The story they told me is that Segway was going to be successful in the USA as a mobility scooter for the elderly, giving range and speed to people who could not walk or cycle far and fast, while not still requiring a traditional wheelchair.
From memory, the strategy was to get the Segway classified as a mobility/accessibility device, which would gain regulatory exemptions and access to funding from public health. They were lobbying the EU with their left hand, and running Segway demonstrations at TV-friendly events like Campus Party with their right hand.
I don't know how much these people believed that this would work in the EU. I didn't believe it. But they weren't getting paid for believing it, nor for persuading me. They were getting paid for telling everyone about it.