Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter review – Luxury on two wheels!

REVIEW – Ever since I got to rent one of the electric two-wheeled scooters in downtown San Antonio, I have always wanted to have a scooter.  It is so much fun to zip around on those things.  In the past year or so, the amount of electric scooters that have shown up on the market is incredible.  Many try to be ultra-portable or allow you to ride at super-high speeds.  Yadea has come up with what they call a luxury scooter.  The Yadea ElitePrime scooter has an unusual suspension system, and many features make this scooter plush and very comfortable to ride.  Read on to learn more and see if this may be the scooter for you.

What is it?

The Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter is a high-end scooter designed to give a very comfortable ride. It has several safety features built-in, like a plush shock system and blinkers.

What’s in the box?

• Safety information manual
• User manual
• Marketing documentation
• Multi-tool – used to assemble the scooter
• Eight blue Loctite screws.  You only need six, so two are extra
• Extension used to inflate tires if needed
• Battery Manual
• Charging cord
• Charger

Hardware specs

• POWER
  800W(Peak 1500W)
• BATTERY CAPACITY
  46.8VDC 14.5Ah
• CHARGER
  48V2A Gallium Nitride
• CHARGING TIME
  7~8h
• MAXIMUM SPEED
  30km/h (18.6mph)
• RANGE
  65km (40miles)
• MAXIMUM CLIMBING
  30% Slope
• TIRE SIZE
  10 inches
• DAMPING
  Rubber shock absorber
• BRAKING
  Front drum + Rear disc + Electronic Brake
• LIGHT
  Front light + Tail light + Rear turn signal
• MATERIALS
  Aluminum alloy-6061
• DIMENSIONS
  1245*585*1340mm
• FOLDING SIZE
  1245*585*555mm
• IP RATING
  IPX5
• TEMPERATURE
  -10℃~40℃
• SCOOTER WEIGHT
  29kg(64lbs)
• MAXIMUM LOAD
  120kg(264lbs)

Design and features

The Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter is nicely designed.  Yadea took the time to ensure this scooter looked good and was easy to maintain and comfortable to ride.  The picture below shows the rear wheel and tire.  The tires are tubeless and have a self-healing gel inside in case you should get a puncture.  I could inflate the tire to the required PSI without the extension valve.  I like how the wheel is solid, so there are no spokes to clean, and dirt cannot get inside.  You also eliminate the possibility of a stick getting stuck in the spokes and sending you for a tumble.

This next picture is of the front wheel.  It shows the unique polymer shock system.  This same system is also on the back wheel.  I found this shock system gave a very smooth ride.  You don’t have to worry about the forks getting anything on them or getting scratched like in a traditional shock system.  I also find this shock system to be very stylistic and future looking.

The stem of the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter has a double-latching system on it. You must lift up the red tab and then pull the latch down.  There is a second black latch under the first.  To release that, you must continue to put pressure on the main latch until it is all of the way down,

To transport the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter in your car or to stow it in your home, you can release the latch on the stem and lower the stem down to the base of the scooter.  The first picture below shows a pop-out clip.  You could use this to thread a plastic bag through it to carry some groceries home, but its main use is to lock the stem into place on the scooter’s base as shown in the next couple of pictures.

The Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter’s base is wide and stable with a rubber-like surface.  It never felt slippery to me.  It is 185 x 565 mm.  The only complaint I heard from my husband was that he felt the scooter base was a bit higher than any of the rental scooters downtown.  I am sure it is because of the dual shock system on the scooter.  The rental scooters have no shock system and sit lower to the ground.

The ElitePrime has an excelling lighting system.  The tail light is constantly lit and will get brighter when the dual disk and drum brakes are applied.   The scooter also has blinkers built in that are very bright!

The front headlight is nice and bright.  By default, it turns on when the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter turns on, but you can turn it off if you want to save battery life.

On the left side of the handlebar, you will find the back brake lever that operates the double disk brakes, a flipper for the bell just below it, and the switch for the blinkers.

Here is a close-up of the blinker switches.  The blinkers are self-canceling and will turn off right at about ten blinks.  They also make a beeping noise that is very easy to hear each time they blink.  You can also cancel the blinker yourself by pressing the same button again.

On the right-hand side of the handlebar is the front drum brake lever and the throttle.

The kickstand is on the left side of the scooter.  It was easy to find and very sturdy.

The display is built into the handlebar.  This makes the handlebar very clean and neat.  It has a single button.  A long press will turn the unit on/off.  If the scooter is inactive for 10 minutes, it will power down automatically.  When powered on, the headlight automatically comes on.  A quick button press will turn the light off with a beep.  Two quick presses will change the speed mode of the scooter.  There are four speed modes:

• Assist – 6km – 3.7mph – used to walk the scooter
• Drive – 15km – 9.3mph
• Sport – 30km – 19mph
• X – 19mph but with more torque – Think wheelies!!!!

Three quick presses will let you change from km/h to mph.  Unfortunately, the scooter will default to km every time you restart it.

There is an indicator to show you if the headlight is on and a Bluetooth indicator to show you that it is connected to a phone.  The S in the circle indicates that the scooter is in sport mode.  Finally, a bar at the bottom indicates the amount of battery power left.

You can control all of these options in the app, also.  The app will give the actual percentage of battery power left.  It will also show you the total miles the scooter has traveled.  It does not have a trip meter. The app will also let you manually lock the scooter.  This will prevent anyone from riding off with it.  The scooter is not light at 64 lbs, but it is possible for someone to walk off with it if it is not chained into place.  The app also lets you turn on the cruise control feature.  If that is on, holding the throttle in position for 5 seconds going faster than 6 km will activate the cruise control with a loud beep.  To cancel the cruise control, press the throttle again or hit the brakes.

The app also has a Bluetooth parking feature that is activated by the lock switch in the app.  Turning that on will cause the scooter to go into park mode when your phone leaves the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter’s Bluetooth range.  The screen will go dark, and a parking icon will be displayed.  If any vibrations are felt, the scooter will start beeping loudly, and all the lights will flash.  It will be annoying, but I don’t know if it will stop anyone from walking off with a 64 lb scooter!  You can also manually trigger the electric horn by hitting the horn button in the app, but you have to be in the Bluetooth range of the scooter.  Note that the triggered horn is electronic, while the bell on the handlebar is manual.

There is also an energy recovery option available in the app.  This setting determines how much regenerative braking is available as you back off on the throttle or apply the brakes.

Notice in the screenshot below that the X mode is not active.  To activate the X mode, you need to watch a video that runs when you first load the app.  You also need to ride the scooter at least 6km.  It is inactive in the picture below because I did not watch the video yet.

The scooter also has a gyroscopic feature in that if it determines a tilt of more than 45 degrees, the power to the scooter will automatically shut off.

Setup

The Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter came well-packed.  It was not damaged at all in shipping.

Assembly was pretty easy.  There was one cable to connect between the handlebar and the stem.  I then slid the handlebar into the stem and screwed in six screws using the supplied multitool.

The next thing was to charge the scooter.  I am impressed with the charger and charging system on the scooter.  It is all magnetic.  There are no holes and pins to line up.  This is very convenient when you have to plug it in on the base of the scooter foot platform.  The charger plug does have pins, but they can go on the scooter magnetically in any position.  The charging port on the scooter is covered by a rubber flap held in place by two magnets on either side of the charging port.

Performance

Riding the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter compared to the rental scooters is like comparing night to day.   I am five foot seven inches tall with about a 32-inch inseam and weigh about 180 lbs.  You can see the handlebar is in a perfect position for me.  I love how the handlebar curves back into a natural position instead of just being a straight bar.  I rode it about 8 miles through my very hilly neighborhood at pretty much full throttle all the time except when turning in the sport mode.  As I got braver, I did use full throttle in several corners.  I found that it would maintain 19 mph all the time except for the steepest of hills, where it would drop to 18mph.   Going downhill, I could feel the scooter self-braking, not letting the scooter exceed 19mph.  To take off, you must get the scooter rolling at about three kilometers per hour and press the throttle.

When I finally got the scooter into X mode, I was disappointed that I could not go faster than 19mph.  However, X-mode did increase the torque on the scooter.  The first time I took off, I did a small wheelie and scared the bejesus out of myself!

Next, I decided to load up the scooter into my Bolt and head out to one of our local paved trail systems.  I had to fold down one section of my rear seats to get it into my car.  Lifting 64 lbs into the car is a good workout, but it is a lot easier than lifting some of those heavy electric bicycles into the car.  This picture also lets you see how the handlebar curves back towards the rider.

I rode it for about 17 miles on the trail system.  I could feel the vibrations when riding over the creases in the cement walkway, but they were not bothersome.  I ended up going through several puddles and some mud.  The scooter got dirty, but none of it got on me.  In the picture below, I want to point out the single-sided swingarm features of the scooter.  You can see the front and rear wheels with no supporting structure on the side.  That is because the suspension is all on the left side of the scooter.  I think it makes for a very clean-looking and sporty profile.  I ended up riding the scooter for about 25 miles in total.  It sat on standby a few days at a time in a very hot garage for at least two weeks.  It has been over 100 here almost every day.  I would get out and ride a mile or two in the neighborhood.

It has a very strong motor.  I feel like the scooter could easily go faster than 19mph but it is being throttled back for safety reasons.

At the end of my testing period, I had ridden a total of 25 miles at full throttle in sport mode 95% of the time.  I rode about 8 of those miles in a very hilly neighborhood.  The battery is still showing 34% available.

What I like

• Ultra modern and very clean design
• It has both front and rear shocks
• Dual disk brakes and drum brakes
• cruise control
• nice app
• Easy to use and beautiful charging system
• It has blinkers!

What I’d change

• The scooter needs to retain the unit of measurement from the previous ride and not constantly revert back to metric.
• Have an option to go faster than 19mph if you want to.
• It is a very heavy scooter.  It is because it is well built, but it could become an issue if you are loading and unloading from a car a lot.
• pretty darn pricey for a scooter locked in a 19mph

Final thoughts

I enjoyed riding around on the Yadea ElitePrime electric scooter.  It is very well built with a lot of safety and convenience features built in.  If I lived in a more urban area like downtown, I could easily see using this scooter on my daily commute to work and to run errands.  I only wish that, for the price, it would not be locked down to a maximum of 19 mph.

Price: $1,499.00
Where to buy: Yadea and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Yadea.