Chances are you have recently bought an electric scooter if you find yourself on this article. You may be worrying about how to charge the battery to keep your expensive investment in tiptop shape.
Try not to panic. This article will teach you the myths and truths of how to charge your electric scooter and how to prolong the longevity of your battery.
Read on to find out how in our guide on ‘How to Charge an Electric Scooter’!
How To Charge An Electric Scooter
1. Plug The Charger Into The Wall First
Unless the manual states otherwise, plug the charger into the wall first, before plugging into the scooter. This is the safest method for protecting the charger and its output capacitors.
As with any charger, it will get hot during the charging process, which is completely normal.
Ensure you are placing your charger on edge, uncovered and on a non-flammable surface that will get plenty of airflow,
2. Connect The Charger Plug To The Scooter’s Charging Port
The next essential step in our guide on how to charge an electric scooter is to power your scooter down and remove the protective cover from the charging port.
Ensure both the port and connector are dust free and blow out if necessary.
Pay careful attention to orient the charger correctly. The majority of chargers are keyed so they will only go in one way, but some are poorly designed and you can still short the connector.
Plug in the charger to your port on the electric scooter.
3. Wait For The Scooter To Charge
Charge your scooter until the indicator light on the charger turns green and then promptly disconnect.
For the majority of chargers, the light will turn green before fully charged. If your scooter has a built-in voltmeter or battery display, you will notice you haven’t quite hit 100%.
If you need maximum distance, you can continue to charge until you hit 100% or use as-is.
An extra tip for you is that operating your battery between 30% and 80% of full charge will greatly increase your battery life.
4. Disconnect The Scooter When It Is Fully Charged
Once your electric scooter has fully charged, you should unplug it from the wall outlet. This will prevent any overheating and subsequent damage to the scooter.
Tips For Max Battery Longevity
Now we have looked at how to charge an electric scooter, we will now explore the most important tips when it comes to prolonging the scooter’s battery life. The tips are ordered from most to least important.
1. When Storing For Long Periods, Keep Your Scooter At 4-% Charge In A Cool, Dry Place
If you store lithium-ion batteries when they are fully discharged, it is terrible for their longevity and the number one killer of good batteries.
Storing fully charged or discharged will accelerate battery degradation.
For longer-term storage, like during winter months, store at 40% charge. As there is self-discharge, you’ll need to check and top up the battery every 4 to 8 weeks to keep it at this level.
Ensure you are storing your scooter in a cool and dry place. Storing above 30 C / 86 F will decrease longevity. Also, storing fully charged at elevated temperatures is especially bad.
2. Operate Your Scooter Within 30% To 80% Of Its Battery Capacity
To further prolong the battery life, it helps to operate it between 30% and 80% of its capacity. This is labelled the sweet zone and can increase battery life up to 4X.
In terms of individual cells, this ends up being between 3.36 volts (30 % of capacity) and 3.96 volts per cell (80 % of capacity) is optimal.
3. Charge When The Battery Is Between 32 F And 113 F
It is paramount that you do not charge your scooter when the battery might be below freezing temperature. For example, if you have been storing your scooter in a garage or outside where it will be below freezing.
Remember to wait until the battery has warmed up above freezing to charge. If you charge the battery at elevated temperatures, it can shorten its life but it won’t cause significant damage to the battery.
4. Don’t Leave Your Charger Plugged In After Charging
Once your scooter is fully charged, you need to disconnect your charger.
If you leave it plugged in after it has finished charging, this can result in corrosion of the cathode and decreased capacity.
5. Don’t Fully Discharge Your Scooter In Less Than An Hour
If you have a fast scooter and want to go fast, discharging the battery quickly will be unavoidable.
However, if you are still concerned, you basically don’t want to discharge the battery at a rate that will entirely deplete it in less than one hour (this is referred to as a C-Rate of 1.0).
On consistent high-speed runs or under heavy torque loads like accelerating up a steep hill, you are likely, if not momentarily, going above this ideal discharge rate.
A common recommendation is to just enjoy your scooter and not to worry about this too much.
6. Don’t Fully Charge Your Scooter In Less Than An Hour
Lithium-ion batteries will last more cycles if you charge them more slowly (known as C-rate in technical battery terms).
For optimal battery longevity, it is best to fully charge a battery in not less than 1 hour.
For most scooter and charger configurations, you won’t be able to exceed the charging rate — even with dual quick chargers.
Charging Myths
Myth 1: It Is Necessary To Charge The Scooter After Every Ride
It is unnecessary to charge your scooter everyday or charge after every ride. The best practice is to keep the battery between 30% to 80%.
Despite this, if you’re going on a long ride, then give the scooter a full charge.
Myth 2: You Should Fully Charge A Scooter Before Riding And Fully Discharge Before Charging
You do not need to be fully charged before riding.
The only reason to charge would be when you need the range for a ride and not for any ritual reason.
You also do not need to fully discharge your scooter before charging. Li-ion batteries do not have memory like NiCd or NiMh batteries that would require full charge / discharge to maintain.
Final Thoughts
If you have recently just purchased an electric scooter, you should now understand that charging one is simple and there are only a few errors that you should look out for.
There are also a couple of myths to avoid when charging your scooter. Apart from that, happy scootering!
We hope you enjoyed our article on How to Charge an Electric Scooter!
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