Street Legal Electric Scooters...

Wave of the Future?

If you're looking for an even greener alternative transportation than a gas scooter, you might look at electric scooters... no, not the kind your grandmother drives in the local box store!

Today's electric motor scooters are more powerful and closer in functionality to gas-powered scooters than ever before.

Some Advantages of Electric vs. Gas Scooters

There are some real advantages to using electric motor scooters over gasoline scooters, namely:

• Electric power for scooters costs about 1/4 of what gas fuel would.
• Electric scooters are quieter than gas ones.
• Electric scooters are more environmentally-friendly.
• It's more convenient and cheaper to replenish the "fuel." Just plug it in & recharge.
• Electric scooters need less maintenance, such as no oil changes.
• Although electricity generation can produce some emissions, as a rule, they're less than those emitted by gasoline exhaust.

But Not Everything Is Better

On the other hand, gas scooters have some advantages over electric...

• Street legal electric scooters often cost a lot more than gas scooters.
• Electric scooters have to be re-fueled (recharged) more often than gas scooters, so they won't take you on as long trips.
• Electric motor scooters take longer to recharge than gas scooters do to fill up.
• In many cases, electric scoots won't go as fast as their gas counterparts, though that is changing.
• Electric scooter battery recharging can be inconvenient at times, depending on the accessibility of an electrical outlet to plug into.
• Electric scooters won't always keep going on cold days.

Where to Find Electric Motor Scooters

The street legal class of electric motor scooters is not all that easy to find at this point, as the idea is still rather new. Here are some manufacturers/dealers that are either already selling some electric scooters:

• E-moto
• Zapino
• Electric Vehicle Technologies (EVT America)
• Falcon EV
• Xtreme Scooters

More are emerging all the time, as the idea of electric-powered street vehicles catches on. One website that seems to be staying on top of this emerging technology is EVFinder.com. They track electric cars too, including the electric smart car, which my husband writes about on his smart car website.

Speaking of smart cars, the company has also made a prototype for an electric smart scooter. Here's an interesting video about it:

The smart escooter has some cool new features, like heated handlegrips, a pop out second seat, smart phone integration and lots of safety features, including an air bag. It also has supplemental solar panels on the front to boost battery life. Read the press release here

In Summary...

High-powered electric motorcycles are already available in the US. So, it is likely that street legal electric scooters that are the equivalent of many gasoline scooters won't be far behind. And if you're the type of person that wants to lower your carbon footprint in a big way, then an electric motor scooter just might be in your future!

Related Pages in This Section

• Overview of Motorized Scooter Types
• Scooter engine sizes
• Matching road scooters to your needs
• How scooters are powered

Other pages you might like to visit...

• Learn how to ride scooters right
• Get answers to your questions about buying a scooter
• What to wear when riding a scooter