Tiew demonstrates a ride on one of Beam’s e-scooters during the media tour at the company’s central warehouse in Subang Jaya.
THE rising global trend of micromobility vehicles over the past several decades has led to the development of more environmentally-sustainable means to travel around a city, and also as a first- and last-mile solution to complement urban public transport system.
Beam Mobility, hailed as Asia-Pacific’s largest micromobility operator, aims to offer such convenience with its fleet of about 50,000 electric scooters (e-scooters) operating in over 50 cities across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and Turkiye.
According to Beam Mobility Malaysia general manager Justin Tiew, the company is already a well-established industry player, with over one million trips made via e-scooters in Malaysia last year.
He also points out that aside from being a solution provider for the first- and last mile travels, the main advantages of adopting micromobility vehicles are driving domestic tourism ecosystem, supporting local businesses and reducing carbon emission.
“If you want to see the sights of a city, it is much better to use a micromobility vehicle.
“There may be some surprises that you wouldn’t know exist or be able to explore if you travelled in a car. Even with walking, you might not be able to cover that much distance,” he told reporters during an event at Beam Mobility Malaysia’s central warehouse in Kuala Lumpur recently.
“Beam has always been in a collaborative mode to engage with the relevant government ministries and agencies to address their concerns of micromobility vehicles and explaining the guidelines and benchmark adopted in other countries,” he further said.
Working with local authorities
Additionally, Beam Malaysia and Thailand’s head of government and public affairs Taty Azman said they could work with the local authorities in designating certain places as off-limits for e-scooters through ‘geo-fencing’.
Should any e-scooter be ridden into an off-limit area, its automatic electric braking system would be activated and then, it would proceed to slow the machine down to a stop, said Taty.
“Some countries treat e-scooters the same as bicycles. Any rule that applies to a bicycle would be applicable to an e-scooter as well.
“Not only we are smaller and slower, we also have more safety features,” said Taty.
Every Beam’s e-scooter has its own unit number, and comes equipped with braking lights.
Tiew, however, also highlighted the need for a balance to be struck when regulating micromobility services, so as to ensure that it would not cause unnecessary inconvenience to the riders.
In this regard, he said Beam had introduced a virtual parking spot system to encourage riders to park their machines at a designated area by allowing them to claim the parking reward.
Conversely, a fine would be imposed on them if they had parked their e-scooters anywhere else outside the designated areas.
“Our staff can also track the locations of the e-scooters around the city using an app, and they would make sure all the machines would eventually be brought back to the designated parking spots,” he said, underlining that the compliance rate towards the virtual parking spot system had reached over 90 per cent so far.
Photo shows the screen interface on Beam’s mobile app, showing the locations of the e-scooters around the user. It also unlocks the machine for usage, once payment has been made.
Tiew said in places like Langkawi, the availability of micomobility vehicles could help boost the local economy, in that they would facilitate the tourists going out to discover new places and at the same time, spending more tourism dollars.
‘Of risks and safety issues’
In commenting about the danger risks posed by micromobility vehicles, Tiew felt such concern reflected the unfamiliarity on the authorities’ side, in view of e-scooters still being considered quite new to the local market.
He gave his assurance that Beam’s e-scooters had fulfilled and complied with the global safety standards.
Adding on, he said with the installation of GPS tracking and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the machines, they could be remotely disabled should they not comply with the local traffic regulations.
Moreover, Tiew said the company had engaged the federal government over the past four years in sharing the best practices globally in terms of regulating micromobility vehicles.
He was quick to point out that a Beam’s e-scooter could only travel at a maximum speed of 25 kilometres per hour (km/h).
“I believe the concerns over e-scooters are due to people not familiar with the product and thinking that it is dangerous. The truth is riding an e-scooter is no more dangerous than riding a bicycle, or for that matter, it’s as safe as riding a bicycle.”
The ‘switch’, which the rider needs to push down to increase the speed.
Tiew said it was already evident that most serious accidents involved cars being driven at high speeds and in relation to this, he said the e-scooter’s speed limit had been set to adhere to the international recommended standard.
According to him, every Beam’s e-scooter comes with a swappable battery system, adding that Beam would monitor the battery level of each machine remotely before sending out its team to replace the power-depleted battery with a fresh one.
An e-scooter, with a fully-charged battery, can travel about 40km on a flat surface, and each battery would have to undergo about 5,000 charging cycles before being replaced with a new one for optimum product safety.
The power-depleted e-scooter batteries being charged at the warehouse.
Just as important, every rider of a Beam’s e-scooter is also covered by insurance with a maximum payout of RM150,000 for accidental death, up to RM6,000 for medical expenses due to accident, and RM750 for loss of tooth or up to RM3,000 for dental procedures – among many other coverage packages.
The full details of the insurance coverage can be accessed via www.ridebeam.com.my.
Talks on cooperation still on-going
In Kuching, Tiew said Beam continued to engage with Kuching South City Council (MBKS) and Kuching North City Commission (DBKU) regarding the proposal to have its e-scooters placed at public areas under their jurisdictions.
The e-scooters were previously removed from the streets in Kuching due to safety concerns and also matters pertaining to permits.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), however, had already rolled out Beam’s e-scooters for its students and employees.
“We are also talking to Sarawak Metro regarding the Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART), where there would be certain stops and in this regard, the commuters would need one first- and last-mile solution to get to and depart from the station.
“We are discussing with them to see how we can be part of this development plan.”
That said, Tiew said it was understandable that some local authorities would prefer to take a cautionary approach towards managing micromobility vehicles, as they would have to be answerable to their stakeholders as well.
Each Beam’s e-scooter is pre-installed with a phone holder and a digital panel indicating the speed.
Nonetheless, he regarded the adoption of micromobility vehicles as being in line with the environmental sustainability agenda and mitigation of climate change, apart from accommodating the users moving over short distances surrounding their areas of travel.
During the recent event, members of the had the opportunity to tour around Beam’s newly-launched 8,000-square-feet central warehouse in Subang Jaya, Selangor, meant to function as a main distribution, repair and hardware testing hub.
It is informed that there are nine other smaller warehouses located in other states across Malaysia.
Users of Beam’s micromobility vehicles are required to download the mobile app, from where they should be able to locate the nearest e-scooters. Once located, they need to scan the QR code and choose a payment method before they are able to ride any machine.
Each of Beam’s e-scooter is manufactured from aircraft-grade aluminium and is wholly imported from China.
Photo shows a row of Beam’s e-scooters parked in front of a shoplot in Kuala Lumpur.