This Affordable Electric Scooter Cruises

V40 electric scooter

I’ve owned an electric scooter for three years now. It's powerful, gets good battery range, and even has cruise control that kicks in after six seconds of traveling at any given speed. I love it. And as much as I enjoy riding electric bikes, the scooter is often even more convenient. For example, when I go up to grab a coffee at the local Starbucks, I often just scooter. There are no left turns to make at lights (like I would with an e-bike or car), because I’m just on the sidewalk. And when I get to the coffee shop, I can park my scooter inside. And fold it up, if I want. Can't do that with an e-bike. And I just feel safer on it than on an e-bike – mostly because I’m not riding in potentially the same lane as cars.

So I’m always rooting for e-scooters that hit the market. Such is the case with the new NAVEE V40 ($499) that you’ll be able to buy at Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy and Target within the next month. I’ve been testing it out. And while most every e-scooter I’ve tried since getting my own has never matched up in terms of specs and ability to climb steep hills, the NAVEE comes the closest. In some ways, it's even better.

First of all, it's mighty – its 525W hub motor lets me easily cruise up the steep hills in my neighborhood at 15 miles per hour. That's faster than almost any other product I’ve tried. Secondly, it's ultra quiet. Then there's the single brake lever on the left handlebar that controls both the E-ABS front brake and rear disc brake. It's really smooth coming to a stop, and not jolting like so many other scooters.

The V40 has 10-inch pneumatic tires that dampen vibrations. As soon as I powered on the device out of the box, a low-tire indicator lit up to let me know I needed to pump up the tires. A pump adapter is included, by the way. The scooter itself is IP55 water- and dust-resistant, reaches a top speed of 20mph (which in my experience you can exceed going downhill), has a 25-mile battery range, and includes a bright taillight and auto-sensing headlight. Its premium, high-capacity lithium battery features enhanced circuitry protection, according to the company. And of course, you can easily collapse the scooter in half after releasing the latch. The footboard is also wide enough to handle my size 12 shoes without issue. And I’ve always felt in balance on it. Acceleration is nice and smooth, and not choppy as it can be on cheaper machines.

The downside? I wish it had cruise control, for starters. Also, the speed gauge defaults to km/hour. The only way I see to change it to mph is by downloading the app and switching it there. The app also lets you lock the scooter by toggling an icon on the app. It works great. But I admit I’m apprehensive about using the app at all. I’ve been warned before that some foreign apps will invade my smartphone for data. And when you first download this app, it displays a huge document about data and sharing your privacy that you must acknowledge to advance to the app features. I did it on a dummy burner phone, just so I could explore the app. But honestly you don't need the app to run the scooter. Another thing I found odd was that when I first opened the box, the scooter was packed in roughly 200 battery sticker sheets. I wasn't sure what to make of it, other than they must have run out of packing material. Regardless, it struck me as an unfinished product rather than a polished one.

But once I started riding, that was all in the past. This scooter is a joy to ride and will make riders happy.