But if you do buy one, you should consider the InMotion L8F. It’s not a catchy name but the Chinese brand has built an excellent roadworthy electric scooter that is one of the best we’ve ever tested.
Price and availability
In the US it retails direct from InMotion for $799. This puts it at the pricey high end of electric scooters. There are cheaper options on the market, but the L8F is fully featured and rugged enough for pavements and road use.
How fast can it go, then?
OK, hold your horses. At over £700/$700 you might expect motorbike speeds. This isn’t the case but the L8F still goes at a fair whip with a top speed of 18.5mph – nearly 30km/h.
InMotion claims it can go for 22 miles on a single charge of its 36V 8Ah battery cells. We found this to be about accurate, if a slight overstatement. You’ll want to plug in the battery to charge after any ride that goes over about five miles just to be safe. That said, as long as you have charge (indicated clearly on the main readout on the handlebars) the scooter maintains the ability to hit a decent speed. On flat road where we tested it, the motor managed to comfortably get us to about 16km/h. Only when going downhill could it approach anything near the top speed of just under 30km/h. Acceleration on hills requires you to physically push off with your foot while holding the accelerator down to get going. That accelerator is a bright blue thumb lever for your right thumb with a symmetrical left lever for the electric brake. This brake is very good and applies a gradual but sufficient level of brake every time so as to bring the scooter to a prompt stop without flinging you off the front or jolting the whole unit. There is an emergency foot brake fixed above the back wheel for you to apply with your spare foot too as a fall back.
Built to last
The L8F is a heavy scooter at 12kg and we found we didn’t fold it away very much as it’s quite cumbersome to keep putting it away. The frame releases with a clasp and spring-loaded button, but the latter can become quite stuff hence we kept the unit unfolded. The handlebars fold away too for added portability and you can even buy optional castor wheels to pull the unit around (we didn’t test these). The scooter is rounded off with a solid metal foot plate with a highly grippy textured surface. An 8in solid front tyre is paired with an air-filled rear tyre, the latter surrounded by a brake light that turns red when you apply the electric brake but is another colour when riding. There’s also an RGB LED strip on the entire length of the drive column and a bright headlight that works excellently, good enough to ride at night.
The LED strip and rear wheel lights are fully changeable within the InMotion app. We had a few Bluetooth connectivity issues with the scooter but overall, it’s an app you’ll want to use. It allows you to change the colours of the LEDs, limit the top speed of the scooter or even lock it completely so it can’t be ridden. The battery charge on the electronic dashboard sits above a speedometer that displays in km/h. A small kickstand finishes off a well-made if fairly utilitarian package with IP54 dust and water resistance for outdoor use. Don’t submerge the thing, but it’ll cope with puddles and mud splatter.
Verdict
You can spend half of what the L8F costs and get the Xiaomi electric scooter that can go the same distance at the same speed with larger wheels. In that sense the L8F is a little overpriced but we love the build quality, speedometer, reliability, lights and app integration. This is one of the best electric scooters you can buy, and the high price gets you a large enough battery to be able to use it several times before having to recharge if necessary – unlike some cheaper options.
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
