How Much Does It Cost to Charge an Electric Scooter?

If you want to find out scooter-related costs, you can get more info here. When it comes to the fuel’s price, electric scooters are way cheaper than regular or even electric cars. Since there is no fancy equipment needed you only pay for the electricity. For example, you could charge an average electric scooter for around 20 cents in the United States and for 30 cents in France. Also, don’t forget you could get paid to charge scooters for the renting companies.

How much does a single charge cost?

We all know the cost of energy is not the same in all countries but we will use the United States as an example. Charging an average electric scooter in the United States should cost you around 23 cents. However, this is not a stable cost as it may be smaller during off-peak hours.

The math behind the cost

An electric scooter is charged using a regular power outlet so you don’t have to pay for supplementary equipment. You might need a socket adapter if you ordered the e-scooter from another country but that’s all. A charger output is usually measured in watts and a complete charge takes about 7 hours. 

Having these pieces of information, it becomes a problem of multiplying the hours by the wattage, and then by the price. So if we use a regular charger and it takes 7 hours to fully charge the battery and we also have 90 watts for a 4-ampere charger, the cost is 23 cents.

The math gets complicated

You will not get the same cost for every charge you make. Like every technology, manufacturers improved chargers so they only operate at maximum capacity for only a part of the charging time. 

After this, they complete the charge using a lower-intensity level. This way, the lifespan of the battery is extended. This also affects the cost. If you have a smart charger, the cost might be 25 percent smaller.

How the trip length influences the cost

Keep in mind that not every time you connect the scooter to the outlet a full charge takes place. Since most scooters have ranges of up to 25 miles, a trip to the office and back might use only 30 percent of the battery’s charge. It only makes sense this lowers the charging time. 

Also, electric scooter producers recommend charging the scooter’s battery after every trip. This way, you will increase the battery’s lifespan. If you have a garden, you could use an exterior power outlet so you don’t have to carry around the battery. The cost of a three and a half hour charge will increase the electricity bill by approximately 12 cents.

Let’s sum it up

We’ll assume a person uses the electric scooter every day for a 10-mile trip and he/she charges the scooter every day. The total cost per year will be about $40. But this is a conservative estimate as we didn’t take into account the smart chargers’ efficiency. Also, if you charge the battery after 10 pm, the price falls further. 

Electricity’s price is not always the same

Every household buys electricity from a retailer and its price is established using kilowatt-hours. Over the past twenty years, the electricity bill has been regularly increasing and we expect this to keep going on. 

Many people don’t know this, but the electricity price is not the same throughout the day, from peak times to off-peak times. Also, there is a variation depending on seasons. The general rule is the price gets bigger when more people need electricity. So during the morning hours or when summer comes you will pay the biggest price for a kilowatt-hour.

Is the e-scooter the cheapest to ride?

According to the AAA, commuting by your car to the workplace will cost you around $2500 a year only for fuel. The cost is even higher in big cities such as New York or San Francisco where the fuel cost goes up to $500. 

As we calculated, the energy for an electric scooter will cost you only $40. So the cost of driving a car instead of an electric scooter is 60 times bigger. The only cheaper method is to commute by walking.

How you can get paid for charging scooters

In the last year, the electric scooter renting service became incredibly popular. Now, you can rent an e-scooter in almost 67 cities across the United States so the renting companies raced to be the first one providing this service in big cities. 

Almost every scooter available for rent needs to be charged every day and some cities have around 3,000 e-scooters on their streets so there is a lot of money to be made. 

The renting companies utilize independent contractors to take the scooters at night, charge them in their homes, and return them on the streets the next morning. These independent contractors are called “chargers” or “juicers”.

How to become a charger

The signup process to work with the renting companies is quite simple. You can sign up through a Facebook ad or through the renting app. The process is easy and doesn’t take a lot of time. You have to answer a few questions and wait a couple of days to get validated as a charger. The company will mail you the charging cables a few days later.

Charging the scooters

The next step of the process is to take an e-scooter home and charge it to full battery. You can locate the available scooters through the app, go up to the scooter and scan its code using the same app. Always remember to scan the scooter’s code. Otherwise, when you start to move the scooter, its anti-theft alarm will go off. 

After scanning the code you can ride the scooter home to charge it. However, the battery might be pretty low at this time so there is a high chance you will not be able to complete the full trip. If the battery dies, you can use it like a normal scooter and kick the scooter along. 

How to be more efficient

To be more efficient and to make more money, you could use your car to collect electric scooters. Since you’ll get them late at night, there will not be a lot of traffic. Furthermore, you can just park the car inside your garage without unloading the scooters. Simply plug in the chargers and let them charge overnight while they are still in your car. 

The good news is you can charge scooters from different companies using the same charger. So you can sign up as a charger for different companies and have multiple chargers. This way you can charge scooters both at your home and at the office. 

Returning the scooters

In general, companies demand to return the scooters to the designated locations between 4 and 7 am so you have to be an early bird. However, some of them have no schedule for this task so you could charge scooters during the day. If you see on the app an e-scooter close to your office, you can take it inside and make money while you make money.

How much money you’ll make

You can pick up electric scooters to charge them on your way home, charge them overnight and return them the next morning while going to the office. If you have some ‘nests’ along your commute route, it becomes 100% efficient. You are literally monetizing your daily commute.

You will get between 3 and 5 dollars for charging and releasing each scooter. The pay varies depending on how much time has passed since the scooter was charged and when you returned it. If everything works out for you, you might receive $20 for a single scooter.

You don’t have to fully charge the scooters to get paid. The companies will give you a reduced payout if you return a scooter that is not 100 percent charged. So you can return the scooter by riding it to the dropping point even if you will use some of the battery. Usually, you will receive around 75 percent of the bounty.

Some companies have stricter policies when it comes to charging their scooters. If you return a scooter with less than a 95-percent charge, you don’t get paid for your service. So make sure to check to company’s policy before signing up as a charger.