How to Choose a Long-Range Electric Scooter
In this Buyer's Guide:
We'll cover the key factors that you should consider when choosing a long-range electric scooter, including:
- Maximum & Real Range: Understanding Range
- Battery Size: Evaluating Battery Capacity for Range
- Battery Quality: Choosing Long-Lasting Batteries
- Battery Management Systems (BMS): Ensuring Battery Health and Safety
- Ride Quality: Key Features for Comfortable Rides
- Reliability: Ensuring Long-Term Performance
When choosing a long-range electric scooter, it’s essential to understand the factors that influence range, reliability, and comfort.
Whether you’re prioritizing maximum distance, battery lifespan, or ride quality, the right combination of features will significantly influence your selection.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the critical aspects to consider and draw from my hands-on testing and expert insights to help you navigate your options so that you can find the best model for your needs.
Find the Perfect Scooter
Check out my recommendations and compare electric scooters below.
Maximum & Real Range: Understanding Range
The first thing most prospective buyers look for in a long-range electric scooter is its advertised maximum range. This stat, provided by manufacturers, reflects best-case conditions. These often include a 165 lb rider, flat terrain, and riding in the slowest setting. While useful for comparing top-level specs, these figures don't reflect everyday use.
To garner a clearer picture of performance, you should look out for real-world / tested range figures. In general, real-world ranges tend to equate to 60-70% of the maximum. For example, if a manufacturer claims a 30-mile maximum, you’re more likely to get 18-21 miles when factoring in a heavier rider, undulating terrain, and riding fast.
Based on my many tests, the maximum and real-world ranges of electric scooters can be categorized as follows:
| Performance | Max Range | Real Range |
|---|---|---|
| Extremely Long | > 60 miles | > 40 miles |
| Very Long | 40 - 60 miles | 30 - 40 miles |
| Long | 30 - 40 miles | 20 - 30 miles |
Battery Size: Evaluating Battery Capacity for Range
As expected, the larger the battery, the longer your range. The size of a battery is determined by its volts (V), amp-hours (Ah), and watt-hours (Wh). Understanding these will help you identify the scooters with the biggest batteries:
Volts (V): Commonly referred to as electric pressure, volts are the measured strength of the electricity that flows through a battery. The higher the volts, the higher the battery’s energy density. Typically, scooter batteries fall into one of six voltage categories: 36V, 48V, 52V, 60V, 72V, and 84V.
Amp-Hours (Ah): This figure indicates how much energy the battery can supply in an hour. The higher the amp-hours, the greater the battery’s runtime.
Watt-Hours (Wh): Watt-hours is the key metric that indicates battery size. It’s calculated by multiplying volts and amp-hours. The higher the watt-hours, the greater the battery’s capacity, and the longer your range. For example, a 36V 10Ah battery has 360Wh of power. This equates to approximately 20-30 miles of maximum range. On the other hand, a larger 60V 24.5Ah unit has 1470Wh and a maximum range of approximately 50-60 miles.
Battery Quality: Choosing Long-Lasting Batteries
Battery quality impacts long-term performance.
While no-name FST batteries are found in many scooters and offer good short-term results, they degrade faster over time. Higher-quality cells from brands like LG, Samsung, and Panasonic, however, can maintain optimal performance for longer – up to 500 charge cycles, to be precise. By comparison, FST batteries typically deliver 200-300 cycles at peak performance. This difference can add years of life to your scooter depending on your charging habits.
An easy way to understand this is to compare it to your phone. Just like your phone's battery loses capacity over time with repeated charging, scooter batteries experience similar wear. In short, the more you charge your scooter, the shorter its maximum range becomes.
Battery Management Systems (BMS): Ensuring Battery Health and Safety
A battery management system (BMS) is a non-negotiable. It ensures that a scooter’s battery operates within safe limits by protecting it from over-voltage, low-voltage, over-discharge, over-current, and over-heating.
For example, it will disconnect the battery from the electrical load if it detects that the voltage has dropped below a certain threshold to prevent it from fully draining and going flat. Likewise, it restricts and shuts off the power supply if the battery's internal temperature rises beyond a safe level.
These systems also report key information to the scooter's display, allowing you to view accurate readouts of your battery level, as well as error codes that correspond to technical issues.
Ride Quality: Key Features for Comfortable Rides
It can be easy to get wrapped up in maximum and real-world range figures, but without comfort and control, the rest of a scooter’s performance is null and void.
Based on my experiences, these are the key attributes that you should look out for:
Handlebar Width: The wider the handlebars, the greater your control, and the less strain on your arms and shoulders.
Deck-to-Handlebar Height: Higher handlebars improve your posture and stance. For taller riders (over 6 ft), a handlebar height of 40 inches or more helps to maintain comfort without hunching.
Deck Space: Ample deck space promotes better balance and allows you to maintain a natural stance to reduce discomfort on long rides. Decks that measure at least 19 inches long typically offer enough room.
Shock Absorption: While suspension isn’t critically important, it does elevate comfort by soaking up bumps and vibrations that would otherwise cause fatigue. Here, I recommend choosing a scooter with dual suspension that has a decent amount of travel, doesn’t bottom out, and scores at least 5 out of 10 on my shock-absorption scale. For a luxurious riding experience, it’s best to opt for a model that scores 9 or above and is equipped with adjustable shocks that you can fine-tune to your environment.
Tire Size: Bigger tires allow for more ground clearance, a smoother ride, and better momentum. They also roll over bumps and obstacles more easily, and because they retain inertia better, they coast for longer, leading to longer ranges.
Tire Type: Pneumatic (air-filled) tires offer the most responsive riding experience, whilst they also work in tandem with suspension systems to further cushion the ride by absorbing minor bumps and vibrations. For long-lasting performance and reliability, I recommend choosing a scooter with no-flat tubeless tires since they use a thick gel-like coating to protect against punctures.
Throttle Type: Thumb throttles are far more comfortable to use for prolonged periods than those that are finger-actuated. This is because they offer better ergonomics and don’t force you to adopt a claw-like grip that can cause hand cramps.
Controller Type (Throttle Response): There are two types of controllers that you should be aware of – Square Wave and Sine Wave. While the former provides an instant hit of abrupt power and is excellent for wind-whipping acceleration rates, the latter offers a much smoother power delivery. For long-range rides, being able to modulate your speed with precision is a need-to-have feature. With this in mind, I recommend opting for a scooter with Sine Wave controllers – without them, it can be harder to maintain a constant speed.
Cruise Control: Most electric scooters have cruise control features, but it’s always worth checking before you commit to buying one – especially as they can give your thumbs and fingers a rest from the throttle.
Reliability: Ensuring Long-Term Performance
When choosing a scooter to take you from A to B and back again, it’s incredibly important to ensure that it’s able to withstand wear and tear.
The three most notable factors that you should consider are:
Build Quality: The strength and durability of a scooter is determined by the craftsmanship of its build. A well-built scooter is typically made from aviation-grade aluminum, while its frame will have been manufactured using precise CNC machinery, and key structural components forged to ensure high tensile and fatigue strengths. For long-range scooters, it’s important to pay attention to these details since a strong frame minimizes flexing and wobbling, providing a more consistent ride. This is particularly relevant when researching what reviewers say about the rigidity of folding joints – if they aren’t up to scratch, the stem will wobble back and forth.
Tire Durability: While solid tires are inherently the most durable and reliable, they don’t tick the comfort box. As a result, I recommend opting for a scooter with pneumatics. However, you must understand their varying degrees of durability. Those with inner-tubes are the most susceptible to punctures, while those that are tubeless are more resistant to flats as a result of their thicker exterior walls. For the best of both worlds – durability and comfort – I recommend no-flat tubeless tires. These are lined with a thick gel that flows into puncture holes to seal the gaps and prevent air from escaping.
Weather Protection: For long-range scooters, weather-resistant features are crucial for preventing damage and maintaining consistent performance in wet or dirty environments. The most notable indicator of a scooter’s ability to withstand varying conditions is its IP rating (Ingress Protection). These vary in the level of protection that they provide, but they all ensure that electronics, motors, and batteries are shielded from rain, dust, and other elements. Fenders and splash guards also help to minimize splashback, while grippy decks ensure control, and water-funneling tire treads disperse water more effectively to prevent slippage.
Need Help?
Still unsure which scooter to choose? Check out my recommendations and compare models below.
