Electric scooters have flooded the market of electric rideons with a large number of different models. Want to buy an electric scooter for yourself, your partner or kids, but you don’t know which one would be the best? In this guide we will try to point out the most important characteristics of electric scooters and what you should pay attention to when buying a scooter.
Not every scooter suits every person and that is why it is necessary to pay attention to a number of elements such as the person you are buying an electric scooter to (whether it is a child or an adult and how heavy that person is), the reason for buying a scooter, or whether you need it for commuting or entertainment, carrying capacity and weight of a particular scooter, battery life, maximum range on fully charged battery, recharging time, engine power, maximum speed, size and type of wheels, etc.
So there is a large the number of elements you need to consider when buying an electric scooter. We will do our best to explain in this guide all the features and why they are important and we hope that this will help you when choosing and buying an electric scooter.
Pay Attention to The Driver’s Weight And Electric Scooter’s Load Capacity
This should definitely be considered first when choosing a particular electric scooter. Like all electric vehicles, electric scooters have limits when it comes to their carrying capacity and driver’s weight. Keep in mind that most electric scooters are intended for riders with a maximum weight of 220 lbs. This is in the case of scooters intended for adults. Also, there are scooters that are specifically designed for children, so their carrying capacity is significantly lower and ranges mainly from 130 lbs to 150 lbs. So, if you are buying an adult scooter, immediately exclude all children’s scooters from the selection. However, if you are buying a scooter for children older than 12, it would not be bad to immediately switch to buying a scooter for adults, because the carrying capacity of children’s scooters is such that they often cannot meet the requirements of teenagers in the right way.
Also, pay attention to the fact that if you weigh on the line of the maximum carrying capacity of the scooter or close to it, in most cases you cannot expect the maximum declared performance of the scooter. For example, if the carrying capacity of an electric scooter is 22o lbs, and you weigh just that much, then the autonomy of the scooter on fully charged battery will be less than the maximum declared, ie the battery will run out faster. In addition, the maximum declared vehicle speed will be lower than the actual one because the engine can carry a person of 180 lbs easier and faster than a person of 220 lbs, logically.
Electric Scooter Weight
Most manufacturers try to produce as light electric scooters as possible, and yet be strong enough to withstand the driver and road conditions. Therefore, they use aluminum alloys, plastic and rubber in their production, ie those materials that will contribute to making the scooter as light as possible.
On average, adult scooter models weigh between 25 lbs and 40 lbs, depending on whether they are for fun or commuting. Why is the weight of an electric scooter important? It is important for two reasons, the weight indirectly indicates the quality of the scooter, and the second reason is that it is easier to carry lighter scooters. As a rule, better quality scooters are slightly heavier than lower quality ones because they use bigger wheels, a battery with a higher capacity, which is therefore heavier, they have a bigger and stronger motor, the dual brake system is heavier than a simple brake, etc. However, this is not always the only indicator because with the development of scooters there has been a wider installation of high quality and lighter alloys which ultimately result in the overall lower weight of the scooter. Also, the weight of the scooter is important in the moments when your battery runs out or when you have to climb stairs and the like. If you often have to carry a scooter up the stairs, the lighter model is far better, isn’t it?
Terrain on Which You Drive an Electric Scooter
It is certainly important on which terrains you will ride the electric scooter because it does matter whether you ride it on flat surfaces without many holes and bumps or on trails, sidewalks and roads that are uneven, with numerous holes and bumps.
If the terrains on which you will ride your scooter are flat and without bumps at all (and there are few such terrains) then you can go with scooters that use smaller wheels with full rubber tires and without shock absorbers. However, if you will encounter terrain with protrusions, depressions and holes while driving, then it is best to choose scooters with larger wheels (about 10 inches), with inflatable tires and built-in shock absorbers. This way, riding over uneven terrain will be maximally comfortable and safe for you and your scooter.
What should make you happy is that most electric scooters for adults have pneumatic tires and built-in shock absorbers. Of course, you need to pay attention to the fact that pneumatic tires can puncture, just like in cars.
Motor and Battery
When it comes to electric scooter’s motors there is a very simple rule, the stronger the motor the faster the scooter will be. However, this rule is accompanied by another one, the stronger the motor of the electric scooter, the more expensive it is. So, you need to decide if you want top performance scooters at a price that can go over $1500 at the fastest scooters with the most powerful motors, or you are ready to sacrifice crazy speeds in favor of your wallet and opt for scooters with speeds between 15 and 25 mph.
Keep in mind that scooter motors for children are far weaker than commuting scooters for adults and range from 90 W to 200 W for more advanced models. The maximum speeds of kids’ scooters range between 5 mph with the cheapest scooters and up to 15 mph with the higher quality ones intended for teenagers.
Motors for commuting and adult electric scooters range from 250 W to over 1200 W for monster electric scooters. We recommend that you do not take a scooter with less than 300 W motor if you buy it for adults. Simply you will quickly be disappointed with the performance when you see someone buzzing next to you on a 300 W, 350 W or 400 W scooter, and then you will want to get it too and throw yourself into the cost again. Go immediately to at least 350 W motor. And of course make sure that the motor is “brushless” because they have higher efficiency and better power-to-weight ratio, and other advantages are manifested in longer life, less propensity to failure and do not produce noise.
Electric scooters are using draws electricity for engines from built-in lithium-ion batteries (usually composed of 18650 type cells), hidden inside the steering bar or, more commonly, in the standing platform. These are most often 24 to 48 V battery systems, with capacities ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 mAh, but advanced models can also have larger capacities or additional replaceable batteries.
Batteries when charged can last from 30 minutes of continuous driving to 3 or 4 hours, depending on how much capacity they have and how quality they are. If this is important to choose electric scooters with batteries of higher capacity from well-known manufacturers. Once discharged, it will take you 3 to 6 hours to fully charge them, again depending on the quality of the batteries, their capacity and the manufacturer. This should not be a problem as they can be fully charged during working hours or while you sleep.
An Average Electric Scooter
It is very difficult to determine the characteristics of an average electric scooter because the ranges of characteristics are obviously very wide. However, we will try to present you the average profile of electric scooters that are most often bought. Their characteristics are:
- Price range: $ 250 to $ 500
- Motor power: 250 W to 350 W
- Wheel diameter: 8.5 or 10 inches
- Autonomy: 12 to 25 miles
- Top speed: Between 15 and 25 mph
- Load capacity: 220 lbs
- Electric scooter weight: 26 lbs to 36 lbs
- It is foldable (very important feature because you wanna to be able to carry it around and to store it easily inside your apartment or car trunk)
Some of the most famous models that fit into this electric scooter profile are Gotrax GXL V2, Gotrax G3, Gotrax G4, Glion Dolly, Hover-1 Alpha, Hiboy MAX V2, Gotrax XR Ultra, Gotrax XR Elite, Razor E Prime III, Razor e300, Megawheels S11X etc.