Stuff journalists Nicole Lawton and Ryan Anderson do a head-to-head test of the Lime and Wave e-scooters.

Lime and Wave e-scooters are to be withdrawn from the streets of Auckland.

The e-scooter operators must be deactivated by midnight on December 2 and off the streets by December 6.

Beam, Flamingo, Jump and Neuron are the four operators who have been successful gaining licences for the next six months.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF The safety of Lime scooters has caused controversy since its release in October 2018.

Their licences will come into effect on December 3 and collectively the four operators can have 3200 e-scooters on the streets.

READ MORE:

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* Lime e-scooters one year on: More than two million trips in the first year, more to come

* How safe are e-scooters? injury numbers are declining but more infrastructure work needed, expert says

* 23-year-old man dies after being injured in Lime e-scooter accident

* Lime e-scooter death: Auckland crash victim says 'it was only a matter of time'

* Explainer: Where can you ride e-scooters and what are the rules?

Beam was currently operating in Christchurch, while Neuron was operating in Australia and Singapore.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Lime and Wave e-scooters are to be withdrawn from the streets of Auckland.

Craig Hobbs, Auckland Council's director for regulatory services, said those operators had stronger safety aspects and mitigating nuisance factors.

"The Lime application didn't come up to the standard of the four chosen."

Shane Ellison, Auckland Transport's chief executive, said the tragic events and injuries which had occurred on e-scooters had been a learning experience.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Toi Katipa trying out a Wave e-scooter when they launched in March.

He said Flamingo had a "top over" mechanism to alert the company when scooters had fallen over and all four operators' scooters were self-braking when going downhill.

Beam, Flamingo, Jump and Neuron had agreed to a curfew and would not operate between 1am-6am.

Christopher Hilton, vice president of corporate affairs at Beam, said it was excited to bring its e-scooters to Auckland.

"We have been operating in Christchurch since May and have achieved fantastic results for the city, providing safe, affordable convenient rides for the community. We will bring the same focus on public safety, city amenity and partnership with the community to Auckland," he said.

"What we have seen in Auckland is a need to provide a safe reliable e-scooter for users. This new vehicle coupled with our unique safety programs and class-leading rider insurance demonstrates our determination in making sure every single ride in Auckland is a safe one."

Hilton said Beam Saturn had been designed to deliver safe, tougher and stronger rides across a range of urban terrains. Its features, such as a wider base and floorboard, meant riders would experience a smoother and more stable ride, even on rough surfaces or over speed bumps.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF There are thousands of Lime scooters on the streets of Auckland which will need to be pulled by December 2.

Councillor Christine Fletcher, who has been outspoken about Lime scooters after she was almost hit by one, said she was delighted to hear Hobb's announcement.

"I'm not opposed to e-scooters but I was extremely concerned about Lime taking unnecessary risks," she said.

"Lime seemed more interested in the name brand rather than the welfare of people."

Fletcher said she was sure the four new e-scooter operators that had been chosen had met the safety expectation, which must be paramount.

"From my experience [Lime] did not put safety first," she said.

Blind & Low Vision NZ spokesman Chris Orr said it was pleased Auckland Council had put safety first and would balance the popularity of micromobility with the needs of non-users.

It hoped NZTA would create a national approach to e-scooter use to assure footpaths could be used safely by pedestrians, especially those who were blind or had low vision.

"We continue to hear stories from people who are blind or have low vision who have had frightening experiences with e-scooters, expressing concern about their ongoing presence on footpaths."

Micromobility expert Oliver Bruce believed the council's decision was short-sighted, calling the curfew and self-breaking conditions arbitrary, and only "tinkering around the edges" of safety initiatives.

The best way to make the e-scooters safe was to make a specification to vendors on hardware and develop a shared e-scooter standard, he said.

"Just make the vehicles more safe."

More people would go and purchase their own e-scooters, he said, given the trials created an uncertainty on whether the transport option would be available in six months' time, which also made it hard for the vendors to run a successful business.

He believed four vendors were too many for Auckland's 1.6 million residents, compared to Paris, which also had four vendors serving its' 2.1 million residents.

"Even if you're playing against crap contenders, you're never going to have more than your quota [of e-scooters] due to the 3200 limit."

A dynamic quota, where more were awarded if the vendor could prove their e-scooters were well used, would be better for business he said.

LIME

Lime e-scooters were introduced to Auckland in October 2018 and have since been rolled out to other New Zealand cities.

In September, 23-year-old Aucklander Toben Hunt died after an e-scooter incident in St Mary's Bay. His death has been referred to the coroner.

Hobbs said Hunt's death had not impacted on the decision to take Lime off the streets.

The council had launched its own inquiry into his death but it was satisfied there wasn't a systemic issue.

Lime said it was "naturally disappointed" to hear it would not be able to support thousands of riders throughout Auckland who relied on its scooters "this summer and beyond".

Spokeswoman Lauren Mentjox said Lime was proud of its role in bringing e-scooters to Auckland and introducing a convenient form of transport "which the city sorely needs".

"We look forward to using our experience gained in the Auckland trial to support other towns and cities throughout New Zealand," she said.

​Lime e-scooters were temporarily removed from Auckland's streets in February due to a firmware problem, which caused the wheels to lock up, sending people flying over the handlebars.

Auckland Council suspended Lime's licence on February 22 and the e-scooters were taken off the streets until the company proved the glitch could be sorted.

Lime also removed its e-scooters from Dunedin at the same time.

Two weeks later, after fixing the glitch and providing safety information to Auckland Council, the ban was lifted and the scooters returned on March 7.

Lime's figures showed the software glitch had caused 155 "irregular braking incidents" across New Zealand, resulting in 30 injuries. Nineteen of those injuries were in Auckland.

WAVE

Wave e-scooters hit the footpaths in Auckland in March, with a Māori blessing and powhiri marking their entrance.

The black e-scooters had a maximum of 25kmh and had restricted speeds of 15kmh on Queen St, and in the Wynyard Quarter and Viaduct Basin areas.

Wave was granted a licence by Auckland Council in October 2018 to operate 1000 scooters, starting with an initial 500.

The Australia-based firm had been expected to launch in Auckland in late 2018 but company founder, Albert Hoeft, delayed the rollout because of concerns about the "high number of accidents on Lime scooters".

LIME RIDER NUMBERS