Electric Scooter vs. Car: How Much Money Can You Save?

An electric scooter is much less expensive to acquire and maintain than a car. Hence, switching to an e-scooter instead of your ordinary vehicle could be a sage decision to save money if you use your automobile for short journeys like the daily commute. We are all aware of the high cost of purchasing a car, particularly if we are considering a new model. On the other hand, electric scooters are much less expensive and capable of performing the tasks that most cars are relegated to. People using lightweight electric scooters to do their grocery shopping is getting more and more prevalent. As such, for daily commuters, this new wave of transportation is indeed changing the game by saving them hundreds of dollars a month – and even more if you factor in insurance, parking, time, etc. Research published by Georgia Tech, supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)– one of the leading research universities in the US, reported that It saves time that accounts for approximately $536 per year. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Let’s dive in.

Are Electric Scooters Cheaper than a Car in both Long and Daily Commutes?

    - Upfront Cost Differences

    - Gas vs. Charging

    - Parking

    - Insurance

    - Maintenance Costs

    - Which Electric Scooter is Right for you?

Concluding Remarks

It is crucial to consider many situations in which owning a commuter electric scooter is more affordable than owning a car that includes daily commutes. Only a portion of what you pay at the point of purchase is the actual cost of the vehicle. When you own a car, you have additional overhead expenses that don't apply to electric scooters. Let’s take a look at the details, supported by facts and figures.

If you don't already have one, you can pay between $20,000 and $40,000 to buy a decent car. That costs several magnitudes more than an adult scooter. To obtain an estimate of the budget, you can search on Amazon or check out our entry-level or flagship – the SmooSat MAX. For a deeper dive into how cheaper they are compared to cars with distinctive features, check out our blog covering every model in our lines. Electric scooters are more affordable than cars, costing roughly $200 and $3,000 – a whopping 1/10^th of a regular car. They are even cheaper if you want a children’s electric scooter for your child or a loved one.

Unlike gas-powered cars, adult electric scooters can travel several miles on a fully charged battery. Your automobile can only travel for a certain number of hours on a full gas tank. An electric scooter battery, however, is not expensive; with a charging cord and a power source, you may quickly have a fully charged battery. Compare this to driving a car, where the cost of gas is $0.15/mile. According to one research from Electric Scooter Guide, an electric scooter with long-range costs around $0.45 to charge fully and comes out to roughly $7.30 annually, significantly less expensive than even filling up one gas tank. So, the cost plummets significantly for a daily and city commute. If you are concerned that a lightweight electric scooter may not have the range for city commuting, revered platform MicroMobility released a breakdown that almost half of the city commutes are under 3 miles making electric scooters an excellent option.

Moreover, one of the largest tech platforms – WIRED, wrote - 

“Part of the reason for that is that the cost of fueling an e-scooter is a little more than 1 percent of the cost of fueling even a car that delivers a respectable 28 miles per gallon. Over weeks, months, and years of commuting, those savings add up.”

Access to free parking spots is one of the benefits of using an adult scooter. While parking a car, you must pay a specific charge, but with an electric scooter, all you need to do is find a spot on the sidewalk where you can lock it securely. Getting a ticket for improper parking is always possible when driving a car, but it never arises when using an electric scooter. To park your finest lightweight electric scooter safely on the sidewalk during eclectic scooter city communing so you may go to your destination on your way to work, school, or the store, check for parking places there. And just like that – it’s free and safe.

The typical monthly payment for a car is in the hundreds or thousands of dollars per year range. The cost of insurance for your electric scooter will be just a tenth of the price for your automobile if you choose to insure your electric scooter, which Amazon offers as an option. You could pay less monthly insurance premiums if you're a lucky automobile driver and never have to file a claim. Would it be much better not to spend even a small monthly insurance premium? Absolutely! Moreover, electric scooter insurance is optional, especially for children’s electric scooters, and most commuter scooters do not even need it. It is not even a consideration for that demographic resulting in zero cost in this domain.

There will always be items to purchase, update, and fix, and these automotive additions are expensive for cars. Several regular examinations should be performed, some of which should be daily. Typically, you will need the services of a mechanic, which you must also pay for. You end up shelling out roughly $1,000 for these at the end of the month. For electric scooters, it differs. An electric scooter for city commutes boasts maintenance costs that can never equal the initial purchase price. You can even replace the adult electric commuter scooter from Amazon if you are inside the warranty window.

Now that you see that an electric scooter is a viable alternative for daily commutes with significantly less cost and much more savings. You should make an informed decision on which one to get. Not all commuter electric scooters are created equal, and your needs may not fit another person’s, let alone a children’s electric scooter. So, to make this incredible investment to save thousands of dollars in your daily city commutes, check out our buying guide for a comprehensive take on which would be the right choice for you. Moreover, if you want to get a family member or your children such a sustainable electric scooter, our gift guide is a beautiful resource. To see what the most prominent platforms and publications, including Tom’s Guide, The Miami Herald, and The Street, among others, are saying about SmooSat, feel free to check out our media coverage blog for a compelling read.

According to one research team, a high-capacity battery electric scooter with a 93-mile range costs around $0.45 to charge fully. With typical usage, this comes to roughly $7.30 annually, significantly less expensive than even filling up one gas tank. All of this adds up to an estimate that one dollar of electricity can go between 350 and 900 miles, which is unfathomable to owners of cars. Most of the staff at our company use the SmooSat SA3 Prime adult scooter, purchased for one-twentieth the price of a vehicle. Hence, electric scooters make perfect sense in city commuting. Additionally, there are astronomical combined expenditures of parking, tax, and car insurance as opposed to electric scooters.