It is not that often that motorised scooters show up at the Digit Test Centre. So, when the EMotorad Lil E showed up, everyone wanted to give it a try. And, give it a try, we did. It wasn’t long before we had everyone in the office compound waiting in line to take this peppy scooter for a spin. Packed with a 250W Front Hub Motor, this scooter had enough speed and power to ferry our in-house techies around the lot.
For the ones who wanted to take it slow, we had the speed settings set to the lowest 15 kmph, and for the ones who wanted to explore the ‘thrill’ of going around a parking lot at 25 kmph, we amped up the speed settings to extract maximum power. The rear discs did their job well, even when some of our experienced riders were on the scooter, pushing the scooter to its limits. Don’t worry, all of us had protective gear on. The coating on the base plate of the scooter also made sure that our feet stayed planted when we sped things up or brought them to a grinding halt.
One gripe from some of our more experienced personnel was that the braking wasn’t as consistent or intuitive as they’d like it to be and took a fair bit of time to get accustomed to its quirks. As for the range, we did not test it extensively but from the few times we drained the battery down to zero and from our cruder estimates of the distance we covered on it, we are pretty happy with the advertised 20 km range.
Overall, the Lil E is by no means a commuting vehicle and we would not take it out on our famously atrocious public roads (though admittedly, we did try). The Lil E is a toy. An awesome and fun one for sure but a toy nonetheless. We highly recommend it if you are someone who lives in a gated community with smooth roads and a long walk to the shops.