If you have ever thought your mobility scooter goes just a little too slow for your taste, you do not need to go out and buy an entirely new scooter.
There are simple things that you can do at home to boost the speed of your mobility scooter without making any large purchases. In this quick guide, we will go over some of the easiest ways to boost the top speed of your scooter. Let’s get to it, time and speed are of the essence!
How fast do mobility scooters typically go?
The average speed for a standard mobility scooter is about four miles per hour. Some go a little bit slower and others go a little bit faster. Mobility scooters that are considered fast usually have a top speed greater than seven miles per hour. Most scooters will offer a top speed between three and six miles per hour.
- Slow: 1mph - 3mph
- Average: 3mph - 6mph
- Fast: 7mph +
A reasonable speed will differ between scooter riders. For someone who primarily uses their scooter indoors, speeds of 4/mph might seem fast. For scooter users who use their mobility device to drive through the neighborhood might find 4/mph exceedingly slow.
Three tips to help make your mobility scooter go faster
If you are looking to boost the speeds of your average scooter there are a few things you can do.
However, take note that most of these tips will not take a 4/mph scooter to a 10/mph scooter, they will simply help you beat the average speed of your scooter by reasonable margins.
A. Upgrade the battery
The easiest method to get an instant speed boost out of your mobility scooter is to upgrade the battery. In most mobility scooters, the limiting factor in the speed is the power level of the standard battery. If you can find a compatible battery that has a higher power output and capacity you can easily get better speeds out of your mobility scooter.
Even if you are not comfortable upgrading to a larger battery, simply replacing an old battery can also help get those speeds up. Just like a remote control, if your scooter battery begins to run low on juice, it will start to wane in its effectiveness. Getting a fresh new battery will give you a little bit more zip when it is brand new and can also increase your range per charge as well.
This is one of the simplest methods you can experiment with to try and get better speeds out of your machine. If getting a bigger, more powerful, battery does not help with speeds your scooter may have a speed limiting device in it to ensure consistent performance for safety. We cannot recommend removing such a device but if you discover a speed limiter, removing it would also increase speed. Though, doing so might void your warranty and decrease safety.
A new battery for a mobility scooter costs around $100, which is far cheaper than the cost of a new scooter altogether.
B. Get a tune-up
Like any machine that you use regularly, mobility scooters require regular maintenance to ensure that they are running at peak efficiency. If you have not had your mobility scooter serviced recently, or if you have never had it serviced at all, taking it in for a general tune up can help increase the speeds. Especially if you have a brushed motor versus a brushless motor. Brushed motors will benefit from maintenance and will increase speeds if tuned properly.
Scooters run entirely on battery power which can lead to things such as terminal corrosion that also need to be checked. If you are getting any sort of corrosion on your battery or the battery terminal it can reduce the power transfer between the battery and the motor leading to inconsistent or reduced speeds.
Now is a great time to think back to when you last had your scooter serviced. Even if you just give it a good once over yourself, keep an eye out for potential issues in the battery and motor can really go a long way to boosting a lagging scooter.
C. Reduce weight and boost aerodynamics
Another easy tip to help boost speeds on your mobility scooter is to remove any excess items that may be weighing you down. Things such as baskets, storage boxes, spare tires, and other accessories can weigh your scooter down quite a bit. Removing items like these can help get a little more out of your scooter.
Similarly, if you rearrange your accessories to be more aerodynamic that can also help increase your speeds. If you have a shopping basket on the front, relocating it to the back of the scooter could help to reduce drag and boost speed over long distances, not to mention battery life.
If you have been frustrated with your scooter’s performance, take a look at it with fresh eyes, you might realize you’ve been carrying around more baggage than required.
What are the fastest mobility scooters on the market?
The fastest mobility scooters on the market today are made by EWheels. EWheels scooters occupy all of the top spots in terms of speed and they have a variety of different styles. Their fastest models are achieving speeds of 14mph, 15mph, and even 17mph.
EWheels offers fast scooters in tricycle configurations, four wheeled models, and even European style. The secret to their speedy success is the inclusion of industry leading battery size and rounded modern edges for aerodynamics.
Shop the whole EWheels brand here.
Fastest Mobility Scooter - Guinness World Records
Wrapping Up
There is no magic bullet that is going to take your struggling scooter from crawling to flying but there are proven ways to get your speeds back to a reasonable level that works for you. Employing these three easy tips can help increase the speed and overall health of your scooter. Make sure to follow all manufacturers’ instructions, do not make any modifications that might put your warranty in jeopardy, and be sure to maintain safe speeds while in use.
I have a Pride Raptor scooter. Currently using 12 volt, 75 amp (a pair) batteries.
Could I go up a step or 2, in a larger battery to improve distance? Primary concern is distance. So far hasn’t remotely gone advertised distance.
Raptor wt capacity is 400 lbs. I weigh less than even 75% of that. I am 66, my city has grossly insufficient public transit, give electric wheelchair users a very bad time, IF they will even let us board. I know, illegal, but their employer doesn’t care.
Thank for advocating for seniors. I have no family, so I am more restricted in options.
Scooter companies advertised distances are semi-baloney. Their stated max range is at a very slow speed (the turtle speed setting) of around 2 mph with a very light weight rider.
The scooter’s max speed is about 3 times faster that the speed the manufacturer used when testing the range. In real life, you’re going to be driving at full speed when on a long trip. That cuts your real life range down to approx 1/3 of the advertised range, even if you’re a skinny light weight person. If you’re heavy, then you might only get 1/4 the advertised range.
My recommendations are these: If you can’t afford LiFPO4 (aka LFP) batteries (or don’t understand that technology) then I recommend buying the largest Powersonic PDC (AGM) or MK Gel batteries that will fit. These are the best of the lead batteries, IMO. I suggest buying whichever (AGM or gel) matches the type of charger you have. i.e. – if your scooter came with AGM batteries, then buy Powersonic PDC AGM batteries. If your scooter came with gel batteries, then buy MK Gel batteries.
But if you can afford to upgrade to lithium batteries and buy a new charger, then I recommend Dakota or Vmaxtank lithium batteries in largest size you can fit, and a Dakota charger of the appropriate voltage for your scooter with a similar Amp rating as your original charger has.
Wow, thanks so much for the detailed post, Charles. Very helpful!
Hello,
I’m using my eureka scoota for golf, the course is quiet flat and would love to get up the fairways a bit quicker.
My scooter has 2 x 40ah lead acid batteries(recommended)
can you please advise me how in increase power/speed.
Cheers
Rob W
I have a Golden Buzzaround XLS-HD 3 wheel scooter. It’s a great scooter, but in stock form it was slow at 4 mph and had a very uncomfortably rough ride due to small 8 inch diameter foam filled tires.
I purchased new rear wheels for it that were a direct bolt on upgrade and allowed me to use 9 inch diameter GMD brand pneumatic tires. This increased top speed to 5 mph and gave a comfortable ride.
Later I changed the rear tires to 10 diameter (3.00-4) Qind brand pneumatic rear tires, which are excellent rear tires. I run them with 13 psi. This increased speed to 6 mph and made the ride even more comfortable. However, for tires this tall to fit, my cousin used his dremmel tool to trim the rear fenders to allow enough clearance so the 10 inch tall tires don’t rub. He did a good job and it looks good.
After going to 10 inch diameter rear tires, I wanted to increase the front tire diameter from 8 to 9 inches to keep the front tire close enough in size relative to the 10 inch rear tires. This was important to preserve good steering (by keeping a proper rake/castor angle for front forks).
So my cousin installed a steer-tube/fork from a Golden Buzzaround EX (larger) scooter. It was an easy, direct bolt-on upgrade that allowed us to change the front tire from an 8 inch Buzzaround XLS-HD front tire to a 9 inch Buzzaround EX front tire.
It rides and steers excellent and top speed increased from the original 4 mph to 6 mph. It still has all the advantages of a small class 2 travel/boot scooter and has much of the speed of a class 3 scooter. It has better ride comfort that any other class 2, and even better than many class 3.
Most recently, I removed the speed limitation from the scooter’s controller. In theory that should make it another 0.5 mph faster, but in real life it didn’t make any difference to the speed because (apparently) battery voltage is the limiting factor. I am using Powersonic PDC batteries, which are the best lead batteries I’ve ever used (and I’ve tried many brands and models of batteries). I highly recommend the PDC batteries for maximimum range and lifespan.
However, to increase speed (at least another 0.5 mph after removing speed limiter) I’d recommend Dakota or Vmaxtanks lithium batteries for a battery upgrade. But if your budget doesn’t allow for lithium, then I recommend Powersonic PDC batteries (not PS batteries).
Someday I plan to buy Dakota or Vmaxtanks lithium batteries and a Dakota 24V 5A charger that’s optimized for Lifpo4 (aka LFP) batteries. Then my scooter would go 6.5 mph and have even better range.
It currently goes 6 mph and already has excellent range.
Note: My cousin is an able bodied auto mechanic. I’m a physically handicapped computer programmer. I wish we also had an electrical engineer on our team (so we could convert my 24V scooter to 36V and then it’d go 9.5 mph). But even with just the skills we have and a few simple, basic mods, we’ve made a 4 mph scooter go 6 mph, and we’ll soon get to 6.5 mph, and it rides more comfortably and has excellent range.
Get a Merits Silverado Extreme….truly bitchin scooter… out of the box I was getting 14mph… takes a few hours of driving time for the limiter to kick in… now getting 11. This thing has a 1000W motor and can easily double that, I’m certain. How do I bypass the limiter???
I have a Invacare M4 scooter that lost power and no joy forward or back. I recon it’s a controller problem. I am unable to find a replacement controller as they are no longer manufacture these controllers. Is there any way we can retire the unit so the controller is not needed. Share hope someone can give me help. Tks
Hi I have read your website with interest. I have a Pride Colt Executive mobility scooter. I have found that with the batteries that come fitted to the scooter 2 X 100ah I can travel a distance off 10.1 miles at full speed before the battery level drops from a full charge of 12 bars on the indicator down to 4 bars on the indicator, I have then left the scooter overnight and I have found that the indicator has then gone back to a full charge, this then begs the question how much charge is actually left in the batteries? at this point I have taken the scooter for a further run and covered a distance off 7 miles and the battery indicator now reads 10 bars. as you can see my point is when we purchase and use mobility scooters we should not rely on the battery indicator for distance.
Now for my real questions, if I know that I can travel a distance of say 15 miles using the 2 X 100ah batteries on the scooter could I connect a further 2 x 100ah batteries of the same make and model (1) to increase my total distance? (2) would connecting the extra 2 batteries increase the speed of the scooter? (3) How would you have to connect the extra batteries as there are a number of different ways, “parallel”, “serious” or even “serious parallel”? (4) what would be the charging implications based on the charger being designed for charging only 2 batteries?