Spec Decoder · Rider Tools · Zerovoltion

What do electric scooter specs really mean?

Tap the numbers off any spec sheet — no math required — and it decodes itself: the true tank, the range you can plan on, and whether the sticker’s claims hold up.

No brand names here. We decode numbers, not logos — bring any sheet.

Now — what does their sticker say? Optional. Skip it and the report still runs — it just has nothing to check.

Standard ride assumed: 165 lb · 18 mph · rolling road · a few stops · mild day.
Estimates until our own ride tests finish — and this page will say so the day they do.

How this works

Every number on this page falls out of one division. Volts × amp-hours gives the tank; the tank divided by what a real ride actually consumes gives the miles. Nothing here is sponsored, ranked, or looked up — it is your sheet’s own numbers put through the arithmetic the sheet is hoping you skip.

Where the consumption number comes from
A baseline of 19.5 watt-hours per mile for a 165 lb rider, then scaled by a speed curve — consumption climbs with the square of your cruise, which is why 25 mph costs so much more than 18 — and adjusted again for weight, road, weather and riding style. It lands in the 16–30+ Wh/mi band real riders log. This is the same engine our Range Calculator runs, so a change to one is a change to both.
Why the tank shrinks to about 92%
A battery never hands over its label. The pack’s management system guards a floor and a ceiling to keep the cells healthy, so roughly 92% of the printed watt-hours is what you can spend. Every range figure here is calculated from that number, never from the label.
Why speed is a band and not one number
Motor speed follows voltage, so each pack class has a real-world top end — but winding, wheel size and rider weight all move it, and a maker can cap a machine anywhere below the top of its class. We show the band the class delivers. A claimed top speed above it is a claim the volts can’t cash; one below it is just a maker being deliberate.
Why range is a band too, and why we lead with the low end
Because two riders on the same machine get different days. If it says 27 miles, plan 27. A tool that quotes you its best case is a brochure.
How a climb claim gets tested
First against the world, then against the watts. A grade is converted to a percentage — 45° is a 100% grade, and the steepest public street anywhere is about 37% — and only then do we work out the power to hold a standard load up it at a walking pace. Doing it the other way round would let a big motor validate a road that does not exist.
Why the pack gets checked against the motors
Because a sheet can pair parts no factory would. Total watts ÷ volts gives the current the motors want; divided by the amp-hours, that is the C-rate the pack is being asked for. Past a certain point the battery’s protection board answers the throttle before the motor does.
And what it deliberately won’t do
  • It never turns a peak number into a continuous one. There is no reliable conversion, so when a sheet gives only a peak we say the working number is missing and stop. You can enter both when a sheet prints both — that is how we avoid ever having to convert.
  • It never uses a peak figure to work out range, headroom or a climb. Those are all sustained-load questions and peak lasts seconds. A peak gets checked against one thing only: whether the battery could actually supply it.
  • It never says anyone is lying. When a claim and the arithmetic disagree, it shows you the division and marks it with a question — because a sheet can carry a typo, a translation, or a number measured somewhere you will never ride.
  • It never names a brand and holds no competitor database. The only sheets in here are the ones you type in.
  • It never rounds up. Where a number could go either way, it goes down.
  • It can’t know your hills, your stops or your winter. That is what the Range Calculator is for — and until our own ride tests finish, everything here is an estimate and this page says so out loud.

Full method, receipts included → where our numbers come from.