The new means of Xiaomi and the back of overseas bestsellers

Smart Scooters, Hover Boards, and Self-balancing Scooters, which have not yet been classified, have become the bestsellers in the European and American markets. China Ou Ying Company stated that "from July 2015, a large number of orders have been received, and the factory has been in short supply."


At the Hong Kong Electronics Fair held by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in October 2015, a large number of smart electric scooters were displayed, and each exhibition area was unprecedented. (Click to enlarge)

Two-wheeled balance car, unicycle and electric unicycle. (Click to enlarge)

China Rongying and Jinyang Company said that "but in Japan, it is not allowed to go on the road, so basically no one buys." Aside from the innovation of transportation in the Japanese market, how is progress made?

It can be clearly pointed out that, like the cottage phones from 2012 to 2013, the reference design of the intelligent electric scooter is widely spread in China. The reference design referred to here refers to a full set of design information that can be used immediately for mass production. It combines the angular velocity sensor for smartphones with the components of electric motorcycles that are widely used in China. The US iFixit company recently confirmed the following parts through disassembly.

<sensor substrate>
American Invensense's built-in accelerometer's 6-axis angular velocity sensor "MPU6050" ("iPhone 6" uses this series of products)
China Zhaoyi's innovative ARM MCU "GD32F130" (CPU core is Cortex-M3, 32bit)

<power>
South Korea's LG Chem's lithium-ion battery unit "ICR18650B4" (combined 20 36V, 2.6Ah battery units, totaling 187Wh, smart electric scooter specifications 158Wh)
China Hercules charge and discharge control substrate "DDJ10A9"

<controller substrate>
China Zhaoyi's innovative ARM MCU "GD32F103" (Cortex-M3, 32bit)

<charger>
Hong Kong enterprises - Shenzhen Fuyuan Electric



The interior of the intelligent electric scooter. Most of the lithium-ion battery cells are 18650 products of South Korea's LG Chemical, and occasionally use South Korean Samsung SDI products. (Click to enlarge)
Chinese people who have obtained a full set of design information have created start-ups. Two of China's three large companies (the table below) were established during this period. From 2013 to 2014, in Shenzhen and Dongguan, the scale of ordinary household appliance production plants have been transformed into intelligent electric scooter factories.

A summary of the registration information of Changzhou Elway. The shareholder Zhonglu Company is a listed company that has long been operating a bicycle business.


Summary of registration information for Shanghai Tumbler Investment


An overview of Nainbo. Xiaomi is said to have invested in the company but has not been confirmed from the registration information of Nainbo.



China Xinli Technology has demonstrated the "ESWING ES6" for off-road driving. (Click to enlarge)
In 2015, the scale of mass production expanded and the price competition became more and more fierce. "The factory scale has expanded from 500 units/day to 1,500 units/day" (Ou Ying). For a model of another company, the FOB price at the beginning of the year was about $200, and then it dropped to $100-$150. Chinese companies believe that the focus in 2016 is product safety. The reason is that there has been a fire accident in the secondary battery, and the US Amazon has suspended sales.

Xiaomi acquires Segway

Xiaomi, who was well-received for marketing, also indirectly entered the smart electric scooter business in April 2015. The company and US-based venture capital firm (VC) Sequoia Capital jointly invested $80 million in affiliated companies in China's Nainbo.

The reason for the growth of Xiaomi or the business method is actually very simple. It is "using the technology of developed countries in the cottage products, and developing and modifying them, selling products through American-style advertising and Chinese-style hunger marketing." As mentioned above, the intelligent electric scooter is a cottage product. However, this type of business has limitations. Due to the basic disregard of intellectual property rights, the legal risk is too high to export to developed countries.

In the field of intelligent electric scooters, Xiaomi may break through this limitation. The investment in Nainbo acquired one of the originators of the intelligent electric scooter, the American Segway. China is no longer a high-growth market. Invest in VC, acquire powerful companies with intellectual property rights, and expand their presence outside China. Xiaomi may adopt this new business method in the future. (Contributing author: Otsuka Toyo, Taipei Science and Technology Market Research, "Nikkei Electronics" special correspondent)