Electric Scooter vs Car and the Impact on the Environment
The environment is in trouble and there’s no doubting that. So in this blog we are taking a brief look at the differences between using a car versus using an electric scooter in terms of efficiency and therefore the impact on the environment.
There are obvious differences to the benefits when comparing certain aspects of an e-scooter against using a car. The main ones are clearly speed and range.
Cars can travel anywhere between 400 to nearly 1000 miles on a single full tank of fuel, dependent on the size and power of the engine. However, some of the latest and most powerful electric scooters can travel approximately 60 miles on a single charge. That is a lot for a scooter but nothing compared to an average family car.
The next is speed. Electric scooters average 20 to 30 mph at top speed, although some are now reaching in excess of 40 mph. Most family cars will now travel over 80 mph without an issue.
So with a couple of the obvious arguments out of the way we can take a look at the basics in terms of efficiency.
Electric Scooter Efficiency
If you look at the weight of the most popular car in 2018 according to Autocar.co.uk which was the Ford Fiesta, it weighed 1,151 kg. Then you take the weight of the average UK male according to the ONS which was 83.6 kg. The car weighs over 13 times more. This means that the car expends most of its energy moving itself rather than the person inside it.
Then we take a look at the electric scooter, in this case the Xiaomi M365. The M365 weighs 12.5 kg which is 6.6 times lighter than the average UK male. This clearly gives the electric scooter a massive win in terms of efficiency.
Then if we look at the energy usage, according to an article in US tech website wired.com. 1 kilowatt hour of energy would propel a petrol powered car just under a mile in distance, whereas an electric scooter can travel more than 80 miles on that same 1 kilowatt hour of energy.
They then claimed that electric scooters are so efficient, a human would burn approximately nine times as much energy walking and roughly 4 times as much cycling the same distance.
If those figures are even close to being accurate then it’s another big win for the electric scooter!
The Cost of Charging an Electric Scooter
We then look at the cost of charging an e-scooter against the cost of fuelling a car, the cost of charging an e-scooter is a little more than 1 % of the cost of fuelling a car that can do around 30 miles per gallon, and costs between £40 to £60 to fill the tank from empty. It costs around 4 pence to fully charge the lithium Ion battery from flat for 5 hours. If you look at that cost spread out over weeks, months or even years of travel, the saving would be massive. Again it’s another win for the electric scooter.
If you keep looking then you’ll find more and more arguments for why the efficiency and therefore reduced impact on the environment means that the arguments for using an electric scooter are a no brainer.
To summarise, we are in no way stating that everyone should scrap their cars and switch to coping on an electric scooter for school runs and shopping or even business trips. We are however making the argument that for those who want to commute a few miles each day, see their mate a few miles away or make a quick trip to the high street on an electric scooter rather than using their fuel guzzling car, that the negative impact on the environment is massively reduced. And the savings could be huge.
None of the above covers the amount of fun that you have riding an electric scooter. The thrill is immense with the wind in your hair (through your helmet of course)! Far better than sitting in a queue of ever growing traffic, unable to move anywhere whilst staring at a string of red lights leading off into the distance.
Just remember to ride safely and show respect to those around you. Happy scooting!