Tech site Slash Gear has investigated and ranked every* major electric KickScooter brand, from best to worst.

The results? It's Segway at the top by a wide margin, of course.

According to Slash Gear, the Segway-Ninebot e-scooter range ranks high and above the rest, concluding:

"Features can include tubeless, anti-puncture tires, Apple Find My app compatibility, hydraulic disc brakes, multiple speed modes, transparent PMOLED displays, as well as front and rear suspensions. Many models are made using high-end materials such as aircraft-grade aluminum. Segway makes some of the best-equipped models within the mid-range to high-end segments.

Segway is to portable electric mobility what Dyson is to bagless vacuum cleaners - an original, trailblazing brand that creates excellent products. As such, it makes the top of our ranking for its consistent quality, features and range.

The article dedicates several paragraphs to each brand that it analysis, summarising the range of products offered and setting out their reasons for coming to their rating conclusions.

Brands are ranked as follows, and we've annotated an indication if it is currently advertised for sale in New Zealand:

1. Segway - Segway-Ninebot KickScooters are sold throughout New Zealand by large and small retailers alike, and are well-supported with service and parts
2. Dualtron (sold in NZ)
3. Nami (sold in NZ)
4. Kaabo (sold in NZ)
5. Inokim (sold in NZ)
6. Unagi (sold in NZ)
7. Apollo (sold in NZ)
8. Zero (sold in NZ)
9. Hiboy (not sold in NZ)
10. Gotrax (sold in NZ)
11. Nui (sold in NZ)
12. Turboant (not sold in NZ)
13. Glion (not sold in NZ)
14. Razor (sold in NZ)
15. Swagtron (not sold in NZ, although hoverboards by this brand were sold here some years ago...good luck finding parts or service for these devices)

* Oddly, the Xiaomi brand is not listed or reviewed by Slash Gear, yet Xiaomi is a major brand in most countries, including New Zealand. Xiaomi kickscooters are designed and manufactured for Xiaomi by Segway-Ninebot, and at each tier or market segment tend to be positioned below Ninebot KickScooters in terms of price and performance.

Many of the brands listed above as being sold in New Zealand are only available directly from the importer's website, or from a very limited number of retailers. There are also brands sold in New Zealand that are not on this list.

You can read Slash Gear's full article here.

Embedded in their article is an assertion that we don't agree with at all: that Segway's first product, the namesake Segway Personal Transporter (PT) was "ill-fated" - we only recognise that its sales never lived up to the impossibly overhyped expectations. Nor do we agree that the Segway PT was a "fad" because, really, there was never a time period during which it sold enough units to be able to be considered a fad. Rather, sales and use were surprising consistent throughout the first decade of production, then consistent (if lower) during its second decade.

Here in New Zealand the Segway PT has been a successful product, with per-capita sales the highest in the world (or at least in the top 3, normalised for per-capita GDP, challenged only by Germany and USA).

In this country the Segway PT has been widely adopted and loved by mobility users, utilised by well-healed commuters at the forefront of the micro-mobility revolution, deployed as Segway Tours in all of the popular tourist destinations around our nation, enthusiastically used for event management and for security patrols, for pizza and mail deliveries, on worksites and film productions for productivity, as a popular corporate entertainment activity, in experimental robotics projects, and incorporated into Omeo self-balancing power chairs that are sold locally and exported worldwide - all to tremendous acclaim by users.