How to make an electric scooter go faster
How to make an electric scooter go faster
Driving around with an electric scooter is a lot of fun in itself.
But after a while, you get used to the top speed and some owners start to wonder if they should upgrade to a faster electric scooter or if they should make their current model go faster.
But is it allowed? And what risks does it entail?
Making an electric scooter go faster
Most electric scooters are limited at the factory. That means that they can actually go faster than they do out of the box, but because of a piece of software they cannot.
In reality, making an electric scooter go faster is very easy, if you know how to do it.
In many cases, it’s just about removing the speed limiter.
Sometimes you can add a bigger more powerful battery or add an extra battery.
And with some electric scooter models, you can just do a simple firmware upgrade to make it faster.
Although this works differently for each scooter, it is very easy to find out by simply searching Google for your type of scooter, in combination with ‘go faster’ or ‘boost xxx electric scooter’.
If you have a scooter that is popular, no doubt there are plenty of people who have posted tutorials on the internet.
I can’t post them all here because every model is slightly different and this post would get too long.
Here is a video on how to unlock the Full speed on a Xiaomi M365 Pro
Is it legal to make an electric scooter go faster?
Unfortunately, it is not legal to boost electric scooters (in most countries at least), because they will go faster than the maximum permitted speed for which they are inspected or insured. There are different types of motorized traffic in most countries around the world. The speeds at which these vehicles are allowed to drive, or in other words to what speed they are limited, are established by law.
Different laws and regulations apply to electric scooters, both in traffic and in insurance, and differ by country.
In addition, some electric scooters are not allowed in public areas anyway.
In this case, it is just as illegal to ride a souped-up or tuned scooter.
What are the risks of making an electric scooter go faster?
Making an electric scooter go faster is a lot of fun, because you can ride much faster afterward. But there are also disadvantages to increasing your electric scooter’s speed. Below are the main reasons for not doing it.
Bigger risk of accidents
Your electric scooter is made for a certain speed. That means that the steering, wheels, brakes, and suspension are tuned to that speed.
Suddenly driving your electric scooter twice as fast, you can count on less precise steering, faster wear of your tires, and a much longer braking distance.
This can potentially lead to accidents. Also, other road users do not take a scooter that drives so fast into account. As a result, they can make an error of judgment and end up injuring you.
The battery doesn’t last as long
As soon as you put your battery in ECO mode, it will always last a bit longer. That’s because you accelerate less quickly, and the maximum speed has also been reduced.
So you can imagine what will happen if you drive the scooter twice as fast as in the same ECO mode.
The battery is drained very quickly and you will not reach the maximum distance specified by the factory.
You will void your warranty
When you tinker with your phone, you often lose the warranty when something is broken. The same can happen with an electric scooter.
If there appears to be a factory error in the scooter, it may not be repaired because a chip is found or the software in the scooter has been modified.
The manufacturer can never know 100 percent whether you caused the error or them.
It would be a shame if your scooter loses its warranty after a few months, because some parts or repairs can be costly, and making your electric scooter go faster will result in faster wear of the components.
As you can see, making your electric scooter go faster can be a lot of fun. Yet it has many disadvantages, and can even result in injury. Insurance-wise it is difficult, you are actually no longer allowed on the road with it, and you can also lose the warranty and you run a greater risk of accidents.
For many, these would be more than enough reasons to say don’t do it. And although it is fun to ride around on an electric scooter, this is probably the best advice.
The smartest thing to do if you want a faster electric scooter is to upgrade your current one or if you haven’t bought one go for a faster model.
