Mahu City Express received funding of $41,000 to provide electric scooters on its existing electric bus service.
The project was in response to Challenge 2 of Hoe ki angitū, the NZTA Innovation Fund: Integrating low-emission first and last-mile solutions. The objective of the project was to replace short car journeys with electric scooter and bus journeys, enabling a fully electric service and reducing commuter car trips within the Mahurangi region and to and from Auckland.
Mahu City purchased a range of electric scooters, designed and installed an onboard rack system and added charging infrastructure on the bus and in their bus garage. The scooters were made available free of charge over a 16-week trial period.
The key findings of the trial were that the scooters were used less than expected, with a survey and direct feedback identifying several contributing factors such as non-consecutive workdays, customers living on rural or semi-rural roads not suitable for scooters, some hesitation about the ease and safety of using a scooter and that most customers already walked to their destinations at the city end of the trip. The provision of the scooters has prompted some customers to use their own scooters and bikes for these short journeys, which has been a positive, albeit unexpected, outcome.
Mahu City Express will continue to make improvements to its services and systems to encourage more use of on-board electric scooters, which are still available at no cost. It is possible that as townships in the Mahurangi region become more urbanised, scooter use could become more likely. Also, they may attract new customers with city destinations not as close to the bus stop over time.
View the final report here:
| Mahu City Express. (n.d.). E-scooter rental and recharging on e-coaches [PDF, 3 MB]. Project HKA1.2.6 |
