Which One Should I Get, an Electric Bike or an Electric Scooter?

[Jeremy45]

Hello all, I am looking for a mobility vehicle for commuting to my office, which is 4 miles away from my home. My budget is around $750 to $1000 max. Can anyone share their experience riding both these vehicles? I really appreciate any advice you can give.

[Mandy96]

Considering your commuting distance and budget, you should go for an electric scooter. Most entry-level electric bikes start from $1000 with some basic features. But on the other hand, $1000 can give you a better deal in the electric scooter market. You can easily get a Mid-range electric scooter with more features and better range. I own an Apollo Air, which only cost me $750.

It has a sleek, compact design with an aluminium frame, which makes it lightweight. I can also fold your scooter, which is cool as I can carry it in my apartment using a lift, which is six floors high. I don’t need to worry about parking space as I store it under my office desk. I know it’s a little weird, but it gives me a piece of mind that my scooter will not stolen.

With a sleek design and faster speed, my scooter has a 21 mph top speed, which I tested by myself, and gives me 34 miles of range, which I think for a commuter scooter.

As you have mentioned, your commute is only 4 miles, then I highly recommend you go for an electric scooter. For short commutes, electric scooters are best and fun to ride but for longer commutes, I suggest you go to an electric bike as standing for a long in a scooter makes your legs sore.

One thing you need to check is whether your route has any potholes or uphill, as both are not good friends of electric scooters. You can ride uphill, but your scooter should have dual motors or at least a single motor of 1000W that can able to ride in uphills smoothly.

Let’s talk about maintenance. Every vehicle needs maintenance, and both e-scooters and e-bikes have similar types of maintenance, such as cleaning with a microfiber cloth, oiling the motors, checking the tyre pressure, and changing brake pads.

But the main difference comes in costs. The average maintenance cost for an electric scooter is around $120 to $150 annually, whereas an electric scooter average is around $300 to $450 annually. All the information mentioned above was taken from these sources:

https://aperyder.com/blogs/blog/electri ... comparison
https://escooterinfo.com/are-electric-s ... intenance/
https://www.levyelectric.com/resources/ ... -explained

If you are still confused about which one I should go for, then you can take a test ride on both vehicles. But if you don’t have any dealership nearby, then you can use a rental e-scooter or e-bike to get a better idea of both of them.

In Australia, in most metropolitan cities you will easily find two brands of rental e-scooters and e-bikes that are Neuron and LIME Micromobility. Just take a ride in your city, and you will get to know which one is best for your commuting.

[Jeremy45]

Thanks Mandy for such a in-depth insights, I looking forward to it.

[T1 Terry]

The other catch is legality on the road. An electric bike is legal, an electric scooter has real problems as far what/who/where you can ride them. In Adelaide, the "rentascooter" are at every corner, but you can't own one and ride it on the footpath, you can't ride them in the bicycle lanes or on the road. An electric pushbike, on the other hand, can be the best of both worlds. You can get fold up electric push bikes, very popular with the motorhome crowd, fat tyre/wheel electric bikes, normal looking electric bikes, a whole range of bikes that are electric assist ..... with that hand throttle as well, so short range electric only is well within their range .... and pedal a bit if hills are involved. In Adelaide, push bike rides get their own lanes and really looked after.

Then there are the various electric motor bikes, price range might be the killer there, they aren't cheap and must be registered. The advantages are the car drivers have to share the road with you, yet you can zip up between the traffic at the lights and be the first off the mark, they do take off really well, top speed is their weakness.

T1 Terry

[jonescg]

I read that the restrictions in SA are being removed next year, so private escooters are cool again. Which is fantastic.