Spending a little bit more on an e-scooter gets you into a really fertile and competitive sector of the market. These are the models the manufacturers want you to upgrade to once you’ve mastered their cheaper models and are looking for the next challenge. If you're on a tighter budget, here's our pick of the five best e-scooters under £350.
For your money, you get better build quality, better range, and more options. You may also get more speed, and where there’s a limiter in place you may accelerate to that limit more quickly.
Things to look out for include removable batteries or extended battery packs. Tyres should be pneumatic, and motors integrated into the wheel hubs. Frames of aluminium or steel are fine, but make sure they can support the weight of the rider you intend to place upon their back - 100kg is common, and the average weight of a man in the UK is 85kg.
> Five of the best e-scooters - What can you get? How do they work? And are they legal?
Remember, while it’s legal to own an e-scooter in the UK, it’s currently against the law to use one in a public place outside of an approved trial area. Within trial zones, you must use one of the scooters provided. What you do on private land, however, is your own business. Just keep it clean.
Here are four e-scooters worth looking at, and a fifth that's less enticing.
Segway Ninebot E25E - from £499
A stylish scooter with excellent safety features, the E25E will do 15mph for 15 miles (28 if you add the optional extended battery pack), and folds up neatly to take home again once you’ve finished enjoying yourself.
From the pneumatic, puncture-proof tyres to the clear LED display that keeps you up to date about how fast you’re going and how much charge you have left, and which ride mode you’re using, this scooter has a lot to recommend it. Charging takes four hours, after which the 300W motor will carry a rider of up to 100kg across rough or smooth terrain.
Lights are integrated, and not just the basic front and rear - there’s a brake light, and ambient lights under the deck that add to night-time visibility. You get reflectors all the way around, and a bell to make yourself known. The aluminium body is well-made, and the deck large enough to move your feet around on without feeling too constrained.
A triple braking system ensures plenty of stopping power, and IPX4 waterproofing means it won’t be affected by the rain.
Decent One Max - from £449
Removable batteries are exactly what you want at this price-point: they extend range and therefore riding time, which is exactly what you want if you’re taking your e-scooter seriously. It’s IP54 waterproof too, so getting caught in the rain is no problem.
Made from aluminium, and with a weight limit of 100kg, you’ll get a maximum speed of 18mph out of the One Max, and it will keep going for 20 miles until it needs charging or a new battery pack slapped in. The 10in tyres - larger than many at this price point - are pneumatic and puncture-proof, and provide a smooth ride, which is lucky as there’s no suspension. The rear brake is a disc, which is great to see, and it feeds energy back to the battery too. You also get cruise control, and three riding modes that allow you to limit the top speed, increasing it as you grow in confidence.
There’s no companion smartphone app, but you do get some decent lighting, including always-on rear lights that flash when you brake. At 15kg, it’s not the lightest frame out there, but it folds down well and will fit easily in most car boots.
Xiaomi Mi M365 - from £400
A winning design that picked up awards a few years back, this is a favourite of scooter hire companies and now the venerable old-timer that everyone’s out to beat.
Capable of doing almost 17mph, it can keep going for 15 miles before it needs to be recharged. You don’t get a removable battery, or a built-in display, but a smartphone app that connects over Bluetooth takes care of monitoring duties. This means, however, that judging your speed is pure guesswork most of the time. It’s also possible to modify the firmware to increase performance, but we didn’t tell you that.
The 8.5in tyres are pneumatic, and there’s a disc brake on the back plus a regenerative system on the front, as well as cruise control, which is a good feature to see at this price point.
Otherwise, this is a light (12kg), strong (100kg max rider weight), and proven e-scooter that’s only just beginning to be overtaken by other brands.
Carrera Impel IS-1 - from £400
A bit bulky, and maybe lacking something in the design department, but with security features you won’t find elsewhere,
Carrera is Halfords’ own brand - you may have seen the label in the mountain bike world - and is as solidly built as you’d expect. It’s a bit heavy at 17kg, but folds well and manages to hold a 100kg rider. The tyres are pneumatic 8.5in units, the lights are LED, and after a four-hour charge you’ll be able to ride at 15.5mph for 18.5 miles. There’s a degree of waterproofing - IPX5 - so you can ride it through puddles without worrying about sparks flying.
You also get a built-in electronic immobiliser that locks the brakes (discs front and rear) if you don’t put in the right PIN before kicking off, and a combination cable lock for extra thief-proofing. And while there isn’t a smartphone app the large, clear LCD screen gives you all the information you could need.
Razor Power E300 - from £350
A good-looking e-scooter available in bright colours, the E300 is notable for its chunkiness.
The tyres are wide, the deck is broad, and there’s a great big tailpiece over the back wheel that covers up the chain drive. This is just one of the problems with the E300, which also lacks any way of displaying its remaining battery level. As far as they go, chain drives are fine - cyclists have been using them for many years, we understand - but they require maintenance, and that’s not what owning an e-scooter is all about.
Otherwise, the E300 gets most of the basics right, with pneumatic tyres, a sturdy tubular steel frame, and a maximum rider weight of 100kg. It has a top speed of 15mph (but no speedometer to gauge how fast you’re going) and a claimed endurance of 40 minutes. There’s no integrated lighting and, despite the presence of a kickstand, there’s no place to attach a lock. There’s an old-fashioned lead/acid battery system underneath the deck, which perhaps explains the chunkiness of everything. There’s no argument, however, that this one belongs at the bottom of the list.
