Two new players bringing 600 extra electric scooters to Christchurch

Monday, 27 May 2019

A further 600 electric scooters will be zipping around Christchurch as two new companies prepare to launch in the city.

Beam, a company based in Singapore, plans to operate 300 scooters in Christchurch from mid-June and Wellington-based Flamingo Scooters will bring in another 300 scooters on September 1. Their introduction into the city will create more than 60 new jobs. 

Both companies have been granted permits from Christchurch City Council, ending Lime's monopoly on e-scooters in the city.  

California-based Lime began operating on a trial basis in the city in October 2018 and in March this year was granted a 12-month permit to operate 1000 scooters. The permits for Beam and Flamingo expire on February 28, 2020.

**READ MORE:

* Lime's Christchurch electric scooter monopoly may soon be over

* Lime pushes for exclusive e-scooter rights on Christchurch streets

* Scooter fee a snip for '$10m' Lime firm

* Sweet result for Lime fans as scooter trial gets set for extension

* Lime admits to e-scooter fault which locks up wheels at speed, causing 'excruciating' injuries

* Lime scooters launch in New Zealand's two largest cities**

All three companies will charge the same amount to hire their scooters – $1 to unlock and 30c per minute. However, the two new players are pushing the safety aspects of their product and will both offer helmets.

Wellington entrepreneurs Jacksen Love and Nick Hyland started Flamingo and will launch 400 bright pink scooters in Wellington in mid-June and 525 in Auckland by the end of July.

Under existing rules no more than 1600 scooters were allowed on Christchurch streets, so Flamingo and Beam have been limited to 300. They both say their models are financially viable, however, both still wanted to grow the number of their scooters in the city.

Like Lime, the two newcomers would be charged a fee based on the size of their scooter and the number they operated. Lime was charged $86.25 per scooter per year. 

Beam head of public affairs Brad Kitschke​ said in the long run it would be up to the council to determine if it equalised the numbers of scooters each provider was able to operate within the 1600 cap.

'One provider has been permitted to flood the streets with 1000 vehicles, many of them dormant. Hundreds of scooters sitting idle on a footpath not being used isn't economically viable, so at this stage we would prefer to be deploying our smaller fleet that has a greater chance of being ridden than the other.'

He said Beam would employ 25 permanent and part time staff and about 100 chargers, who would be independent contractors.

It would also be making 500 helmets available. When asked how Beam would prevent people from stealing the helmets, Kitschke said in other cities some people had chosen to take them, but he would prefer they did not.

'Making sure one (a helmet) is available on every scooter and safety is more important.'

Beam also wanted to mark out areas where scooters could be picked up and dropped off to decrease clutter and keep the streets clear. Users who stowed the scooters in the designated bays would get a credit on their accounts. 

Flamingo founders Love and Hyland said the company would employ about 40 people in Christchurch, including a manager and a flock of contractors or 'Flamingo feeders'.

'Flamingo is proud to be New Zealand owned and operated, which to our knowledge, no other e-scooter company in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch can say.'

The pair said the company would be the only operator to have scooters in each of those three main cities.