-scooters were allowed back onto Auckland streets a week later, after agreeing to ramped up operating conditions.

In September Onzo said it planned on launching 2500 e-scooters in Auckland; 500 in October and the rest in the following months.

'I think this is totally going to revolutionise the way Aucklanders travel around this city,' said Onzo's Chief Growth Officer, Min-Kyu Jung at the time.

The company was also looking at deploying fleets in other New Zealand cities, and was engaged in talks with various city councils.

But in January there was still no sight of Onzo e-scooters around the Super City and instead 1000 yellow e-scooters sat gathering dust at Onzo's Te Atatu depot.

Li said the e-scooters were not quite what Onzo had hoped for, so whether or not those scooters would ever hit the streets was 'still being discussed'.

Later in January Onzo accidentally displayed e-scooter pricing on its app, priced at 10c cheaper per minute than rival Lime.

Li said the posting was an error and was not meant to be there.

Onzo operate about 400-600 dockless rental bikes in Auckland and 200-400 in Wellington.

Their bikes cost $1 per hour to ride whereas Lime and Wave e-scooters cost $18 an hour to ride.

When asked if he thought Onzo would ever try again at releasing e-scooters on to New Zealand markets, Li said 'potentially later on.'