China’s e-scooter Niu in talks to supply Gojek, CEO says

Niu Technologies is in discussion to supply its electric scooters to Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Gojek to increase market share in the region, cited in a Reuters news report. However, Indonesian company Gojek declined to comment.

According to Niu’s CEO Li Yan, the company has been sending some scooters to Gojek for testing. The scooters and motorcycles are powered by lithium-ion batteries and 95% of its sales by unit are in China, and mostly came from the country’s top 20 to 30 cities.  Niu sold 600,892 units globally last year, increased 43% as compared to 2019.

In a statement the CEO said they definitely want to grab market share globally, but it depends on further drops in the cost of battery cells, which is helped by the scaling up of electric vehicles. Niu buys battery cells from Panasonic, Samsung SDI, LG Chem and Eve Energy.

The company has 1,600 shops in China selling Niu scooters and also has more than 100 shops overseas and more than 1,000 dealers. According to the company, they plan to expand its sales network in smaller Chinese cities and will open shops at a faster pace than last year, when it opened 600 shops.

Niu’s electric two-wheelers are manufactured in China’s eastern city of Changzhou. They will be doubling its manufacturing capacity and will have annual manufacturing capacity of more than 2 million scooters from around April this year, up from 1 million annual capacity now, according to the Li Yan.

However, Niu has no plan to make electric cars. The CEO mentioned they will focus on inner-city mobility.

Currently, Honda and Yamaha are the biggest players in the two-wheeler market in Southeast Asia.