I own an EVT-4000e electric scooter (made in Taiwan, 2003), for the last three years. It runs on a 48-V sealed lead-acid Adsorbent Glass Mat (AGM) battery pack made by the China-based BB-EV battery company.
When I took delivery of this scooter from Electric Motorsport, it read only one mile. The scooter had been idling in the warehouse since four years after it was manufactured. After three years of usage, it now reads around 7800 miles (12,480 Km). The calibration is not up to the mark and the mileage actually covered is comparatively lesser, although slightly. Any distance figures quoted in this posting is the odometer reading, just to clear any confusion.
The speedometer reads in miles per hour and also in kilometers per hour. Once again, it is not calibrated sufficiently well. Thus when it reads 25 miles per hour, the scooter speed is actually 20 miles per hour. This error seems to be occurring with EVT-4000e scooters from the way in which I keep hearing of this problem from others as well. It is probably fixed in newer models and later brands. Not a major issue for me, though, I don't drive fast and when I see 25 mph I actually believe it. When I pass a police car, no problem, since I'm way below the speed limit! No worries!!
There is a power mode that bumps the speed up further. I don't use it since the batteries discharge more rapidly in comparison with the default economy mode that I operate on. (Economy mode is recommended in the scooter's user manual.)
The brakes of the EVT-4000e are disk brakes on both front and rear, and are operated by a hydraulic mechanism necessitating brake fluid usage. The rest of the electronics (lights, starter) operate on a 12-V which is actually tapped off the 48-V battery bank by means of an inverter.
The DC motor that propels the scooter is a hub motor that is actually part of the rear wheel. As such, there is no chain mechanism connecting the rear wheel. This is a big plus since no chain breakage (and replacement) happens and no chain handling hazards prevail.
The dashboard has a "fuel indicator" comprising 4 LED's arranged from left to right, with the red (leftmost) showing that there is no charge in the battery and the green (rightmost) showing that it has a full charge. The middle two are yellow (next to red, indicating that one is running out of charge) and green (next to yellow, indicating some kind of reserve).
The scooter is accompanied by a user manual. There is also a maintenance manual that can be easily downloaded from the several available locations on the Internet, and printed out for handy purposes.
After a trip to town and back, I charge the scooter into the home power outlet. I use the stock charger that came along with the scooter. Most people in the community who own this scooter advise against using this charger because it is not a smart charger. They recommend buying the Soneil 48-V smart charger that shuts off charging once the batteries are topped up. However I have not done that so far, and am using the stock charger, and should admit that a lot of care is required. Whenever the charging begins, the LED on the charger is yellow. Once full charge is reached, it changes to green.
I had to know how long to charge before explicitly making a trip to the garage to switch it off. (I have never seen when the LED changed from yellow to green.) The duration of the charging depends on how far I drove this scooter. Typically if I drive it for 3 miles, and back, totalling six miles, it needs a 1.5-hour long charge. If I drive it for 14 miles (to-and-fro), it requires around 4 hours, 40 minutes of charging time. I take care to ensure that the charger is switched OFF before bedtime. Twice I overcharged the batteries, around 41 hours on both occasions, and fortunately they did not blow up -- whew! I should never repeat that mistake again!!
This scooter has been my primary mode of transportation around town and hasn't broken down ever since, Touchwood! It requires practically no maintenance. No oil and therefore no dirtying around, no replacement of spark-plugs, valve-cover, cylinder parts, and what not! Nothing!! Minimum maintenance is necessary and is limited only to tire-inflation, periodically filling brake fluid into the two master cylinders beneath the handle, and periodic checking of voltage levels on the four battery terminals for which some removal is necessary. No great shakes, only requires some common sense, hand-tools worth around $10-$15 altogether, a multimeter (I got one for $20 but you could find cheaper ones), and minimum mechanical instincts.
As expected, the scooter makes no noise save for the little hum. Remember the hum that you hear when spinning a top? Or, the electric trains in cities like Mumbai and New York? That's all, no pollution, no cracking noise resulting from exhaust, and no smelly gas!
The fact that it makes no noise is actually a danger to pedestrians who are unaware that I'm approaching from behind and I have to honk to shoo them off my path. Often, they turn and I see varied expressions on their faces, first, a shock, then a gaping mouth, and sometimes when I stop, I'm often greeted with a smile! (The scooter is responsible for that smile and the compliments that follow, but I'm taking credit and it's not fair, admittedly!!)
Often we have small, friendly conversations with people who frequently ask: "How far does it go on a charge?" (Maximum range is around 22 miles, although they mention around 40 miles in the sales and marketing propaganda. I never exceeded 17 miles in total). "How much did you buy it for, if you don't mind, please?" It is certainly more expensive than the gasoline counterpart but think of the money you save on petrol plus zero emissions and no heat felt on your feet, and no maintenance! "How do you charge it?" (In my own backyard!)
The trunk usually does not accompany the scooter. I had to order one separately. In my case, Electric Motorsport did not have the original EVT-4000e trunk in stock on that occasion and offered me the trunk for the Lepton Oxygen that was slightly bigger, for the same price, and it was worth the deal! The trunk looks small but for that little size it actually holds a lot! On several occasions I had to drive with my wife behind, sometimes as far as 6 miles to the grocery store and back, and load the trunk which adds to the weight of the scooter on our way home. NO PROBLEM!
He sure is a mighty little fellow!!
