Chinese company Ninebot – owners of the notorious Segway brand - has pulled the wraps off a fleet of new electric two-wheel products at the 2020 CES show in Las Vegas, including a concept sportsbike and a production ready scooter.
Segway burst onto the scene way back in 2001 with a self-balancing transportation device that uses tilt sensors and a small lithium-ion battery. Since then, Segway’s image has lurched between being a convenient eco-friendly, celebrity-endorsed device to maligned, joked about and oddball pavement clutter.
As such, Segway has hit on some hard times with its signature model, prompting a takeover from Chinese company Ninebot, who have since spent the last few years shifting the emphasis away from the aforementioned device in favour of capitalising on an otherwise globally-renowned green focused brand.
Segway-Ninebot is now busily expanding its offerings, which means moving into the motorcycle and scooter market – all electric of course – beginning with the Dirt eBike we reported on in November.
Now things are becoming more ambitious with a brand new range of models being unveiled at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, most important of which - in terms of actual sales - is the Ninebot eScooter, which will come in a variety of different modes, with the top spec model – the E200P – combining two batteries to deliver a top speed of 62mph and travel 124 miles.
Of more interest to us, however, is the Ninebot Apex, an electric sportsbike that certainly demonstrates the ambitions of the brand to trade up from its bread and butter mobility vehicles.
Curiously, though Segway-Ninebot gone to the effort of showing a very production-looking machine, it hasn’t revealed any performance or range figures and says there is no chance it will go into production. So, colour us a bit confused…
Perhaps this is all an attempt to gauge interest over whether anyone would purchase a sportsbike with a Segway logo on it, but you can’t fault the ambition. Might want to cover up those cables though…
