Is such a machine a viable alternative today? We look at what an electric scooter is and what you need to know about it. How difficult is it to operate and who can benefit from it?
There can be no question that the energy crisis is upon us, which is already hitting fossil fuels hard and will do so in the future. So petrol and gas oil, for example, which are still rising in price, and the end of this process is not yet in sight. More and more people think, or may think, that they should ditch their car and look for an alternative.
Public transport has a number of disadvantages, as many people do not like crowds and, of course, it often fails to take you to the "right address", i.e. the bus does not go to your door. In many cases, bicycles are simply not a good option, as they get hot and some people simply don't like cycling. But there are solution, namely the electric scooter, which can be a wild card in the deck in such difficult times.
Energy supply
Xiaomi has a long history of developing and manufacturing such products, which allow us to easily demonstrate what we can expect from such a product in 2022. Many people often raise the issue of range, but that should not be a problem today, at least for a better device. The Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3, for example, can store enough energy to cover 30 kilometres! In concrete terms, this means that you can "scoot" from the airport to the Chain Bridge and still have enough energy in the tank for 6 kilometres.
This is thanks to the KERS system, also known from Formula 1 cars, which can recover kinetic energy from braking and rolling and convert it into usable electrical energy.
It should be mentioned here that there are now scooters that can switch themselves into sleep mode and thus extend their lifespan. The better models, such as the Xiaomi product mentioned above, also have complex power cell protection, which protects the product from short circuits, overloads and overcharging, and even extreme temperature differences should not be a problem.
Tempo!
The older electric scooters were criticised for their low speed, and rightly so. Manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make these scooters faster. Today, it is quite common for a scooter to be able to fly at speeds of up to 25 km/h.
The Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 also has multiple speed settings, so even if you're cruising on the pavement, you don't have to worry about speeding dangerously. What's more, the 600-watt motor can handle gradients of up to 16 percent. So it can even climb the hills of Buda or the Abbey of Tihany from the beach.
Comfortable?
The sturdy and heavy electric scooters of the past have been replaced by compact and relatively lightweight machines that are easy to transport. The Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 frame is made of a high-strength aluminium alloy used in aircraft. It weighs just 13 kilograms and can be folded, so it's really comfortable to carry and can even be easily loaded into a car.
This includes the "dashboard", i.e. the panel mounted on the steering wheel that informs the user of all important information (speed, charge measurement, etc.). And for safe riding, dual disc brakes, which are now appearing on an increasing number of modern scooters.
Can the car be replaced?
We're not saying that an electric scooter can always be substituted for a car, because if you're doing a lot of shopping or taking your child or elderly relative to hospital, it's obviously not the right solution. But there are situations in life when a much smaller, cheaper and less energy-consuming machine than a car can work.
