I am looking to purchase an electric scooter for my father, who is 62 years old. His daily commute is approximately 55 kilometers, so I’m specifically looking for a reliable and comfortable electric scooter with a good range capacity that can handle this distance efficiently on a single charge or with minimal recharging.
Comfort, safety, and ease of use are important, considering his age. I would also appreciate features such as good suspension, a stable ride, and after-sales support.
Shaik Abdul Cany
Chennai
Autocar India Team says: Since this is quite a long commute, you will want a scooter with a battery capacity of no less than 3kWh and ideally 3.5kWh or slightly higher. That will give you a good amount of real world range even at higher usage speeds of 50kph or more – which is usually the case with long commutes. With that in mind, you will also want an electric scooter with a top speed of 70-80kph.
Considering your needs of comfort, reliability and storage space, we’d recommend that you pick from popular and proven options like the Ather Rizta 3.7, Bajaj Chetak 3501, TVS iQube ST or the new Hero Vida VX2 Plus.
Any of these four will meet your needs, but your father should take test rides of each to see which he finds more comfortable. This is not just in terms of suspension comfort but also the riding position as he will be spending relatively longer periods of time on the scooter with such a long commute.
When it comes to safety, they are all well-rated in terms of battery safety. However, the Ather Rizta has the best rider aids in the form of things like traction control and FallSafe which deactivates the accelerator if the scooter falls over. It is one of the more expensive options when you tick all the boxes but it has some good safety features and also offers an optional 5 or 8-year battery warranty which is the best here.