Chinese electronics company Xiaomi announced on April 3 that its own branded foldable electric scooter won the Red Dot Award for Design Excellence (Best of the best), known as the Oscar in the design field.

The Red Dot award is a globally famous product design and communication prize awarded by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany since 1955. Best of the best is the most difficult to obtain in the prize category of product design, with the other two categories being design agencies, and design concepts.

Xiaomi-developed foldable electric scooter is honored with Germany's Red Dot Award for Design Excellence (Best of the best), one of the top three design awards in the world. [Photo/mi.com]

The honor added to the award diversity Xiaomi has seized in its ultimate pursuit of sophisticated design. The Red Dot, along with German's IF Design Award and International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) in the US, are the world's three biggest accolades. Xiaomi has won nearly 30 of such awards for its industrial products, such as LED intelligent table lamps and UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).

The electric scooter launched last December under the new brand Mijia and is made out of aircraft grade aluminum alloy, weighing just 12.5 kilograms. The creative minimalist design makes it easy to fold and carry, taking three seconds at a press of a button.

The scooter features an LG 18650 EV-lithium ion battery, allowing energy conversion from kinetic energy to electrical energy, and storage. Once fully charged, the vehicle can travel 30 kilometers at maximum speed of 25 kilometers per hour.

At the press of a button, it only takes three seconds to fold the Mi Electric Scooter. [Photo/mi.com]

Another feature is the anti-lock braking and dual-brake system which ensures proper and safe braking with a stopping distance of four meters.

"Mi products are not specifically optimized for the prize, but under the premise of considering mass productivity, good-looks and being easy to sell," said Sun Peng, director of product planning of Xiaomi.