Semi-Autonomous Electric Scooters Launched By Segway-Ninebot

September 4, 2019

The electric scooter manufacturer Segway-Ninebot showcased their latest innovations on Friday 16 August which included electric scooters that take themselves back to charging stations. This electric scooter development is likely to be welcomed enthusiastically by the growing scooter-share sector.

Electric scooters have become increasingly popular with commuters in major cities around the world, and electric bike and scooter share companies like Uber and Lime have rentals available in a variety of locations.

Here in the UK, scooter share is presently illegal due to 19th-century property laws, although there are moves in hand to legalize them. Bird is the only London-based scooter-share company and all scooters are kept on private land.

Bird was the first scooter-share business and launched in California in 2016. The sector is very popular with venture capital investors, and there are now several providers offering fleets of electric scooters, both in the UK and throughout Europe.

Sustainability and environmental benefits are some of the main attractions of scooter-share for city dwellers and commuters. And, many cities are seeking ways to cut levels of congestion and lower levels of greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s likely there will be more scooter-share and electric bike-share providers in urban areas.

About the Ninebot-Segway Development

The Ninebot launch took place in Beijing and the company state that likely customers will include Uber and Lyft, as these new semi-autonomous scooters will increase the profitability and operational ease of scooter-share businesses.

The scooters are controlled via the cloud and Gao Lufeng, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Ninebot, commented: “The pain point for scooter operators is to better maintain the scooters at a lower cost.”

At present scooter-share operators need to pick up machines themselves when recharges are needed. Mr Lufeng added: “I believe scooters will replace bicycles as the prime solution for micro-mobility. It’s human nature to save energy when commuting.”

Ninebot is the largest scooter supplier for rideshare businesses, such as Bird and Lime, and sold 1.6mn scooters in the year 2018. The company will soon list its shares on the Chinese STAR market, operated in a similar fashion to NASDAQ. It’s anticipated these new scooters will be available within the next 6 months.

Ninebot also showcased two types of AI delivery robot, for the internal and exterior food delivery markets, and these will be launched within the Chinese market shortly.

Investors looking to buy shares in Chinese markets can now access some A shares via the London-Shanghai Stock Connect service which was launched in June 2019.