Lime and Segway can not match on suspected inflamed scooters

The heat is lit in a brawl between two scooter manufacturers after Lime said earlier this week that some of the batteries manufactured by one of its makers, Segway Ninebot, could catch fire. Now, Segway is against the allegation, suggesting instead that Lime does not understand how the batteries work.

Lime tackled the apparent issue in a statement posted on her website earlier this week, in which she had learned that some Ninebot scooter batteries used in her own e-scooters could "cause the battery to burn slowly, or Lime said she was working with Segway to solve this problem by creating software to diagnose potentially affected batteries and scooters and extract them from the streets of Los Angeles, San Diego and Lake Tahoe.

"At no time have runners or members of the public been put in danger," the company said. "Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we recently received an unconfirmed report that another Segway Ninebot scooter model may also be vulnerable to battery failures, which we are currently investigating."

In a statement to the Washington Post on Thursday, Segway fought back. The company said it sold "several million" products using the same battery technology without any problems, adding, "We believe this statement does not rest on a good understanding of battery technology."

Segway also released an additional statement Friday, doubling the defense of its products. Although he does not mention Lime by name, Segway suggested that perhaps it was the maintenance of the scooters that was at the origin of the "operational dangers".

[W]We found that operational hazards resulted from extreme abuse and vandalism of vehicles in the scooter sharing market. Given the fact that the management and maintenance of shared scooters and the identification of damaged vehicles strongly depend on operators, we strongly recommend operators to strengthen their operation and maintenance capabilities of the fleet in order avoid potential safety problems caused by the improper use of damaged vehicles.

In response to this statement, a spokesman for lime said in the mail that the company "stand[s] by our decision and our reasoning "and that he is" eager to work with Segway to rule out any security problem and restore our confidence in their product. "

Another day, another battle in the current scooter war.