What Makes a ‘Good’ Electric Scooter? A Buyer’s Guide

Electric Scooters are ideal for people needing get about with a minimal amount hassle or cost that’s associated with public transport & driving. For around $750, the price is practically within the reach of just about everyone; it’s also one of the easiest personal electric vehicles to operate, giving them an universal appeal.

Comfort: an Electric Scooter without either suspension or air tires will be practically unrideable on normal pavements & nearly anywhere else. Every small bump in the road is transmitted up through the handle-bar& the standing platform.

You also want to have a scooter with minimal play/give in the vertical handle-bar; a good eScooter will feel firm, predictable & stable while cruising at speed.

Battery & Range: one of the most confusing & exaggerated manufacturer statistics is the estimated ranges. The reality is that there are so many real-life variables which have a dramatic effect on the range, that it’s practically useless predicting the number of miles a particular model can achieve.  The Rider’s weight, height, head-wind, terrain, topography (hills),  how much starting & stopping you do are all vital parts of the overall calculation.

Even the scooter’s battery capacity rating is frequently misleading: most manufacturers will quote the battery size in Ah, or Amp Hours; the problem is that this information is pointless unless the nominal voltage of the battery pack is also known, & then you’ll need to multiply the two figures together to derive the capacity Watt-hours (Wh= Ah x Volts) . It would be more honest/transparent if the quoted the battery sizes were listed in Watt-hours as is the case with Electric Unicycle.

Top Speed: there are two types of defined speeds, the maximum speed & comfortable cruising speed. Some scooters will claim to have a blister 20mph top speed, but for anyone who has tried one at this speed will find that it’s not realistic to travel any sort of distance with a bone shatter ride if it’s not designed with large air Wheels &/or suspension.

The Smart Scooter: a modern state-of-the-art eScooter will have a bluetooth App that will allow you to not only view trip information (speed, range, power, etc) but also allow you to Customize the handling through the ‘Ride Mode’ settings, enabled/disable the lighting, or engage the motor lock function. The information Dashboard on a previous generation eScooter was small, unilluminated, difficult to read. Inmotion have defined the new standard for Dashboard user interfaces; the data is beautifully presented on a large clean illuminated screen that’s easy to see at a glance.

Conclusion:
If you’re looking for an Electric Scooter that will go the distance (in both the figurative & literal sense), then you should choose a model with large 8″ tires (preferably inflatable), suspension, a >300Wh battery pack, & a frame that’s designed for the rigors of real life. The Inmotion L6/Lively was tested over three years & 100,000km before it was released for sale, making it one of the most dependable, durable, comfortable & also the most fun Scooters that you can buy today.