Look after your e-scooter battery and it will look after you

Freed Electric Scooters have been in the electric scooter business for 7 years now and when it comes to batteries we think we have seen and heard it all.

In our experience the generic brand batteries in most scooters will easily last for thousands of kms when treated well. Of course performance does begin to decline eventually. I think we all know, sometimes from bitter experience with the phone, that it is easy to wreck a small battery. Your scooter battery works much the same way

The sweet spot for charge of an electric battery is between 20% and 80%. In an ideal world, you would keep your battery within this range, although to be practical we all fully charge the battery, and I’ve been told that in electric scooters a full charge is sometimes needed for the battery management system to work correctly, although I’m happy to be corrected there. We have not noticed this shortens their life cycle significantly and we have many happy customers with thousands of hours and their batteries are still happily giving great range and power.

At Freed Electric Scooters, we recommend charging when the battery display reaches two bars, or 40%, that way by the time you get home and plug it in it should still be at 20 or 30%. Ideally, do not leave them overnight, just in case, although it is usually damage to the battery or charger that causes problems so be vigilant in looking for signs of damage and check the charger regularly when charging so you know if it is overheating. Some heat is normal. If you are familiar with how warm a charger gets you will know straight away if trouble is brewing.

Over time, battery wear can affect range, and power. We have read up on batteries  and learned some really cool stuff. Batteries do have a finite life. Each charge/discharge cycle creates a tiny bit of ‘wear’ to the battery and this is why battery performance declines over time. There is currently a ton of research being done to prevent this wear from occurring and while several technologies look very promising none are quite ready for the mass market yet. Whilst it will not be long before batteries have much greater durability, right now, how you charge your battery can make a difference to its longevity.

Certainly you never want to run the battery fully flat (Yep- got that) so scooters have onboard electronics to prevent you doing this. If you are running out of juice, the scooter will limit the speed. Eventually it will actually switch off, before the battery is fully discharged, to protect it from damage.

Keep the battery away from extremes of temperature - batteries do not like over 30 degrees celsius so always leave it in the shade, especially in summer.

The big EV manufacturers like Tesla use thermal management systems to maintain the battery temperature within a certain range. In your scooter there is a similar, if less sophisticated feature. The battery management system will cause the scooter to cut off power if it gets too hot. This is a safety feature designed to prevent fire, but also it protests the battery itself.

Storage

Don't be tempted to leave it on charge when not in use. It will not over charge but unplug it to reduce risk of fire.  If you do not use your scooter for long periods, the battery health can rapidly decline as well. Oddly, while each charge does a tiny bit of damage, leaving them for a long time, especially once well used or if on a low charge can damage batteries as well. If you are storing your scooter, remove the battery so no trickle draw will discharge it over time.

A good reason to buy from a dealer that stocks parts and has a track record is that they will monitor and date the batteries they store. A reputable supplier will give you a warranty as well. 6 months warranty is standard for scooter batteries. Although batteries generally last a long time, years even, the fact that charging and use habits can have such an effect means a battery is subject to significant wear and tear. If a new battery has not been stored properly, or is faulty, you can expect to be very aware of this within 6 months so this warranty length is a decent amount and should give you confidence.

At Freed we keep battery stocks low and rotate the stock when new product arrives. We date the batteries when they arrive and give them a tickle if they are still on the shelf after 10 to 12 months. More than that is not necessary but we want to make sure your new battery will perform as a new battery should. So you can have confidence when you get a battery from us that it has been stored correctly.

Fast charging your e-scooter can be really convenient. Some electric scooters have two charging ports so you can double the input however this does double the amperage going in from the charger. Low wattage chargers mean the charge will not damage the battery, so make sure you check the wattage output of the charger.  

Out technicians are happy to give free advice so feel free to call or pop in for a visit.