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A new wave of electric scooters may soon roll into Dunedin.
Wave scooters are set to join Lime on Auckland streets this morning, and the founder of the Australian start-up is confident its black scooters will be on Dunedin streets within two months.
Founder and managing director Albert Hoeft said his Brisbane-registered company planned to introduce the scooters in all ''main metropolitan areas'' in the country.
Mr Hoeft said he had not yet visited Dunedin, nor spoken with the Dunedin City Council, but had a link to the city through his cousin, former All Blacks and Highlanders prop Carl Hoeft.
He could not specify a timeframe for his Dunedin launch but suggested a date inside two months was realistic.
Mr Hoeft said it would cost $1 upfront then 30c a minute to ride a Wave, on a par with Lime's pricing.
Auckland Transport chief executive Shane Ellison said Wave would be trialling speed limited areas.
''Wave will be restricting its scooters to 15kmh on Queen St, and in the Wynyard Quarter and Viaduct Basin areas.
''This is a good opportunity for us to test slower speeds in areas with lots of people walking.''
Its scooters have a top speed of 25kmh (Lime is 27kmh on the flat).
The limit will be enforced with GPS technology that will cap speeds in the restricted areas.
Wave recently secured a permit from Auckland Council to operate 1000 scooters (the same number as Lime) in Auckland city central and outer suburbs, and initially put 500 scooters on the city's streets.
Dunedin City Council community services general manager Simon Pickford confirmed the company had not contacted the council about launching its e-scooters in Dunedin.
When Wave did approach the council, it would have to assess whether an agreement, like it had with Lime, was needed, Mr Pickford said.
A report on how e-scooters could be regulated, including a bylaw, will be presented to councillors at a meeting later this month.
- Additional reporting by NZME
- Addtionally reported by Tim Miller