Scooter makers, rental companies ride high on hope and hype

SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES - Segway-Ninebot Group, a Beijing-based manufacturer of electric scooters, rolled into Los Angeles this week hoping to bolster its position as the main supplier for a new wave of well-funded scooter-rental startups and offer a peek at new battery-powered transit products.

Gao Lufeng, chairman and chief executive of the firm, said the company expects to double its revenue every year for the next three to five years. Formed by the 2015 combination of China's Ninebot and United States transportation pioneer Segway, the company was most recently valued by private market investors at $1.5 billion and is now looking to raise $200 million from financiers, Gao said.

Gao was in Southern California for a media event trumpeting his company's new electric transportation gadgets, as Segway-Ninebot scooters become an increasingly common sight around urban areas like Los Angeles and Oakland.