Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 in review: Proven e

We have just received Xiaomi's top model, the Electric Scooter 4 Pro, and now we'll take a look at the Electric Scooter 3, a slimmed-down but lighter version. It has smaller tires, a weaker motor, and a smaller battery, but weighs only 13 kg instead of 17 kg. A road permit for Germany is included.

For about 550 euros and the rather low range, the model belongs to the upper entry-level class or lower mid-range and is aimed at customers who have short distances to cover.

In Germany, of course, every scooter with a road permit officially only goes 20 km/h. However, with 300 instead of 350 W, the motor is somewhat smaller than in the top model and thus officially only manages a gradient of 14 instead of 20 percent. The biggest difference, however, is the range: Xiaomi states that the scooter has a range of 30 km. We have checked this information further down.

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The assembly is quick and unproblematic. Only the handlebar has to be attached and secured with four screws, a suitable tool is included.

That's it, then the e-scooter can be connected to the charger, which indicates the charging process with a red LED and its completion with a green LED.

Unfortunately, the battery is not removable, so the scooter always has to be carried indoors, which is not too problematic considering the comparatively low weight.

For carrying, the scooter can of course be folded. The hook of the bell also serves as a locking hook for the clamping mechanism. So that the scooter does not fold up while driving, a lever must also be unfolded when folding.

In addition to the charger and the necessary tools for pre-assembly, a spare tire and a valve attachment extension for more convenient inflation of the tires are still in the package as accessories.

The scooter itself is mainly made of dark gray metal, and the tread is additionally rubberized. Its relatively low weight of around 13 kg is pleasant. Thus, when folded, it can be carried into the apartment more easily than some competitor models.

The workmanship and stability seem very high quality, gaps or unclean glued joints are virtually not noticeable and even the handlebar rod has no play for wobbles. The handlebar is not height-adjustable.

In our model, the color dark gray dominates, and the design is somewhat loosened up by blue cables and the blue brake. Optionally, there is a white version with orange color accents.

In the center is the elongated display, which is uniform and not divided into zones. It is operated by just one button. Here you can switch on and off, switch between the three driving modes (push, normal/D, sport/S) by pressing twice and activate the lights by pressing once.

In addition to the current speed, the display also shows the light status, driving mode, any errors, Bluetooth connection status, and battery charge level in the form of 5 bars. For the mileage, you have to use the app again. However, there is no total mileage even there.

The motor lock is supposed to provide more safety, which means the scooter can only be pushed with strong resistance, and the scooter then beeps and flashes. However, the beeping is not particularly loud, at least outdoors. The function can only be accessed via the app.

The Xiaomi scooter does not have turn signals and driving with one hand is prohibited according to the intro video and is also not recommended due to the very wobbly handlebar. How are you supposed to indicate a change in direction?

The white front light illuminates the way in front of you at a practical distance well. At the rear, there is a red stand and brake light, which also serves as a reflector.

Additional reflectors are located in the front and as yellow reflector strips on the left and right sides of the two wheels.

After the pleasantly short setup, you, unfortunately, cannot start driving without problems yet. Xiaomi forces its customers to install the Mi Home app. Otherwise, the e-scooter beeps continuously and is limited to 10 km/h - an absolute no-go!

The app is installed quickly, but you have to create a Mi account first. The manufacturer states that it stores various data like name, e-mail, address, means of payment, etc., and also passes them on to subsidiaries, including servers in China. At least no data is supposedly transmitted to other third parties.

In addition, the app forces the user to share the location and, best of all, the Wi-Fi connection for the initial setup in order to search for and add new devices. The connection to the Scooter 3 is made via Bluetooth.

The app will not find the scooter without the location approval. If you disclose everything, the connection via Bluetooth works quite quickly. Then you are forced to watch a safety video about driving the scooter to the end, only then the previously grayed out "Next" button becomes active and you can finally activate the vehicle. Only then does the annoying and continuous beeping of the scooter stop and you are allowed to drive more than 10 km/h. The author of this review has never encountered such a nuisance!

It would also be possible to do without the app because, after the forced initial setup (or rather activation), the scooter also runs without an app connection. The app does not really offer many functions anyway, only the recuperation behavior (in 3 steps) and possibly the engine lock are of greater use. There is no total mileage.

The test route of about 10 km led over asphalt roads, Berlin bike paths, and parks. There were hardly any differences in altitude, but there was some wind at an outdoor temperature of 7 - 10 °C due to the season. The rider's gross weight was 72.6 kg.

The Mi Scooter 3 has three driving modes. Only in the highest mode S you can reach 20 km/h, in mode D you are limited to a maximum of 15 km/h, mode I is only for pushing.

To start up, the Scooter 3 must be kicked off and the throttle lever pressed immediately. If you press it too early, nothing happens.

The maximum speed is maintained quite well under normal conditions, the entry-level scooter also copes quite well with smaller inclines or headwinds, but only with a full battery (see below).

By the way, you have to keep the rubberized thumb throttle pressed the whole time; unfortunately, there is no "cruise control" like in the Coozy. The turning circle is quite large at 2.2 m, but the lightweight scooter still makes a maneuverable impression.

One point of criticism is that the e-scooter does not have a suspension. On uneven pavement, you feel every bump because the pneumatic tires only cushion to a limited extent, especially since they are a bit smaller than in the Pro model, the Coozy, or the Niu KQi3.

Stupidly, the app made trouble again, and immediately after the 10-km ride simply showed that the scooter has not been moved for over 10 days and the battery is therefore put into sleep mode - aha, 10 days not moved - we quickly cut the Bluetooth connection to not have to push the last meters home.

In S mode, the scooter gets off to a decent start, and acceleration is at least sufficient. The top speed of 20 km/h is reached in about 5 seconds after the kick start. In 3 seconds you are at 15 km/h. The Pro model accelerates a bit faster (- 1.5 s), especially from 5 to 20 km/h, due to its somewhat stronger engine. When accelerating, the Scooter 3 is on par with the Eleglide Coozy.

The Scooter 3 overcomes inclines very much depending on the current battery level. If the battery is full, you can almost climb bridges at full speed, but if only 2 of 5 bars are missing, the performance already decreases.

In terms of braking, our test model is on par with the Pro model and can at least beat the competitor from Eleglide, whose braking distances are significantly longer. The Mi-Scooter only has one brake lever, but in addition to the mechanical rear disc brake, electronic ABS intervenes on the motorized front wheel. When braking from 20 km/h, the roll is just over 3 meters. Only the Niu KQi3 Max is clearly better.

According to the manufacturer, the 275 Wh battery should be enough for about 30 km. In 20 km/h mode, we managed 20 km at best, rather less. Of course, our wintry test conditions have a rather unfavorable effect. But even 20 km are still very optimistic and rather calculated for the summer.

After all, the driving performance is steadily reduced and the battery display could also be optimized. The e-scooter only accelerates to the maximum at full battery. The scooter already needs more time to reach 20 km/h with only three out of 5 battery bars in the display and even acts noticeably less powerful on slight climbs.

At some point, a bar in the display starts to flash until it disappears. With three bars, the engine power drops; with two bars, the scooter can still drive 15 km/h with barely any effort. If the penultimate bar also disappears, you still get to 9 km/h before you stop completely without the last bar even blinking.

My 10-km tour caused the battery life to shrink from 75 to 25 percent. The 50 percent could therefore be doubled to 20 km, but below 25 percent hardly anything happens, firstly because the power is throttled and secondly because the scooter soon stops completely. Realistically, the e-scooter will only last 15 to 18 km at 7 to 10 °C. This means that you will get stuck at 3 out of 10 km.

Thus, it is easy to panic at 3 out of 5 bars, especially when they appear after 6 to 8 kilometers in winter. Overall, the range and the resulting power reduction is the big disappointment of the Mi Electric Scooter 3. The battery is simply too small, such early performance reductions diminish the driving pleasure considerably. Thus, every ride should be planned in advance. There are various instructions on the web, especially on YouTube, on how to connect additional batteries, but this involves not inconsiderable costs for the additional battery as well as effort.

Even the highest level of recuperation, i.e. energy recovery during braking by the motor, changes very little in the narrow range. The recently tested Xiaomi Electric Scooter 4 reaches about 45 km in our test, but it also costs about 200 euros more.

Since the battery does not get completely empty, we also do not measure the full Wh pumped in during charging.

Edit: After a firmware update, the battery behavior changed. The last bar now flashes red when the scooter is almost empty. The power is still severely limited, but no longer necessarily the speed, which now simply depends on the power. In favorable conditions (slightly downhill, no headwind), the scooter can now reach 18 or 20 km/h even with only 1 bar.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 is well-made, lightweight, and easy to carry. It is also zippy, fast, and fun - but only in the upper 60 to 100 percent battery level.

Below 60 percent, the performance is gradually limited even in the so-called "sport mode". This reduces the driving fun, especially since it is still not nearly enough for the range postulated by the manufacturer. A range of less than 20 km turns every second trip into an unpleasant nail-biter.

A real no-go is that you put around 550 Euros on the table and then get an e-scooter that is limited to 10 km/h and beeps all the time until you install the forced app!

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 can convince with its good workmanship, low weight, and also its driving characteristics - however, the small battery limits the driving fun as well as the performance (too) quickly. The forced app does not work at all!

You can also get more range and a somewhat stronger motor from Xiaomi with the Electric Scooter 4 Pro. It lasts at least 45 km, but also costs 200 Euros more, which is reasonable in view of the gain. DIY solutions with additional batteries for the Scooter 3 are likely to be similarly expensive and do not benefit from the stronger motor. In view of this, the price of about 550 Euros seems a bit too high to us, despite the good workmanship. Therefore, we also recommend taking a look at Xiaomi's 1S model, which is almost the same, but only costs about 400 Euros. In return, the motor is slightly weaker again.

Caution: The regulations regarding the operation of an e-scooter depend on the respective country and can vary greatly in some cases. In any case, you should inform yourself in advance. You can find everything you need to know here: AT, DE, CH

The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.

On the Xiaomi website for Germany the Scooter 3 currently costs around 500 euros. Comparison portals list it partly for around 460 Euros due to offers on eBay & Co. There is also a Lite version, which costs a bit less and has even less range - officially 20 km!

At Amazon, the Scooter 3 currently costs 523 euros.