Elecscoot 4 Review

It’s been a while since my last post and that’s because I’ve had a new bike to test.

I am unsure whether I tested the “new” flavour of Elecscoot 4 or the “old” flavour.

Let me explain:

The “new” bike has battery management. The test bike had this. The “old” bike was hub drive not “belt drive”. The test bike was hub drive.

Anyway, lets not get bogged down in the detail. The first and most striking thing was that the E4 was how very very fast it goes. I had a brand new bike with only a few K’s on the clock. This means that even though I tested it for a few days, it still won’t be “run in”.

In theory after a week or so, once the battery is conditioned. It will accelerate faster and get a longer range and a higher top speed. I only had the bike 3 days so I didn’t have time to condition it.

The battery management was very protective of the new battery and wouldn’t let me have full acceleration. Despite this the E4 was faster off the mark than the majority of scooters in the 50 – 125cc range. The mid range torque meant it would out-grunt 250cc machines with ease. This is a good and bad thing, good because I got to work 10mins quicker than with any other electric scooter. Bad because it is extremely easy to reach speeds that are a) illegal, and b) dangerous. So novice riders beware, even though this is a 50cc equivalent bike. The performance is far greater. Make sure if you ride the E4 you have the correct training, or you will get distracted, look down and you are going over 50mph towards your demise.

Scary part over, in the hands of an experienced rider the E4 makes light work of commuting and has much better low speed control than some of the smaller electric scooters. Despite being a “maxi scooter” the bars are narrow enough to let you filter as if you were on a normal sized scooter.

I found while riding the E4 that I was riding with the “big” bikes and leaving the scooters behind. The real change was the mid-range pull of the 4000w motor. I found that I could easily keep up with riders on 500-1000cc bikes if they were not accelerating too hard. Try doing that on a 50cc petrol scooter.

As I said with the Elecscoot 3, the future is here. The E4 is a technological wonder and really shows up the petrol powered bikes. Going back to my petrol scooter after the E1 and E2 was like having a rocket powered cushion strapped to my behind. After the E4 it was rattly, vibrating, slow and agricultural in comparison.

The E4 was also the only bike where astounded riders would pull up next to me (having been overtaken) and ask “is that electric?”. I rubbed it in a bit more by telling them it was a 50cc and cost £69 a year in fuel.

As a reviewer I was a bit upset that while whizzing about on the E4 was fun, I didn’t get it for long enough to give it a range test or condition the battery. I did however take it to the A3 (a 3 lane road in south London famed for speed cameras). While I was there I managed a good 45-53mph (depending on hills etc) cruising speed, and I’m sure that a conditioned bike would do better. It also showed the E4’s potential to replace your car in a way no other 50cc commuter could. Cruising along at 50mph in the fast lane of what is a motorway without the name (the A3). I realised that this was as fast as my car, but would be even faster through the traffic once off the A3.

This is where the E4 comes into it’s own. In town it is king of the scooters, for commuting. So it is only fitting to say it is the emperor of suburbia. Around suburban London, the bike flies, zipping through traffic and overtaking (where extra lanes and speed limits allow) any cars.

It left me in no doubt that if I was to use it everyday, it could be my commute bike for the week and get me to my parents / mates places in Surrey on the weekend (much faster than a car).

If you are considering buying an E4, I would give it my personal recommendation. even If it turns out I tested an “old” one, it was excellent and in a different league from similar petrol machines. My only sadness was that I had to give it back. I will be requesting an E3 or E4 as a long term test bike from Elecscoot, they may be persuaded if it will answer potential buyers questions, so please comment if you support this idea.

If you feel I have missed anything from the reviews of the E1-E4, please comment and I will be happy to answer your questions. The future is here, dump the petrol-powered lawnmower with handlebars and get a real bike.