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How long can electric scooter batteries last? (And 11 tips for extending life)
Electric scooter battery life is your only major expense related to electric scooter. Since the batteries of electric scooters are not cheap, many scooters want to know the battery life. So today, let’s answer how long can electric scooter batteries last.
Electric scooter battery life-how long can the electric scooter battery last?
Electric scooter batteries can usually last for 2 to 3 years, or 300 to 500 full charge cycles, whichever comes first. You can expect battery performance to start to decline after 200-300 charging cycles. Low-quality batteries can be used for less than 1 year, but good batteries can be used for up to 5 years. Responsible use can extend battery life.
5 battery life levels, from fully charged to depleted
This article will tell you everything you need to know about the battery life of electric scooters, and the most important thing is what you can do to increase it, or at least not shorten it.
How long can electric scooter batteries last?
Electric scooter batteries can be used for 6 months to 5 years, but most will last for 2 to 3 years.
However, it is not accurate enough to measure the battery life in time, and it is best to measure it during the charging cycle. Most batteries will have 300 to 500 full charge cycles, but the best quality batteries can reach 1,000 cycles. After hundreds of charging cycles, battery performance will begin to slowly decline.
A complete charging cycle means charging the battery from 0% to 100%, but this rarely happens.
Roughly speaking, 300 to 500 full charge cycles are almost equivalent to 600 to 1000 cycles from half to full charge.
So, for example, if you charge a scooter every day, the battery can last for 1 to 2 years. But in my experience, you may not ride a scooter every day. For most people, charging every 2 or 3 days is a better estimate. This means that your battery may last at least 2 years, maybe even as long as 5 years!
There are several other factors that can shorten or extend battery life.
What does battery life depend on?
There are several important factors that will determine the service life of the battery.
Battery brand
The manufacturer of the battery can easily become the main factor.
There are several large battery brands and many small brands. They make batteries for electric scooters, and their performance and indicators are more or less similar.
But in many ways, the numbers describing the battery, such as voltage, charge, and capacity, are only half the story.
Battery production is a highly competitive and lucrative industry, which has always been accompanied by crazy innovation and competition. There are many trade secrets involved, and may only be known to the best brands. They carefully protect them in any way possible, while working hard to improve them.
This is why Samsung batteries are more durable and perform better than ordinary Chinese brand-name batteries.
I don’t want to write off Chinese batteries completely, because there are many great battery manufacturers in China. But in general, they will be inferior to Samsung or LG batteries.
In addition, compared with manufacturers that started producing batteries three months ago, batteries from major Chinese manufacturers such as BYD or CATL are always a better choice.
Battery and motor specifications
Many diagrams of different battery types and functions
Battery specifications (such as voltage and charging capacity) affect its service life in many ways. This may also be related to the motor.
If you have a battery with a larger charging capacity, it can hold more power, so you don’t need to charge it so frequently. Since this slows down the speed at which you increase the charging cycle, it means it can extend battery life.
This means that the higher the charge capacity of the battery (measured in Ah or ampere-hours), the longer its life should be.
On the other hand, if the battery has a higher output voltage, the motor can release power faster.
This is especially true if the voltage is close to the maximum voltage that the motor can handle. In this case, the motor will drain the battery as quickly as possible.
The faster the battery runs out, the sooner you need to charge it. The more charging times, the faster the available charging cycle will be used up, and the shorter the battery life time.
Although you can try to adjust the internal structure of the scooter to try to extend the battery life, this is not advisable. This attempt can easily backfire. This is something to be aware of.
Battery usage
As mentioned earlier, the number of charge cycles before the battery wears out is limited. Of course, the speed to reach this number is always faster than the time it takes for the battery to drain on its own.
Of course, the more you use the scooter, the more often you need to recharge the battery, which means that its useful life ends sooner.
Battery maintenance
This is where you come in as a scooter owner.
You can take a variety of measures to extend the maximum battery life.
Extending battery life a lot, such as doubling its life, is impossible no matter how you apply these techniques. If you follow the proper ownership etiquette, you can reasonably expect to extend its useful life by 20% to 35%.
How to make my electric scooter battery last longer?
We will start with the most important and influential way and list all the things you can do.
Don’t let your battery drain completely
The battery is exhausted
To extend battery life, the most important thing you can do is never let it drain completely.
This will not be the end of the world. But remember-every time the battery is fully discharged, it wears out a bit faster than in other cases.
In some lithium-ion batteries, there is a mechanism that is activated when the battery is depleted. This makes it unresponsive to normal chargers in the future, and may even appear to be dead. You will need an additional charger to restore the battery. These are usually older models, but this is still very common.
Charge your scooter often
The next best thing you can do for a scooter battery is to charge it frequently. Experts recommend charging after each use, no matter how small.
This will vary from battery to battery. It is wise to check the manual of the scooter to see if this is stated. If not, simply charging your scooter while in use every day should be the best choice.
One important thing to remember here is-don’t charge the scooter immediately after riding it. Let it cool down for half an hour, then plug in the charger-charging while the battery is still hot will degrade battery performance more quickly.
Avoid overcharging the battery
Although many of today’s electric scooters will not be damaged if they are charged after the battery is fully charged, it is still unwise to take risks. The possibility of damage is small, but it does exist.
Many scooter apps can send you a notification when the battery is fully charged.
Avoid contact with water
This is not so much to increase battery life, as it is to prevent reducing battery life.
Almost all manufacturers claim that their scooters are waterproof. Approximately half of the models today do have an IP rating, which makes the scooter official water resistant at least to some extent. However, all brands will agree on one thing-you should really avoid riding a motorcycle in rainy or humid conditions.
This is mainly because of the battery, which is not only the most important part of the scooter, but also the most vulnerable part to water damage.
The problem is that many car owners did ride their scooters in the rain and reported no damage. But they may miss a potential problem. A small amount of water may not damage the battery immediately, but it can cause corrosion or accelerate wear.
This is why it is best to keep the scooter battery as dry as possible.
Avoid using the battery in too hot or too cold temperatures
The battery works best at room temperature. When the temperature deviates too much, their work efficiency will be reduced and the degradation rate will be faster.
The ideal temperature of the battery is approximately 20 °C. When they are used below 0 °C or above 40 °C, their performance begins to decline.
Using the battery at the ideal temperature will extend its life to the maximum. Since this is not always possible, try to avoid using the scooter when it is too cold or too hot.
Avoid storing in the sun or charging the battery
Exposing the battery to the sun for a long time may cause unnecessary chemical reactions in the battery’s materials. This either completely damages the battery or significantly reduces its performance.
Charging the battery in the sun may activate a mechanism that prevents the battery from charging. Or worse, it may destroy the protection circuit, make the battery overheat, or even explode.
All in all, batteries and sunlight do not work well together.
Use original charger
High quality charger
Using the original charger that comes with the scooter is the best way to charge it. It is already the best choice for your battery life, everything is doing its best.
If something goes wrong, it should be just as good to get the exact same charger from the exact same manufacturer.
If you are forced to use a different charger, make sure its voltage and charging capacity are as close as possible to the original charger.
Avoid using chargers that are very different from the original specifications. Use it only as a last resort.
Charge at normal or slower speed
Users who travel long distances on scooters usually need to charge them more than once a day.
For this reason, sometimes they use chargers with higher charging capacity (expressed in ampere hours or Ah). These batteries charge faster, but they also make the battery age faster and shorten its lifespan.
If battery life is important to you, avoid using chargers with higher charging capacity altogether and stick to original chargers.
Ride with fully inflated tires
A small but useful tip-riding with partially deflated tires will increase friction, which will cause the entire scooter to drive the same distance harder. Over time, this consumes more power, causing you to recharge the battery more frequently, thus ending its useful life more quickly.
Fully inflate the tires (but don’t overinflate!). This will optimize your riding experience, including battery life.
Store your scooter properly
When storing the scooter for a long time, please make sure to store it in a cool, dry and dark place. Charge the battery to about 60% and charge it to the same level every month.
Check out the complete guide for storing scooters to learn exactly how to do this.
Check your battery
It is wise to include at least a quick battery check as part of a regular maintenance program.
At the very least, take a look and make sure there are no holes, cracks, corrosion, swelling or abnormal forms, or any other form of damage.
You can apply other more advanced battery testing methods less frequently. If you lack the appropriate equipment, you don’t really need to test the battery unless you feel something is wrong. Common methods of battery testing include:
Voltage test
Current test
Temperature test
Specific gravity measurement
Impedance article
Discharge test (need to be fully discharged, so it is not always optimal)
For these tests, you need to obtain a battery test kit or take your scooter to an expert.
When should the scooter battery be replaced?
The best sign you might need to replace the battery is the range you get from the scooter. It is normal for the cruising range to decrease as the battery runs out, but when you start to get half or less of the cruising range that the scooter can provide, it may be time to replace the battery.
In addition, when the overall performance of your scooter drops to a level that you cannot accept, it is the best time to consider buying a new battery.
How much does a new electric scooter battery cost?
The battery replacement price of an electric scooter is usually 15% to 30% of the original price of the scooter. So, for example, if your scooter sells for $500, the cost of the new battery will be between $75 and $150.
If you want to know how the motor works with other parts in the electric scooter, please view the full guide here.