E-scooter war heats up in Adelaide as Beam tees off at City Council

Singaporean e-scooter company Beam has blasted the Adelaide City Council — saying they have given competitor Lime “preferential treatment” in the race for one of two permits.

Lime scooters being by staff of the Fringe, rival Beam has said they have received preferential treatment in Adelaide. Picture Dean Martin

Singaporean e-scooter company Beam has blasted the Adelaide City Council — saying they have given competitor Lime “preferential treatment” in the race for one of two permits.

Declaring his company has hundreds of e-scooters waiting for the green light in the CBD, Beam’s head of Australian public affairs Brad Kitschke said the decision by the city council on Tuesday night to give Lime an extra four weeks of operation in Adelaide was unfair.

Councillors made the decision to extend Lime’s existing trial — originally for the duration of the Fringe — despite council staff warning of a “significant reputational risk” of keeping Lime’s existing 500-strong fleet on the city streets while a Expressions of Interest process for two six month permits was underway.

Beam applied for the original trial and Mr Kitschke said Lime had gotten preferential treatment in Adelaide.

“For us it’s a little bit unfair that there’s now an EOI process but we’ve got one operator on the streets, they’ve got a distinct advantage against someone who’s only got to prove their product on the abstract,” he said.

“There’s definitely preferential treatment (to Lime), the council administration even said in their report that there were a real risk around probity, council reputation and preferential treatment.

“Every single person in the chamber put their hand up when they said have you tried a Lime scooter including the administration.

Daniel Bennett, the council’s associate director of design and strategy, said the decision by council was just about allowing the continuity of e-scooter service given how popular they have been.

“[The] Council remains focused on giving every potential operator the opportunity to express interest in applying for a six month permit,” he said.

More than 70,000 trips have been made on the Lime e-scooters during the trial so far, leading the San Francisco-based company to declare it as a success.

This is despite Lime having difficulties limiting riders to the “service area” of the Adelaide CBD.

In the wake of getting the extension Lime director of government affairs for Australia Mitchell Price said the current boundaries for e-scooters was too “constrained” and the State Government should expand the geofence.

Transport Minister Stephan Knoll quickly put the brakes on the prospects of any expansion of e-scooters to the suburbs.

Mr Kitschke said Lime not being punished for their inability to enforce the geofence was also a sore point.

“What’s really disappointing is that nothing happened, there were permit requirements set, there were permit requirements not met, and as a result instead of there being a consequence, they had their trial extended for four weeks.”

Australian-based RIDE has also declared it wants to get one of the two new permits, and today told The Advertiser they had hundreds of scooters ready to be rolled out across the city.

Mr Kitschke said Beam’s scooter was a superior model to Lime’s, as it included a manual back-break in emergency technology breakdowns.

The Advertiser has sought comment from Lime.