One of the latest trends in the commuting world is riding around on electric scooters. They’re cheap, they’re efficient, they’re eco-friendly and they are a great substitute for a car if you live in a large city with frequent traffic jams. Many people have and enjoy their scooters, not only because they are convenient when you don’t want to walk or if it makes no sense to start up the car for a short journey – but what about longer ones? What if you need to travel for 30 or 40 miles and you don’t have another option aside from the e-scooter?
Well, in those cases, you might need a little bit more juice in your machine. Most of the scooters max out at about 20 miles on a single charge, so it would be a good thing if you could somehow increase that number. The only way you can do that is by upgrading your battery. More voltage means more range – simple as that. But, can you upgrade the battery, and if you can – how can you do it? Well, we wondered the same thing, we did a little bit of research and this is what we’ve found out.
1. Buy A Bigger Battery
So, can you upgrade? The answer is yes, most of the time. If you’re looking to increase the range, you can easily do so by equipping your scooter with a new, more powerful battery. However, as we’ve said, you can do this in most cases, but sometimes the motor just does not support higher voltage and because of it you’re stuck with the one that came out of the box.
Fortunately, in most cases, the scooters come with motors that do support higher voltage batteries and you can easily upgrade them. For instance, some models come equipped with motors that support upwards of 60V, yet they only come with a 37V battery for instance. If that’s the case with your model, you can easily upgrade by just purchasing a bigger, stronger one. If you upgrade from 37V to 48V, you can expect about a 30-35% increase in range.
Now, voltage isn’t the only thing that makes a battery powerful. There’s another thing to take a look at and that’s ampere-hours. If this sounds familiar it’s because we measure the strength of mobile batteries by mAh’s or milliampere-hours, which is one-thousandth of an ampere-hour. What this shows you is how much of an electrical charge can a single unit hold. The more amp-hours it has, the more power it can hold. Once again, this will allow your machine to run longer.
2. Add A Second Battery
One of the most convenient ways to upgrade the battery is to simply add another one. Now, granted, most scooters don’t come prepared for another battery, but there are some models out there that are. While there are some models that come with an easily removable battery, like Turboant X7 for instance, not a lot of them come with the frame and space for an added one, so if you do decide to make it happen – you’ll need to some custom upgrades. It goes without saying that you’ll need to have extensive knowledge of the subject before attempting these customizations.
However, if you own a model that has the ability to double the power source you can do it quite simply. Some models will even come with a manual with a step-by-step guide on how to do it. This will allow you to nearly double the range of your scooter, so you can enjoy longer rides without worrying about running out of juice.
Now, it’s important to mention that all of this will be completely meaningless if your motor doesn’t support additional power. So, make sure you check all of that out before you go out and buy a larger or additional battery.
Additional Ways To Upgrade Battery Life And Range
Upgrading your battery isn’t the only thing that’s going to make your ride last longer. There are additional things you can do.
3. Don’t Drain The Battery Completely
Although this won’t make the battery last longer, it will make it stay in good shape for a lot longer. It’s common knowledge that batteries deteriorate over time and with each charge, they become slightly weaker. The ones used in scooters usually last anywhere between two to three years.
Now, if you want to make the most of that period, never drain your battery completely. If you do so, it’ll lose some of its capacity, and if you repeat that over and over, you can expect to cut its life in half. So, charge it often and don’t let it die out completely – preserve it.
4. Clean The Scooter
Believe it or not, unless you clean your machine properly and frequently you can damage the performance. All kinds of debris can get stuck between your wheels and fenders making it harder for the scooter to perform the way it should. If you’re making the machine work harder than it should – it will die quickly, there’s no way around it.
5. Don’t Push It To The Limit
We know it is fun to ride around at maximum speed, but maximum speeds affect the life expectancy of your device. Most scooters have a couple of different modes – some optimized for mileage and performance and others for speed. If you want yours to last longer, use it in the optimal or power-saving modes. Now, there are exceptions to this rule, but they’re mostly reserved for high-end models that can ride for up to 100 miles on a single charge.
6. Don’t Turn Off The Speed Limiter
Every model out there has a speed limiter. This is something that makes sure your motor doesn’t overpower the battery. However, some people prefer speed over the range, so they end up disabling the speed limiter, which ultimately ruins the battery. So, if you’d like yours to the last longer – don’t do this. There’s a reason for speed limiter, two in fact – it’s legally required and it saves the scooter from breaking too soon.
There you have it. Those were some of the most useful and common tips and tricks on how you can upgrade your battery or preserve and prolong its life. Hopefully, we’ve been helpful and you’ve learned something new today.
