What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
Warmer weather’s on the way, and you maybe have your eye on an electric scooter for commuting to school or work. If you’ve only ridden rental scooters, you might have noticed they aren’t very fast. Most of them have top speed capped somewhere around 15 miles an hour for safety and liability. What is the fastest electric scooter you can buy for cheap, and how fast can it go?
First, what do we mean by “cheap”? At the lower end, you can expect to spend aroud $300 to $600 for a budget-priced electric scooter for adults that will take you safely where you need to go, with all the basic features but without the bells and whistles (suspension, apps, etc) that come with pricier models.
As for speed, you can expect to go around 20 miles per hour or more for the price. Top speed isn’t everything when it comes to being fast, of course. There’s also acceleration, a metric we think is often more important since you use it at every stoplight. You don’t want a scooter that struggles to keep up with slow moving traffic at an intersection or can barely make it up inclines from a full stop.
Riding a slow scooter is not only a little embarrassing. It can also be a little dangerous. You want the speed and power to maneuver around obstacles and quickly get out of the way when necessary. Even if you only have a few hundred to spend, you can find a budget scooter – under $600 – with a high top speed and quick acceleration.
In this article, we compare five of our favorite fast, cheap electric scooters. See which one might suit you best.
Table of Contents
Top Speed Comparison
As we mentioned, top speed isn’t always the most important, but it can still be important when you’re cruising along and want to keep up with the flow of slower-moving cars and bikes in city traffic. While shared scooters have speeds suited for more sidewalks and bike lanes, even some cheaper electric scooters can be fast enough for merging into slow car traffic.
These are the fastest budget electric scooters in our database when it comes to top speed. We have tested each of these models and can recommend them for other reasons as well.
Two of these are dual motor electric scooters – the Inmotion Climber and the Hover-1 Journey Max – and the other four have a single motor in either the rear or front wheel. Surprisingly, the single-motor KQi3 MAX was faster than both the Climber and Journey Max in our tests, and the Dualtron Togo Plus, and nearly 27 mph, blows them all away.
Acceleration Comparison | 0 – 15 MPH
An electric scooter’s acceleration time depends on a number of different factors, including rider weight, motor power, and the voltage and amperage of the controller and electrical system. We test lower-powered scooters for acceleration from 0 to 15 miles per hour and high-powered scooters for 0-30 and even 0-40 times.
While your acceleration times will vary, this ranking gives you a good estimate of how each of these scooters performs in the real world. The two dual motor scooters take top honors here, but the single motor Dualtron Togo Plus, NIU KQi3 MAX and NIU KQi3 Pro aren’t far behind.
The last scooter on our list, the GOTRAX G3 Plus, has a front-mounted 350W hub motor and a much slower throttle response than any of the others, a definite drawback to an otherwise great scooter.
6 Fastest Cheap Electric Scooters
1. Dualtron Togo Plus | $499
Now that it’s dropped down to a sale price of $499 from its initial cost of $850, Minimotors’ Dualtron Togo Plus is the fastest cheap electric scooter you can buy, with a high speed of nearly 27 mph. That’s unheard-of at this price, and you should definitely grab one of these while they last if the BMX-style handlebars and long range appeal to you.
26.9 mph ESG-tested top speed
4.5 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 7.9 | IPX5 | 46.0 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
2. NIU KQi3 MAX | $599 (from NIU)
Top-of-the-line commuter electric scooter from NIU, one of the biggest makers of electric vehicles in the world. The KQi3 Max is sturdy, comfortable, and very fast for the money. Get the best price direct from NIU at our links here.
22 mph ESG-tested top speed
4.6 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 8.8 | IP54 | UL2272 | 44.8 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
3. Inmotion Climber | $599
Made by the same company that makes the mighty Inmotion RS and RS Midnight, one of the fastest, sportiest scooters ever, the Climber’s dual motors tackle hills easily and help this scooter hit over-20 mph speeds in seconds on flat ground.
21.4 mph ESG-tested top speed
3.5 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 7.5 | IP56 | 47.0 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
4. Hover-1 Journey Max | $427
The Hover-1 Journey Max is the longest range electric scooter you can buy for under $500, and it’s also one of the fastest cheap electric scooters, with a top speed of almost 21 mph thanks to dual motors that pulled it up the steepest hill in San Francisco in our tests.
20.7 mph ESG-tested top speed
4.6 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 7.3 | IPX4 | UL2272| 44.0 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
5. NIU KQi3 Pro | $529 (from NIU)
The KQi3 Pro comes in just a few miles per hour and a couple seconds behind the KQi3 MAX, but there’s no drop in quality between the two scooters – they’re equally rugged, compact, and fun to ride. Buy direct from NIU at our links here for the best price.
18.6 mph ESG-tested top speed
5.2 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 8.5 | IP54 | UL2272 | 44.8 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?
6. GOTRAX G3 Plus | $313
The GOTRAX G3 Plus has an easy throttle response, which makes it feel a little sluggish at takeoff, but this also makes it a great scooter for teens and beginners who don’t need full speed ahead on their first personal electric vehicle. The G3 Plus is also the lightest scooter on this list, a huge plus for commuters of all ages.
18.1 mph ESG-tested top speed
7.1 second 0 – 15 mph acceleration
Reliability 8.7 | IP54 | UL2272 | 34.5 lbs
Top: What Is the Fastest Electric Scooter Under $600?Summing Up
When buying an electric scooter, there are a lot of variables to consider, and speed is just one of them. You also want to make sure you have enough range to cover the distance and that you’re buying a safe, reliable ride that won’t fall apart on you.
The 5 scooters above are all durable rides with good warranties from reputable companies we have worked with for years. We’ve seen cheap electric scooters with higher top speeds and faster acceleration, but we wouldn’t trust our friends and family to ride them, so we don’t recommend them to you.
Electric Scooter Guide tests all the scooters we recommend firsthand and we share our data with you. If you don’t see what you’re looking for here, check out RideFinder database and check back in weekly for new reviews.
