How and When to Charge Your Electric Scooter

In this article, we will explore how and when to charge your electric scooter in order to extend your battery’s life and have a great ride experience. By following some simple rules, you can keep your battery in a healthy condition and enjoy it for a long time.

We will take a look at the cost of charging and how advantageous the electric scooter is compared to cars and motorcycles in terms of price.

How to charge an electric scooter

Charging an electric scooter couldn’t be easier. All you need to do is to plug in the charger, and then connect it to your electric scooter. The charging port on your scooter usually is hidden under a rubber cover in order to protect the socket from dust, water, and other impurities.

Charging your scooter should take between 2 and 3 hours depending on your model. If you have an electric scooter with a higher battery autonomy, it is likely to take more time, even up to 4 hours on some models.

Most scooters have a red LED light that indicates that the scooter is charging. When the charging process is finished, the LED will turn green. The charger and scooter’s battery will heat up during charging, but there’s nothing to worry about as this is normal.

Always make sure to turn off the electric scooter before charging it. Otherwise, electric shocks can occur in the circuit.

Steps to charge it:

1. Lift the rubber flap in order to access the charging port
2. Plug the power adapter into the charging port
3. After the charging process is complete and the LED turn green, unplug the charger and cover the charging port with the rubber flap

Always go for a full charge

It’s recommended to fully charge your electric scooter’s battery and all the way to 100%. Most electric scooter’s chargers have an LED that will turn green when it’s fully charged, while some others have an indicator on the scooter’s display or small LEDs indicating the battery level. These usually blink when it’s charging.

When to charge an electric scooter

How to charge an electric scooter may be intuitive, but when to charge it is not. In order to prolong your electric scooter’s life, you will need to follow some ground rules.

Do not charge it after a ride

The reason behind this rule is that, during a ride, the battery heats up. It is not recommended to charge a hot battery because it will get hot during charging. By doing this, the battery cells inside can get damaged.

Do not ride it directly after charging

The reason for this is the same as above. During charging, the battery will get pretty hot. If you go on a ride straight away, the battery will heat up more, and the cells could get damaged. The battery is performing the best at about 20 degrees Celsius or 68 Fahrenheit. The performance drops when the temperature is colder/hotter than that.

Charge it at room’s temperature

The best thing to do is to wait about 15-20 minutes after a ride before charging. If you just got back home, let the battery stabilize at room temperature before charging it.

Keep your battery charged

Lithium batteries don’t perform well when not charged enough. My owner’s manual recommends to always keep the battery level higher than 30-40%. If you don’t charge your battery when it’s at 30-40%, you may go under 15% even after a short ride. Riding with the battery level under 15% is likely to diminish the battery’s life.

Winter storage

I mentioned this fact in this article earlier, but I will do it again. It’s recommended to fully charge your electric scooter every 2-3 months, even if you are not using it.

Electric scooters are suitable for three seasons. During winter, it’s likely that you won’t use it as much. Store it at room temperature away from cold and humidity.

Unfortunately, the damage produced by not charging your battery for a long time is irreversible and not covered by warranty.

Cleaning

It’s always advisable to clean your scooter as soon as possible after a ride in order to prevent damage to certain components.

You need to make sure that the scooter is turned off during cleaning, and the charger is not plugged in. Disconnect your charger and close the rubber flap before starting the cleaning process; otherwise, the water leakage may damage the scooter and provoke electric shocks. Electric shocks are dangerous as they may permanently damage the scooter’s circuit and even hurt you.

Can we charge electric scooter at home

Yes, of course. We can charge the electric scooter at home without issues. There is no special outlet needed for charging your electric scooter. Most electric scooters will be delivered with chargers suited for your country’s outlet. However, if you are buying the scooter from a Chinese website, it may need an adapter. There are countries that use different electric sockets, so that’s something you need to be aware of.

If you travel to another country with your electric scooter, consider what sockets they have. Many people put their electric scooter in the car’s trunk in order to visit cities quickly and easily.

Can we charge electric scooter at the office

Yes, I don’t think your employer will have any problems with this. I do it all the time. A full charge costs less than $1.

Battery’s temperature when charging

The battery and charger temperature will increase during charging. That’s nothing to worry about. Remember to let it cool after charging in order to prolong battery’s life.

Electric scooter will not charge

If your electric scooter will not charge you need to inspect the following:

1. Does the socket have electricity?
2. Is the charger working? – usually, they have a small LED light indicating the charging status
3. Is the charger correctly plugged in into the scooter’s socket?

When your electric scooter is not charging, it’s usually a problem with the charger. The best and the safest way to test the charger is using a multimeter. If the charger is working and you get power from it (check the final end) then, the problem is likely to be on your scooter.

Diagnosing the scooter is a bit harder. There can be multiple causes for this problem:

• the battery can be dead
• battery’s controller can be malfunctioning
• the main controller is broken – does your scooter display works? If your scooter has some battery life left, it should work
• the internal circuit is broken

If you still have the warranty, it’s always wise to send your scooter back to the service. This way, they can replace your charger or take a look at the scooter.

If your battery is old, the solution can be to replace it with a new one.

Charge electric scooter with solar panels

You can charge your electric scooter with any device that generates electricity. It won’t be a problem charging your scooter with solar panels, wind turbines, or sea waves. The problem is building a circuit that converts it to a standard socket in which you can plug the electric scooter.

You can make the circuit yourself using solar panels, an inverter, and the rest of the circuit. You can find some info on this website.

But, there is a simpler option. You can buy the whole kit on Amazon, which is basically all you need to charge your electric scooter using solar panels. Just get the solar panel kit, install it in a place where it will get sunlight, and plug in your scooter. It may take longer for the scooter to charge than on a standard socket, but it’s absolutely free (after purchasing).

Also, you can use the solar panels to charge other devices around your house. Here is a very powerful, but expensive one:

1.5KW PluggedSolar with 1500Watt

Click here to check the product on Amazon.

You also can get a foldable panel, so you can take it with you and charge your scooter while enjoying a beer break anywhere. Take a look at this one.

SUAOKI Solar Charger 60W Portable Solar Panel Foldable 

Click here to check the product on Amazon.

You can use any power supply to charge the electric scooter as long as it provides the correct socket, voltage, and power.

Are solar panels a good option for charging your electric vehicle?

The main problem with solar panels is their voltage output. They typically put out about 20 volts or under on a sunny day as their purpose is to charge 12 volts batteries. The charger controller, also known as MPPT, is used to boost the voltage of the panels in order to power devices which require more than 12 volts.

Electric scooters or bikes don’t run at 12 volts (usually). They usually require 24v, 36v or even 48v for powerful scooters and bikes. MPPT controllers are very expensive (usually in the $300-350 range) and you typically need a larger voltage than your scooter’s battery in order to charge. For example, to charge a 36 volts scooter you will likely need about 40 volts.

If we consider the best case scenario, you’ll still need 5 or 6 hours of sun using 2 large panels of about 100 watts each. The size of each one is about 2 x 4 feet each and you can find them in the $ 250 range.

The best option remains the portable solar panels, but they are indeed less efficient and more expensive.

Stove charger?

Someone suggested using a portable stove to charge your electric scooter or electric bike when going on a long trip. BioLite is an example of this. It is indeed capable to transform the energy generated by burning wood into electricity in order to charge your smartphone. But it merely generated 3W per hour, so charging your scooter will take more than one hundred hours or burning wood.

Better options for charging electric scooters on a long trip

Use a generator

A good option for charging your e-scooter or e-bike when going on a long trip is a gas generator. There are plenty of small and not so  expensive gas generators with an inverter which you can use to charge your electric vehicle fast. They are usually less than 30 lbs and can run for many hours on a single fuel tank. You can choose a quiet one looking at the decibels level if you want to use it at night. Click here to check out my quick search on Amazon.

Carry a charger

Even if your trip spans over multiple days, you will probably stop in some village to get some fresh food and water. This is a good chance for a full charge of your e-vehicle.

Get multiple batteries

If your trip doesn’t include any village and you can’t access any source of electricity, carrying multiple batteries can be a good option. Batteries are a little bit heavy, but they are more portable than big solar panels or gas generators. You don’t even need to wait for charging as you can replace the battery in a few minutes. (if you are skillful)

Electric scooter charge costs

This website said you can fully charge your scooter with only 25-40 cents. Other sources say it’s as low as 10 cents. Either way, the cost is minimal, and you won’t feel the difference in your electricity bill.

My opinion is that electricity costs probably will rise in the future. Cars are slowly converting to electric motors, and those will need electricity. Still, with about 25 cents per charge, even if the electricity cost doubles, it won’t really affect your financial plan.

Charging your electric scooter for a whole year is about $40.

There are many models available on the market with different powers and battery life. There is a difference between a model that has 5 miles autonomy vs 15 miles one.

The best way to measure is to get an Electricity Usage Monitor socket which is about $15 on Amazon. This way, you will know exactly how much electricity (power, measured in Watts) is needed to charge your scooter. Multiply that with your cost/thousand watts, and you will get the final price for charging your electric scooter.

How to charge electric scooter without a charger

There are some possibilities of charging the electric scooter without a charger. However, this is not recommended as it may damage the battery and void your warranty.

If you don’t care about that, here is what you need to do.

Disclaimer: I do not take responsibility for your actions or the accuracy of the information below. Use the tutorial at your own risk and take all the necessary precautions when dealing with electricity. The tutorial below has an informational purpose and doesn’t guarantee anything!

Step 0 is to get a jumper or a different source of power. You can find one on Amazon or your local store.

Step 1

The first step is to get access to the electric scooter’s battery. Make sure your electric scooter is powered off.

Electric scooters have the battery either under the deck plate or in the handlebar stem. You will need to get access to the battery’s wires in order to connect them to a jumper or a power source.

Deck plate

Flip your electric scooter vertically in order to get access to the screws. Next, unscrew the screws holding the battery cover. Find the battery wires, which are usually red (Positive Terminal) and black (Negative Terminal).

Handlebar Stem

There are different models, but most likely you will need to remove the handlebars in order to get the battery out. You can watch the video below. It may be the same on your model.

Step 2

Connect the wires to the jumper or power source. Please check that the jumper or power source is off at this point.

First, connect the red wire to the positive terminal. Next, connect the black wire to the negative terminal.

Step 3

Before doing this step, please check the following things to ensure your own safety:

• There are no broken wires or connections
• You are in a dry environment away from water and humidity
• Do not attach other devices to the jumper or power source during the charging

Turn on the jumper or the power source.

Step 4

Let the scooter charge. I don’t recommend charging it for more than 20-30 minutes using this solution as it’s an emergency-only solution.

Step 5

Do not disconnect the wires before you actually turn off the power source or the jumper.

Step 6

You can now turn on your scooter and check the battery level using the scooter’s display or the mobile application on some scooters. If the battery is not charged fully, you may repeat from step 3, but it’s always advisable to use the scooter’s charger.

Charge your scooter from your car’s battery

You can charge your scooter from your car, but again, you do it at your own risk. All Lithium rechargeable batteries, which are used on scooters, can be recharged using another battery.

To charge a Lithium battery, you will need a secondary battery with a higher voltage and capacity (measured in Ampere-hours) than the one you are charging.

While it’s possible to charge your electric scooter with a car’s battery, it’s not advisable and there are a series of complications that can cause problems:

• different battery voltage
• different battery capacity
• battery integrated protection (internal circuit designed to prevent charging from other sources than original charger – voltage/power checker)

You will need all these specific details in order to perform this operation. You are better off buying a universal charger.

Broken charger – replace it

If your charger is broken, don’t try to improvise and look for a similar charger on the manufacturer site. If they don’t sell one and you can’t find a similar one online, take a look at universal chargers.

Get a charger with the same voltage, capacity (measured in Ampere-hours), and socket type as the original one. You can find universal chargers that have multiple types of sockets that you can use.  You can also use universal chargers to charge your laptop or other devices. The expensive ones allow you to choose the charging voltage and power.

The charging process with a universal charger is the same as with the original one. Most chargers have charging protection so they will stop when the battery is fully charged.

The best place to look for a new one is Amazon.com, but you can find used ones on eBay.

Conclusion

Charging an electric scooter may seem a simple subject, but it isn’t. If you want to prolong your battery’s life, you will need to be careful when and how to charge your scooter. The main takeaways from this post are:

• Charge your electric scooter using the original charger
• Charge it at room’s temperature and don’t ride before/after charging. Wait at least 15 minutes for the battery’s temperature to stabilize
• Always go for a full charge
• Charge the electric scooter even if you are not using it once in three months
• The cost of charging an electric scooter is negligible