Electric vs petrol scooter
- Thread starter Sumit05
- Start date
Dhanush
Explorer
Go for petrol, cost efficient and last for long. As EV may seems cost efficient but the service and battery replacement cost would be way higher, in calculation the total cost for petrol vechicle for 10 years would costs 3lak, whereas for EV greater than 3lak (Just for example).
High speed electric scooters will be value for money only when you have high running, atleast 5000kms a month. Anything lower than this would be waste of money.
Suggest you to go with a petrol scooter for your use case.
Suggest you to go with a petrol scooter for your use case.
k660
Forerunner
Say NO to electric scooters if you live in hot/hotter regions of India.
Yeah petrol one seems better option,
Hold up which electric scooters you were considering though?
( Either way if their parts go bad their costs is generally higher than petrol ones )
Edit* also fk vespa ( idk why but even in towns people seem to be willing to pay more for scooters like vespa )
why NO to electric scooter ? I do have hero vida plus - its running good . I live in hot region . Wondering what is that you are trying to say ?
I'd like to meet the person who drives 5000 km every month on a scooter. Must have a spine of steel to ride 167 km every day.
Apologies, I'm not sure how I came to that (could have miscalculated earlier). I use an EV, and my daily run is 50 km, five days a week. I made a similar calculation as attached and decided to buy an EV(Ather), considering a 5-year warranty for the battery.
There are a few things to consider along with this.
- Service cost would be more / less the same (yes, EV service costs higher without Engine Oil), too much focus on this is bad for the brain.
- The calculation will show that EV is better, but if the battery needs to be replaced, then it adds up a higher cost (doesn't mean it will cost more than Petrol, but the upfront/immediate cost would be more)
- Buying an EV with EMI will skyrocket the overall cost (I don't recommend this), so if you're planning to buy a Petrol scooter with a 20% downpayment (Rs.20000), then the downpayment for EV should be the same 20% at least (Rs.37500) so that the Interest rate exponential is at least comparable.
- Riding aggressively will reduce the efficiency by 25%, hence a 10 to 15% cost will occur w.r.t charging cost.
- Living in a hot region will affect the way an EV performs; a good EV will perform similarly at speeds <50, but might struggle when you push harder.
- Last & most important thing to consider is the vehicle, many people go deep in these calculations and then buy an unreliable scooter, this is like saying that I'm the smartest person with the knowledge of stone age.
The rest is personal preference, would be happy to clear any doubts.
PotBelliedGarfield
Contributor
@Mudassir I seem to have had no problems with a electric scooters (Ather 450x and Ola S1 Pro) for the past three years and 1.5 years respectively. And the cost of ownership for my personal use case has been less than that of a regular scooter (TVS jupiter and Honda Active).
I cannot talk about the price difference, because that was not a part of my equation, but as far as maintenance goes, the Ather has had almost no niggles. A tyre change at 16k Kms (only rear), and three services which cost about 1000 each was all I needed.
The average summer temperatures are in the 40s consistently and I have never had issues so far.
I cannot talk about the price difference, because that was not a part of my equation, but as far as maintenance goes, the Ather has had almost no niggles. A tyre change at 16k Kms (only rear), and three services which cost about 1000 each was all I needed.
The average summer temperatures are in the 40s consistently and I have never had issues so far.
Agreed @soulweaver, even I haven't faced any problems with Ather, but it all depends on the use case.
I'm using Ather in Bangalore and travel in hard terrains, due to which my belt is at the end of its life with 16.5k in odo, which would not be the same case for you. Changing both the belts every 15k kms would bring my service cost almost equal to Petrol scooters.
For Service, it costed me 1.2k for 1st service including front disk pads & 1.9k for 2nd service including both disc pads.
Rear tyre changes are a bit more frequent in Ather compared to Activa & Jupiter.
I haven't faced any issues or seen any performance drop due to the weather in my Ather, but as the fan is removed now in the newer models, if the battery/motor heats up a bit due to hot weather above 40 might slightly impact the throttle response above 70 kmph.
I'm using Ather in Bangalore and travel in hard terrains, due to which my belt is at the end of its life with 16.5k in odo, which would not be the same case for you. Changing both the belts every 15k kms would bring my service cost almost equal to Petrol scooters.
For Service, it costed me 1.2k for 1st service including front disk pads & 1.9k for 2nd service including both disc pads.
Rear tyre changes are a bit more frequent in Ather compared to Activa & Jupiter.
I haven't faced any issues or seen any performance drop due to the weather in my Ather, but as the fan is removed now in the newer models, if the battery/motor heats up a bit due to hot weather above 40 might slightly impact the throttle response above 70 kmph.
arup
Explorer
**My Experience with Switching to an Electric Scooter**
Thought I’d share my personal journey switching from a petrol bike to an electric scooter.
For the past few years, my daily travel includes short 1 km runs for grocery shopping, a 7 km commute to office, and a 50 km trip to the HQ a couple of times per month. On average, I cover about 300-400km a month. But since most of my rides are short and the roads are full of bumps and potholes, I’ve never really gotten the claimed mileage from any bike.
I was using a 2013 Hero Glamour, and I used to spend around ₹800–900 per month on petrol. Servicing cost me another ₹1000 or so, three or four times a year. And with an old bike, it’s never just engine oil and basic service. One service needed a new chain sprocket, another needed a battery replacement, another one was brake shoes or air filters, then there was a time the shock absorber was leaking... there was always something. Maintenance was starting to get annoying and expensive. Add about ₹1200 per year for insurance and ₹200 for PUC (twice a year), and overall I was spending somewhere between ₹17k–20k per year just to keep the bike running.
Around 2023, I started looking for a replacement. New 125cc commuter bikes were around ₹90–100k, and scooters were 20k higher. I figured a new bike might save me ₹100 or so a month in fuel with better mileage, and for the first couple of years the servicing would be mostly just oil changes. But then insurance on new vehicles is higher, so overall I’d still be spending ₹15k–17k per year.
I sold my old Glamour for ₹35k and was looking at spending ₹60–80k more for a new petrol bike. Instead, I decided to try an electric scooter.
Back then, choices were limited. OLA S1 was the only big name, but there were plenty of cheaper, lesser-known options—mostly imported. I didn’t want to spend too much, so I went with a basic 60V lead-acid battery scooter that promised a 70 km range, and it cost me ₹55k. That meant I only had to add ₹20k over the money I got from selling my old bike.
Electricity costs have been next to nothing—under ₹100 per month for my usage. In two years, the only maintenance I’ve had to do was replace the horn (₹100) because it started making a weird buzzing sound, and change the front disc pads (₹200). That’s it. Total running cost in 2 years: around ₹2k–2.5k.
So basically, I saved over ₹30k in 2 years by investing ₹20k up front. That’s a net saving of ₹10k, not to mention the convenience of almost zero maintenance.
As for the battery—yes, it’s showing signs of ageing. If I ride at 50 km/h, the battery drains faster, but if I take it easy at 25 km/h, I still get about 55–60 km range. I think it’ll last me another year. At that point, I’ll either get a new 60V 28Ah lead-acid battery for around ₹16k (which should last 2–4 years), or upgrade to a 60V 30Ah lithium battery for ₹25k, which should last twice as long.
I prefered lead-acid over lithium because if the lithium battery is drained , there's no way the BMS of a lithium battery would allow me to take the last juice out of the cells, but in lead-acid battery, if I let it cooldown for few minutes it may gain some stray voltages and would run for a couple of kilometres at low speed.
Bottom line: switching from petrol to electric has saved me quite a bit already, and it looks like the savings will only continue. Definitely worth it in my case.
Thought I’d share my personal journey switching from a petrol bike to an electric scooter.
For the past few years, my daily travel includes short 1 km runs for grocery shopping, a 7 km commute to office, and a 50 km trip to the HQ a couple of times per month. On average, I cover about 300-400km a month. But since most of my rides are short and the roads are full of bumps and potholes, I’ve never really gotten the claimed mileage from any bike.
I was using a 2013 Hero Glamour, and I used to spend around ₹800–900 per month on petrol. Servicing cost me another ₹1000 or so, three or four times a year. And with an old bike, it’s never just engine oil and basic service. One service needed a new chain sprocket, another needed a battery replacement, another one was brake shoes or air filters, then there was a time the shock absorber was leaking... there was always something. Maintenance was starting to get annoying and expensive. Add about ₹1200 per year for insurance and ₹200 for PUC (twice a year), and overall I was spending somewhere between ₹17k–20k per year just to keep the bike running.
Around 2023, I started looking for a replacement. New 125cc commuter bikes were around ₹90–100k, and scooters were 20k higher. I figured a new bike might save me ₹100 or so a month in fuel with better mileage, and for the first couple of years the servicing would be mostly just oil changes. But then insurance on new vehicles is higher, so overall I’d still be spending ₹15k–17k per year.
I sold my old Glamour for ₹35k and was looking at spending ₹60–80k more for a new petrol bike. Instead, I decided to try an electric scooter.
Back then, choices were limited. OLA S1 was the only big name, but there were plenty of cheaper, lesser-known options—mostly imported. I didn’t want to spend too much, so I went with a basic 60V lead-acid battery scooter that promised a 70 km range, and it cost me ₹55k. That meant I only had to add ₹20k over the money I got from selling my old bike.
Electricity costs have been next to nothing—under ₹100 per month for my usage. In two years, the only maintenance I’ve had to do was replace the horn (₹100) because it started making a weird buzzing sound, and change the front disc pads (₹200). That’s it. Total running cost in 2 years: around ₹2k–2.5k.
So basically, I saved over ₹30k in 2 years by investing ₹20k up front. That’s a net saving of ₹10k, not to mention the convenience of almost zero maintenance.
As for the battery—yes, it’s showing signs of ageing. If I ride at 50 km/h, the battery drains faster, but if I take it easy at 25 km/h, I still get about 55–60 km range. I think it’ll last me another year. At that point, I’ll either get a new 60V 28Ah lead-acid battery for around ₹16k (which should last 2–4 years), or upgrade to a 60V 30Ah lithium battery for ₹25k, which should last twice as long.
I prefered lead-acid over lithium because if the lithium battery is drained , there's no way the BMS of a lithium battery would allow me to take the last juice out of the cells, but in lead-acid battery, if I let it cooldown for few minutes it may gain some stray voltages and would run for a couple of kilometres at low speed.
Bottom line: switching from petrol to electric has saved me quite a bit already, and it looks like the savings will only continue. Definitely worth it in my case.