You’ve seen us review the AirWheel on recent occasions and while the short distance rideable is fun and affordable than a Segway, its closest competitor Ninebot Inc. has announced a strategic alliance with Segway, which the latter will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, Ninebot’s major investors comprises of Xiaomi Technology, Sequoia Captial and Shunwei Foundation.
This strategic alliance is a milestone for Ninebot and Segway. After establishing the alliance, the company will widely apply a series of technologies into its future products, covering electric driving, mobile internet and man-machine interaction. This combination creates great opportunities for the development of the short-distance transportation industry. We believe that this alliance will promote the short-distance transportation industry to develop and grow on the intelligent mobile robot platform. The alliance of our well-known brands will provide more convenient and environmentally-friendly travelling solutions for customers
– Gao Lufeng, Ninebot founder and CEO
After the strategic alliance, both companies will be collaborating in technology and marketing areas which will result in more affordable yet fully featured rideables in future. The Segway rideable costs at least RM35,000 in the market and given AirWheel’s advantage as being a more affordable and safer ride, Ninebot’s and Segway’s collaboration would mean some healthy competition out there. Do check out our AirWheel Q5 and S3 review down below if you want to know more.
