How much will it cost to own an electric scooter?
If you’ve ever been stuck in traffic and wondered how much gas money you could save by driving your own electric scooter, then read on.
This article will give you the full breakdown of the cost of owning an electric scooter versus the cost of owning and maintaining a car.
This will help you determine how much you would save on the purchase of an electric scooter, regardless of whether you drive a little or a lot.
We’ll also find out how many car miles you’ll need to replace with scooter miles to make the electric scooter worth your while. Plus, you’ll learn everything you need to know to start driving. Let’s dive in.
Why an Electric Scooter?
Electric kick scooters, like the Razor kick scooters of the 1990s, have two wheels, a platform called a deck, and a handlebar for steering. They differ from the non-motorised kick scooters of the 1990s in that they have an additional battery, electronics, larger (often air-filled) tyres and an electric motor.
Although most scooters are designed to be ridden standing up, some scooters can be converted into seated electric scooters with optional accessories.
Recently, there has been a huge increase in interest in scooters – mainly because scooter sharing companies like Lime and Bird have brought them to cities overnight.
Scooter sharing has raised public awareness of micro-mobility and driven the growth of the private market. The explosion of the private market has led to hundreds of different models of electric scooters being imported by a large number of different brands.
Although most companies produce electric scooters for adults, some companies – notably Razor – target the market for children and young people.
Charging Cost vs. Gas
Let’s start with the simplest comparison, the cost of charging compared to gas. It turns out that charging electric scooters is shockingly cheap.
How cheap?
Well, to put it in perspective, riding a scooter is about 200 times cheaper than walking…
Walking
One Big Mac: $3.99, 563 calories
Walking consumes 103 calories per mile or 64 calories per km. Food cost = $0.73 per mile or $0.45 per km.
Scooting
Cost of charging the scooter = $ 0.0035 per mile = $ 0.00217 per kilometer
$0.73 /0.0035 or $0.45 /0.00217 = riding a scooter is about 209 times cheaper than walking.
And if you need another incentive: Scooters get you to your destination five times faster than walking.
Electric Scooter Cost vs. a Car
Mile for mile, motor scooters are a far less expensive mode of transportation than gas-powered cars.
Mankeel 083 pro
Let’s take the best-selling entry-level scooter, the Manke 083 as an example, with performance data representative of most mass-market scooters.
This affordable electric scooter costs about $400. According to our own road tests, it reaches a top speed of 16 mph and a range of 18m
ICE Car
By comparison, in California, where gasoline is about $6/gallon or $1.59/liter, the average internal combustion engine (ICE) car travels only 3 miles per $1 spent at the pump.
Even taking into account pre-oil shortage prices, a car typically gets you 6 miles per $1 spent.
Not everyone wants to buy a high-powered scooter; after all, most scooters are used for commuting to work. But let’s say you wanted to ride a scooter that had a little more oomph than the Mankeel 083 pro.
Mankeel X7
Let’s say you wanted to ride the fastest production scooter in the world, the Mankeel X7, for example – a rocket ship of an electric scooter that costs about $2,400 (an expensive electric scooter, but much cheaper than your average car).
Now we all know that more power means more power consumption. Mankeel X7 ‘S powerful motors will still take you 124 mi for just $1.
Granted, that’s only half as efficient as the entry-level Mankeel 083 pro, but it’s still many times less expensive than ICE cars.
But since typical commuter scooters are more like the Mankeel 083 pro than the big Mankeel X7, we’ll use the Mankeel 083 pro’s numbers to calculate how much we save over time.
An electric scooter is cheaper than driving a car
Good scooter lighting is important for seeing and being seen at night. Unfortunately, many of the scooters we tested have inadequate integrated lighting.
Almost every electric scooter has at least one LED headlight and a brake-activated tail light. In addition, many scooters are equipped with multi-colored LEDs that wrap around the deck or shine from below. We like to refer to this type of lighting as swag lighting.
Swag and deck lighting are good for increasing the visibility and coolness factor of your scooter, but not a substitute for powerful headlights and taillights.
Unfortunately, many electric scooters have woefully weak lighting. That’s why we almost always recommend additional lighting for safe night riding.
Cost of Commuting on Electric Scooter vs. Driving
The average U.S. car driver spends $619 per year on gasoline (before the oil price crisis).
In contrast, the same annual mileage on an electric scooter would result in an annual charging cost of only $13.
This net difference alone would be enough to amortize the purchase price of a high-end electric scooter.
That’s right. You don’t need to buy the cheapest electric scooter, and you’ll still save money by commuting by scooter instead of driving.
Gas Savings Breakdown
Fuel cost for car: 17 cents per mile or 11 cents per km.
Electricity cost for a scooter = 0.35 cents per mile or 0.22 cents per km
Gasoline savings from riding a scooter = 16.6 cents per mile or 10.31 cents per km
Cost of Repairs and Depreciation
The average U.S. car driver spends $619 per year on gasoline (before the oil price crisis).
In contrast, the same annual mileage on an electric scooter would result in an annual charging cost of only $13.
This net difference alone would be enough to amortize the purchase price of a high-end electric scooter.
That’s right. You don’t need to buy the cheapest electric scooter, and you’ll still save money by commuting by scooter instead of driving.
Cost of Owning a Car
The average depreciation and repair cost for cars in the U.S. is about $1,085 per year, just for the miles driven.
While you may not feel these costs every time you fill up, the cost of owning a car is very real.
What causes these costs? Well, things like oil changes, services, and the simple depreciation of the car (you may not spend money on it, but it still costs you).
And that’s before you take into account that spare parts (cars have many) are currently in short supply. Just replacing a transmission costs over $2,000.
Cost of having an Electric Scooter
Unlike ICE cars, annual depreciation and repairs for a typical electric scooter like the Mankeel 083 pro cost as little as $180 for the same mileage.
That amount can go down even further if you do basic repairs like changing tires yourself. And unlike cars, electric scooters are much less complex, so the average person with a drill and a set of wrenches can save a lot on garage costs by doing repairs and simple troubleshooting on the scooter themselves.
But what if you don’t drive that much? How many car miles do you need to replace with scooter miles to make the scooter worth your while?
You’ll need to drive about 1,214 miles to cover the cost of buying an electric scooter. That may sound like a lot, but over the five-year life of an e-scooter, that’s only 5 miles per week or less than 1.0 miles per workday.
So if you can replace one car mile every workday, your scooter has already paid for itself, and we haven’t even considered the cost of parking or parking tickets.
Cost Savings Pay for the Scooter:
Depreciation and repair savings = 24.6 cents/mile or 15.29 cents/km
Fuel savings = 16.6 cents/mile or 10.31 cents/km
Total savings per mile (before parking) = 41.2 cents/mile or 25.60 cents/km
Cost savings for the scooter: 41.2 cents/mile (25.60 cents/km) x 1214 miles = $500 for the scooter
Cost of Car Insurance
Another cost for car owners is car insurance, which is mandatory in much of the Western world.
The average American pays $785 a year for minimum insurance (not to mention comprehensive coverage for things like theft), according to LendingTree’s ValuePenguin.
If you’re lucky, you won’t need to file a claim, which means that $785 will go down the toilet.
If you successfully file a claim after an accident, your insurance company will often still require you to pay hundreds of dollars in deductibles.
While your car is being repaired, renting a replacement vehicle will cost you several hundred dollars more.
In contrast, you can rent e-scooters and electric bikes in most large and mid-sized cities for a fraction of the cost of a rental car if something happens to your own vehicle.
Or you can simply invest in a cheap electric scooter for those proverbial rainy days.
Scooter Parking vs Car Parking
One of the biggest advantages of a scooter is the ability to park for free.
You can park your scooter on the sidewalk, in a park, in an alley, at your workplace or at home. The main obstacle is finding a place that has a secure device for a bike lock.
In contrast, parking cars are prohibitively expensive. The average American city dweller spends $18 a day, $191 a month, or $2,292 a year on parking fees.
However, if you own an e-scooter, all you have to do is park your car (for free) in a neighborhood within a few miles/kilometers of work and roll the last mile/kilometers into the office.
So, now we’ve saved $606 in fuel, $905 in depreciation, and if you work in a big city, $2,292 in parking fees. So we just used a $500 scooter to save $3,803 per year.
What gives electric scooters such high value
In summary, e-scooters are fun, safe, super to transport, and increasingly trendy. Perhaps most attractive, they are much cheaper to buy, operate and maintain than gas-powered cars.
If you’re an average U.S. car owner, expect to pay $4,789 per year for gas mileage and other costs.
In contrast, buying a $600 scooter with typical maintenance and electricity consumption costs would cost you only $793 in the first year.
So you can expect to save $3,996 in the first year of your investment in a new entry-level scooter.
Compared to the cost of a car, the cost of an electric scooter is really a steal.
If you set the lifespan of a scooter at five years, you’ll save $1,565 over the life of your scooter ownership, truly getting the most value out of your electric scooter.
Not to mention the initial cost of a car, which is tens of thousands of dollars for a typical commuter sedan or SUV.
As gas imports become more expensive due to supply chain bottlenecks and geopolitical instability, this gap will only widen.
In the long run, electric scooters are not only a green alternative that is better for the environment, but they will also save you money for several years to come.
Save Money and Rent an E-scooter
If you want to ride 100% maintenance-free, some manufacturers even offer monthly subscriptions for scooters.
If something goes wrong, they usually just replace the scooter with another one and you’re back on the road.
Aside from not having to worry about maintenance, it’s also a great way to find out if scootering is for you without spending thousands of dollars.
The cost of an electric scooter is worth
Every day, more and more people are riding electric scooters to work, and it makes perfect sense. An electric scooter may cost a little initially, but the savings it offers most commuters are absolutely worth it.
Whether it’s a few miles/mile per day or a complete replacement for the car, an electric scooter saves you money, time, and more importantly, it can make your commute to work one of the most enjoyable parts of your day.
