Beam Mobility Covertly Launched ‘Ghost’ E-Scooters in Australia and New Zealand to Evade Fees and Increase Profits

E-scooter enterprise Beam Mobility has strategically introduced a multitude of “ghost” scooters across urban locales in Australia and New Zealand, a tactic aimed at circumventing the payment of vehicle registration charges imposed by municipal authorities. This was unveiled in a detailed investigation conducted by The Australian.

To mitigate the risk of overpopulating urban spaces with e-scooters, which could potentially compromise pedestrian safety, cities implement restrictions on the allowable quantity of these vehicles for operators.

Revelations made by The Australian include evidence from divulged Slack communications and additional documents, showing Beam’s manipulation of data sent to Ride Report, an independent monitoring service. This misinformation aimed to minimize the apparent presence of its scooters in major cities such as Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Auckland, and Wellington.

A particularly incriminating document featuring the name of Beam co-founder Deb Gangopadhyay, outlines the company’s agenda to roll out an extra 1,000 scooters across prime zones of these cities. This strategy was projected to heighten profits by $150,000.

Beam previously secured $135 million in funding from prominent investors like Affirma Capital and Peak XV Partners (previously known as Sequoia India and SEA).