China will unveil a national standard for self-balancing scooters. [Photo/Ninebot.cn]

China will unveil a national standard for self-balancing scooters, a market worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) globally, market leader Ninebot said yesterday.

The planned national standard, which will probably be effective next year, will put in place safety features for the self-balancing scooters and ensure they are of high quality in China, the biggest manufacturer of the product globally. In the long term, the standard will boost exports and technological innovation of the industry, said Liu Chao, a legal affairs official at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Zhao Zhongwei, chief operating officer of Ninebot, said: "The standard and regulation in China for scooter market is still in its infancy although it has a huge market size and potential."

The planned national standard aims to block the entry of copycat products, which may be inferior, pose safety problems to users and will hurt the whole industry, said Ninebot, which now has over 70 percent of the global self-balancing scooter market after it acquired Segway in 2015.

A local standard will officially debut in Guangdong Province, said Zhao.

The two-wheeled or one-wheeled, self-balancing and battery-powered scooters can travel for 1-5 kilometers.

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