Electric Scooter vs Electric Skateboard​

I ride a skateboard to work. And lately there have been a ton of these little scooters and things popping up everywhere, and I thought okay let's look at maybe the cost of that vs owning one and what they're doing and how they may be changing transportation in cities. Actually let's go for a quick ride. I want to show you how prevalent these scooters are all over town just so you get a sense of what they're really like out there. (upbeat music) Okay, so right off the bat, directly outside my building we've got these Bird scooters here and the Bird scooters cost $1 to unlock and then 15 cents per mile. But there's a bit more to that story.
       So sometimes cruising through downtown can be a little sketchy because there's construction and traffic and stuff like that, lots of cars but generally they're going pretty slow, and so it's not that sketchy of a proposition. Train tracks, however, suck. So if you've never skated before in your life, then you're going to be a lot more scared of this than if you have. But with the scooter, you have something to hold onto. So it's a bit easier, and so people are generally more comfortable with it. Now when you're on one of these, you're supposed to ride in the road like a bicycle or anything else, and you're supposed to have a helmet, like I have on here, but not a lot of people do that. So that's something else to consider is are you going to carry that with you at all times? What's up, buddy? (laughs) Yeah.
     If you're planning on this being part of your commute then you're definitely going to have one with you. Whereas if it's just a casual thing it's different. So what I'm considering here is, assuming that this is what you're going to be doing on a regular basis like I do on my way to work and like a lot of other people do. So that's kind of our use case here. White Ferrari. (upbeat music) So here's another one of the scooters which is from Lime. Now Lime has electric-powered bikes, regular bikes, and these scooters here. Now there are lots of options, these are kind of invading cities right now.

So I want to just figure out what's really the prices on these things,what's more economical, and what's more convenient and safe. (upbeat music) Alright so let's take a look at the actual economics behind these things. And the first one I want to look at is the Lime Bike, which is that little e-scooter thing, and they do have other options, but for my purposes today I'm really interested in the electric option. So on a scale of one to three, with three being the most comfortable, I'm giving the Lime Bike the three because it has handles, it rides smooth, and the wheels are a decent size so you'll run over most bumps and cracks in the road, so I think it's great.
           And any type of scooter like that I think will be in a similar category. Now the convenience of it is only a one because while they are often pretty densely packed in urban areas, they're not always available. And if you're coming, like I do, from a mile away, you may have to walk quite a ways to find one. So it's not always there. And again that's a scale of one to three. If you look at the cost, it starts out with $1 to get it going, and it's about $1. 50 per mile in my calculation. So let me explain that,it's $1 to unlock it, and then it's 15 cents per minute. And the deal is that typically if you could just fly unabated without having to stop, at full speed you're going to get a mile much quicker than you would rack up $1. 50. However, there are going to be hills, there are going to be stoplights and other traffic and reasons that you're going to have to slow down.
          So in the real world testing that I've done and the friends that I've talked to, it's about $1. 50 that we get per mile. So for a one mile trip you're looking at about $2. 50. If you have to do this twice a day, that adds up to about five bucks a day. Multiply that times 50 weeks and five days a week, you're at 250 times 5 gives you $1250 per year if you were using the Lime Bikee-scooter on a daily basis. Now of course, these numbers are going to vary.

Maybe you have a longer commute, maybe you don't have anything in your way and you can get there quicker, so that trip costs a little bit less. So all of these numbers are estimates here but they're real-world estimates based on my testing and some other friends that I've had test it as well. Now the next one to talk about is the Bird scooter, and these are kind of the cool kids on the block. Now the Bird is very much like the Lime scooters and I'm giving it the same rating, a three for comfort and a one for convenience. And there are slight differences in the power and the specs of these things, but I don't want to get into the nuances here, I want to kind of stay high level to give you an overview. Now the cost is essentially the exact same, it's $1 to start it up and then 15 cents per minute.
          Again, average that out you get about $1. 50, and so overall it comes out to about the same price. So $1250 per year, pretty expensive honestly. The next thing I want to compare is to an actual electric skateboard. Now Boosted is famous for having some of the best in the industry, so I'm going to compare two different Boosted boards to give you sense of the different options. Now the first one is the Stealth. The Stealth Boosted board is the long board, it's the newer one, and it's pretty awesome from all of the reviews I've seen online. I'm giving it a two for comfort because you don't have a handlebar, meaning if you're unfamiliar with being on a skateboard without holding onto something, it's going to be a little sketchy for you, but it is a longer board so it's going to be something you can get used to really quickly. Now the convenience is pretty good because you own it, you have it with you wherever you go, but because it's a long board it's going to be more cumbersome to deal with than some of the other options we'll look at.
          Now the cost on this is pretty high. It starts out at 1599 just to buy it, and then it's practically free to go every mile. So I actually did the math on the cost per mile and it comes out to about a tenth of a penny on average in the US, so depending on your electricity rates. But basically it's negligible on the cost. So yearly, if you were to keep it for two years, and you'd probably keep it for longer, but let's cap it at two since most devices and things we buy nowadays don't last much longer than that, you're looking at just under $800 per year for the Boosted Stealth option. Now if you go back to the scooters, it's actually quite a bit cheaper than those scooter options because those are going to cost you, in theory, the same price,the same amount every year. Now the other option I wanted to look at from Boosted is the Mini S. And this is basically the same technology packed into a smaller board, and so because of that I'm going to give a comfort of one, because not a lot of people are really going to be comfortable with it from the get-go. You can certainly get there, but if you've never really ridden a skateboard much in your life it's going to be pretty sketchy when you start out. Because it's smaller and you own it, you'll always have it with you and you'll be able to take it and travel with it in a relatively easy way. So I'm giving it the highest score on the convenience end and the lowest score on the comfort end. Now if you're a seasoned skateboarder, then it may not be that big of a deal. But for most people I think you'll have a little bit of apprehension getting on one of these for the first time.

Now when it comes to cost of course it's smaller and it's going to be a bit better.
So the startup cost here is 749, and similarly it's practically free to run it every single mile. So overall if you divide that across two years you're looking at about $375. So pretty good, it's actually the cheapest option and the most convenient if you can get over that fear of riding a shorter board if you've never been on a skateboard before.
   Then you have a different company which is kind of coming into the mix here that is challenging Boosted and a lot of these other guys, and this is Riptide.
Now I am actually riding the R1 Elite and I've been riding it for a couple of weeks now and I really enjoy it. So the R1 Elite comes in at the similar scores as the Mini S from comfort and convenience standpoint. Now there are some little differences, like this one has handles and a kick tail, and so you can argue that maybe it's a little bit more convenient, but those, again, are kind of in the nitty gritty details here. I think, mostly, the thing to focus on is that it's a shorter board. And so if you're comfortable with that, then this is going to be super convenient and great, but if you're not, then you may want to look at one of the other options.

Now when it comes to cost it's slightly cheaper than the Boosted Mini S at 729.
And again, the cost per mile is pretty much negligible. So it's a little bit cheaper, about ten bucks cheaper per year than the Boosted Mini S and far cheaper than any of the other options we looked at previous to that. So, what's it going to be? Who is the winner here? Well, let's take a look at the four different things that we compared and see what their best use case is.
       So for me, the Lime Bike is something that a casual user would really enjoy because you don't have to carry it with you, it's not something that will always be with you and you have to deal with that,but it's really comfortable. It is the highest priced one on our list so you're going to spend more money, but if you don't use it that often it probably won't matter to you, a few bucks here and there and it'll be really convenient and awesome when you do have one near you.
Now Bird falls into the same category.
I think that it's casual and from what I understand the scooters themselves are a bit more capable than the Lime,and that's right now, it might change over time so we'll see. But basically it's in that casual user base. If this is something that you need for your commute every single day, I don't think either of these options are really the best economically.

They may be decent from the comfort standpoint, but they are going to cost you quite a bit more than either of the other two here. So Boosted I think is a great option for your daily driver. If you aren't that comfortable on a skateboard and you only are using it for specific use cases maybe the Stealth one, the longer one, is a good option.
       But if you want something that you can travel with and it's easier to lug around, maybe the Mini S. And then of course,lastly, our Riptide board, the R1 elite that I tested. I think it's a great option. It is very similar to the Mini S from Boosted. It does have slight differences on speed and power and then it has those handles which are pretty cool.
      Also, as an old skater, it has a kick tail, which is nice because I can turn it around real easy and things like that.
But again, those are minute differences between the two. I think that if you're comfortable on a smaller skateboard, then either the Boosted Mini S or the Riptide R1 elite are fantastic options.
And if you're going to just need something, from bopping around town not constantly all the time, then these scooters are going to be great choices for you as well.