Beam Scooters halt Napier operations after two-year trial

• Beam Scooters has stopped operating in Napier after a two-year trial that began in November 2022.
• Beam’s operations were previously deactivated in Auckland, Wellington and Brisbane over allegations of misconduct.

Beam Scooters has stopped operating in Napier.

The e-scooter hire company, which allows people to rent scooters by the minute from their smartphones, started a Napier operation as a two-year trial in November 2022, partnering with Napier City Council with the aim to bring “shared micromobility” to Napier.

A council spokeswoman confirmed Beam Scooters stopped their operations in Napier at the beginning of November.

When contacted by Hawke’s Bay Today, a Beam Scooters spokesperson had no further information regarding why.

The pause follows Auckland Council ordering all of Beam’s e-scooters to be deactivated in August, following allegations the number of the company’s e-scooters on the city’s streets went beyond its operating limit.

Auckland Council also claimed Beam manipulated its software to keep tabs on e-scooter numbers.

It was then banned in Wellington in September for breaking the cap on how many e-scooters it could have.

Last month, Beam also had its contract with Brisbane City Council cancelled after another allegation the company had “significantly” under-reported the size of its fleet in the city.

The council claimed there were over 222,000 occasions between July 2023 and July 2024 in which the e-scooter hire company did not report all hirable devices.