I spent a year with an electric scooter, and I will not go back

Rolling in an electric scooter on a daily basis, what does it give?How do you manage the battery recharge?Are there more problems than on a thermal?Is silence on the road as soothing as what is said?Here is the assessment of a 100 % electric driving year.

There is sometimes a great gap between theory and practice.Between what is written, black on white, on a technical sheet, and the feeling of a handlebars in his hands.Between the maximum autonomy praised by a merchant and the feeling of betrayal when one finds yourself forced to drive at 25 km/h to hope to go home before the breakdown.

I have been testing electric scooters and motorcycles since 2018 in the Numerama vroom section;Small, large, two-wheelers, three-wheelers, models that no longer exist, because they have not found their target, others because in stocking ... However, it is notthat in January 2021 that I decided to go for the course to go to the all-electric.

After a year to ride with my own electric two-wheeler, I changed my mind on certain aspects of this new mode of transport-often for the best.Do I regret driving an electric?No.Have I found the perfect mobility solution for me?Neither.But I will not go back.

Let me tell you what I have learned in the past 12 months to drive almost daily a vehicle that is presented as one of the branches of the "future" transport ".Yes, that makes a lot of quotes.

You have to love plastic

I have never found the quality of my thermal scooter in terms of finishes, whatever the two-wheelers that I tested.You will almost only find plastic bodywork, assemblies that are sometimes a little wobbly, boxes that close badly ... under the stools of the machines, most of the batteries (apart from UNU which has sought to make an effort) are just placed,without cache, and it is not uncommon for connection cables to hang.

Even more funny, there are these models which have been made from elements of thermal scooters and which keep its stigmata (we think of the Rider NG petrol pump indicator or the petrol hatch barely sealed on the E-trax).

Rider 5000 is clearly based on an imitation of the timeless Vespa, but I have not chosen it for that, because the slightly more original models (and which assume to have a different look because they are electric)I also like.We recognize for example the square pace of the niu when we see one pass one in the street.

In the street, no one will hear you ride

It may seem stupid to write, but the electric scooter is a really silent mode of transport.When you come from 10 years on a thermal two-wheeler, the sensation is almost stunning.During my first walks, I felt like I was sliding on the road.I also noticed that when there is less noise around you, we get up less quickly: we take a little more hindsight, we take advantage of break times.

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The direct consequence is harsh to admit, but I must be honest: I became intolerant to the sound of thermal scooters.I can't stand them anymore.Big t-max that the guys necessarily drive the legs raised forward at the small 50 in the holey exhaust pot, their sound attacks my eardrums and hits me on the system.

I had already noticed this discrepancy when I found my Piaggio 125 after several days spent testing an electrical model, but this sensitivity to noise has been strengthened since this year.It is clear and clear that I will never buy from thermal scooter, and noise is one of the reasons.

However, I have to complete this return from a warning: riding with a quick and silent device can be very dangerous, because no one hears you.This includes pedestrians crossing red, bikes overtaking, fire cars ... For the most part, they are used to avoiding dangers.As a driver, I have already pounded net in front of a pedestrian who had not looked before crossing.And as I see you coming: yes, it is his fault, but no, it is not a reason to crush it.

You won't brake (as before)

Slowing with an electric scooter is not quite similar only on a thermal, on which we are used to losing speed when we drop the acceleration handle.However on some two-wheelers (in particular), the deceleration is very light, even when we no longer touch the right handle;We must then brake more, more often and longer.This is one of the folds that I took the most time to take, because I used to anticipate slowdowns and curb only in the event of an extreme emergency.

However, there is a big advantage to brake more often: regenerative braking, which is found on scooters, but also cars, and which allows to convert braking to an electric current which will come to store in the battery.I observe it regularly when my battery level has only two notches on the dashboard: when I brake, I can bring up the level of an additional notch (of course, it does not last long, but cis always it).

Living in an apartment on the sixth floor without elevator (yes, I have a good cardio), it is simply impossible for me to load my scooter from a sector outlet (yes, even with a very, very large extension).As I wanted a big autonomy (100 km displayed), so I opted for a big battery.Very big.Too big.

This is clearly my biggest compromise: the battery weighs 19 kilos (yes, suddenly, I am muscular), and remove it every time from the passenger compartment under the saddle is a challenge.I must admit it, I sometimes took advantage (finally, between two confinements and teleworking obligations) of the number of Numerama to load my battery and avoid the agony of mounting it on 6 floors ... but the rest of theTime, it was necessary to arrest me courage to face this ascent which makes you want to return where I emitted a lot of CO2 particles in the atmosphere by making a lot of noise (no) (anyway).

However, the galley goes further.The biggest compromise that I had not seen coming by choosing an electric scooter lodges in the concept of spontaneity.Now, if I invite me to an evening at the other end of the city and my electric scooter has only one battery bar, I am done.Because, if I can go, I would surely not have enough energy to come back to my house.

As I tell in the video that accompanies this article, I have already left with a gauge that I thought was quite high (it is one of the problems of the Rider 5000, its counter is uninstantified), then theSee melt as snow in the sun as I was reaching 70 km/h on the device.I was even forced to take the first outing to drag myself at 25 km/h on the rest of the journey and be able to arrive at home before the battery is completely flat.

Is an electric scooter ecological?

There are many solutions under development, such as Zeway and its exchangeable batteries, but for the moment, you have to do with: load an electric scooter battery, it's long (at least 6 hours) and sometimes you have to adaptHis schedule in function.If you don't go out much, this problem will surely affect you less.For my part, the solution was to recharge it a little more often, even when it has 10 or 20 km of autonomy in the wheels, in order to be sure not to fall into harm.

Another tip would be to buy an additional battery to always have one always full at hand.But one, it costs expensive (almost 1,000 euros per battery), and two, it is an ecological aberration.

We know that electric scooters are not "clean solutions": if they do not emit CO2 in the atmosphere, their manufacture is still polluting, whether it is factories in China, of the processof importation, but above all batteries, which request a polluting mining industry and which are very difficult to recycle.

Note that the Paris town hall was planning to make parking spaces for thermal scooters on January 1, 2022, but that this was postponed to September 2022.Leaving more months of respite to owners who would like to switch.