NIU Technologies has just announced robust sales of its electric scooters in the first quarter of 2021, prompting many to predict that the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer will emerge as a leader in the industry. Headquartered in Changzhou, China, and listed on the NASDAQ exchange, NIU announced that that it sold a total of 149,649 electric scooters in the January to March quarter of this year. The figure of quarterly sales represents an impressive year-over-year jump as the company had sold merely 40,160 electric scooters in the corresponding three months of 2020. In simple words, the company enjoyed a whopping 272.6 per cent year-over-year increase in quarterly sales.

However, it is worth-mentioning here that the Chinese manufacturer saw unusually low sales in the first quarter of last year as the majority of the country was under strict lockdown due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that allegedly originated in China and gradually spread to other parts of the world.

Luckily, the EV manufacturer recovered fast and recorded strong sales. In China, NIU saw a growth of 322 per cent in quarterly sales in the three-month period under review, while global sales declined from 5,844 units in first quarter of 2020 to 4,995 units in first quarter of 2021.

The 14.5 per cent decline in the company’s year-over-year global sales was mainly due to much of Europe’s re-implementing lockdowns due to the second deadly wave of COVID-19 pandemic. It may be noted here that Europe represents one of the Chinese manufacturer’s biggest markets outside its home country. Some complications in international shipping services also contributed to the decline in quarterly sales. The problems also caused the company to have backlog orders to the tune of more than 5,000 units.

NIU said in a statement, “The decrease in the international markets was mainly caused by COVID-19, especially the recent rebound and lockdowns in Europe, and by a more challenging environment for international shipping. As of March 31st, 2021, the company had backlog orders of 5,437 units which were not fulfilled within the first quarter 2021.”

In spite of all those issues, the global outlook for the Chinese manufacturer’s growth appears bright, particularly with an impressive increase in the B2C sales of the company’s electric scooters in global markets. Ride-sharing service providers like Revel and Lime have adopted NIU’s e-scooters for their respective moped-sharing fleets.