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What Makes Unagi Electric Scooters So Reliable?

unagi electric scooters reliable

Are Unagi Electric Scooters Reliable? We Should Know….

We’ve been poring over electric scooter data this year for our Reliability Index, a system for assessing long-term reliability without riding every scooter 10,000 miles. It’s a process that involves more than scientific testing and raw number-crunching.

We ride every scooter we evaluate, most of them several times, and a handful almost daily, sometimes for months or even years. We know what makes Unagi electric scooters reliable.

The Model One E500 quickly became one of our editor Paul’s go-to favorites when it debuted, and it remained in his trunk for years as a grab-and-go scooter prized for portability, quick acceleration, and powerful hill climbing capabilities. (Paul lives in San Francisco, a city with no few steep hills). The Model One Voyager improves on the original with longer range and faster speeds.

We’ve always been up-front about Unagi’s drawbacks — limited range and stiff, solid tires suit it best for brief commutes on well-paved city streets. That said, the company has kept their customer base by sticking to their guns, offering low/no-maintenance rides that are ultra-portable and easily accessible through Unagi’s no-risk subscription program. 

The Unagi Voyager, released last year as a follow-up to the dual motor E500 Classic, uses the same 8.5″ solid tires, but it goes almost twice as far thanks to a more powerful battery that only added a pound to the scooter’s weight. Both the Model One Classic (E500) and Model One Voyager get a reliability score of 8.7 in our rating system. Why are Unagi electric scooters reliable? Here are just some of the reasons….

Solid Tires Never Go Pop

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While tubeless air-filled tires with sealant are indeed the next best thing, there’s no such thing as a pneumatic tire that’s totally immune to flats. And let’s face it, getting a flat tire on your primary commuter vehicle isn’t just an inconvenience; it can cost precious time and money. 

Solid tires cannot offer the same ride quality as pneumatic tires (at least not yet — the technology may catch up soon). But they can offer something else: a completely worry-free ride over broken glass and other road debris that can make riding small pneumatic tires at high speeds anxiety-provoking.

Regenerative Brakes Never Need Work

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Disc brakes have multiple advantages, especially for electric scooters that exceed speeds of 20 mph and need to slow down and stop safely without throwing their riders over the handlebars. But making sure that disc brakes work as intended can be a seemingly-never ending maintenance task: whether your brakes need basic adjustments to the calipers, or replacement pads or rotors, or a full hydraulic brake bleed. 

Fully electric regenerative braking, on the other hand, requires none of that, at all. Do regenerative brakes work? Consider that the Unagi Model One Voyager has a stopping distance from 15 mph just a second behind the beloved (and no longer available) Xiaomi Mi M365. 

We’ve compared the ESG-tested stopping distance of both the Unagi Model One Classic (E500) and the Unagi Model One Voyager with several highly-rated commuter scooters above, including the Okai Neon Pro, Segway Ninebot F2 Pro, and TurboAnt X7 Pro.

Unagi’s regenerative-only brakes (with a stomp-on safety fender brake) compare very favorably with all of these models, which all use a single disc brake that requires frequent maintenance and cleaning, and occasional replacement parts like pads and rotors.

Premium Materials for Premium Reliability

Unagi has deservedly won high praise from reviewers for the boutique quality of their components, from the one-piece aluminum deck, to the carbon-fiber stem and magnesium handlebars. These parts not only keep the scooter’s weight low, but they also increase its strength and dampen vibration.

We’ve rated the Model One Classic and Voyager highly for their quality builds; our scale also considers factors like UL Certification, which ensures that a product has been independently lab-tested, and IP rating, which ensures it won’t die in light to heavy rain. Unagis both rate well here, with a UL2722 certification and a water resistance rating of IPX4.

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Subscription Means Never Getting Stuck with a Lemon

Unagi encourages riders to subscribe, rather than buy, which guarantees a new or refurbished scooter if anything goes wrong with the one they’re currently riding. Few scooter manufacturers will fully replace a scooter if trouble strikes, and Unagi even offers theft insurance for ultimate peace of mind.

Unagi scooters meet our highest bars for reliability, and they’re still the only electric scooter available by subscription. Learn more about Unagi’s latest, the Model One Voyager, at our full review here, and check out the latest price on an Unagi subscription just below.

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