CORRECTED-(OFFICIAL)-Electric scooter maker Niu in talks to supply Gojek - CEO

(Corrects paragraph 10 after company clarified capacityexpansion to happen in H2 2021, not April)

SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Niu Technologiesis in talks to supply its electric scooters to SoutheastAsian ride-hailing company Gojek to increase market share in theregion, the electric scooter maker's CEO told Reuters.

Niu makes scooters and motorcycles powered by lithium-ionbatteries and 95% of its sales by unit are in China. The companyhas been sending some scooters to Gojek for testing, CEO Li Yansaid.

"We definitely want to grab market share globally," Li, CEOof six-year-old Niu Technologies said in an interview. "But thisdepends on further drops in the cost of battery cells, which ishelped by the scaling up of electric vehicles."

Honda and Yamaha are currently the biggestplayers in the two-wheeler market in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian company Gojek declined to comment.

Niu sold 600,892 two-wheelers globally last year, up fromaround 43% on 2019. About 95% of these sales were made in Chinaand mostly came from the country's top 20 to 30 cities, Li said.

Niu buys battery cells from Panasonic, Samsung SDI, LG Chem and Eve Energy.

The company has 1,600 shops in China selling Niu scooterscurrently. It also has more than 100 shops overseas and morethan 1,000 dealers.

Li said the company plans to expand its sales network insmaller Chinese cities and will open shops at a faster pace thanlast year, when it opened 600 shops.

Niu currently makes electric two-wheelers in China's easterncity of Changzhou. It is also doubling its manufacturingcapacity and will have annual manufacturing capacity of morethan 2 million scooters from the second half this year, up from1 million annual capacity now, the CEO said.

Li said Niu has no plan to make electric cars. "We focus oninner-city mobility."

(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh in Shanghai and FannyPotkin in Singapore. Editing by Jane Merriman)