If you care about the environment, then making purchasing decisions based on a product’s carbon footprint probably sounds like you. Read on to learn more about managing your electric scooter battery and about safe disposal at the end of its useful life, so you can scoot without environmental concerns weighing heavily on your conscience.

You’ve invested in an electric scooter with a high quality motor, and you’re know that your e-scooter’s parts can be easily recycled in the future… but what about its battery?

The batteries used in electric scooters are rechargeable. Unlike electric cars, which are charged at special charging points, e-bikes, e-scooters and other smaller guys can be charged in your home or office. The battery will store the electric charge and then release it gradually to give the vehicle power over several kilometres.

All rechargeable batteries lose capacity over time —— that’s just chemistry. This means that they become less capable of storing charge, and as a consequence you end up having to charge them increasingly often. The most common reason why people replace their electronic devices and gadgets is in fact not motor failure, but battery depletion. And instead of replacing the battery, most of us will purchase a new device altogether, condemning the old one to landfill a bit too soon.
It is also true that, consumer laziness aside, manufacturers are often complicit in the premature demise of electronic devices, as gadgets are rarely built in a modular fashion with replaceable parts, and information about how to effectively manage the battery is rarely made available upon purchase.

You may be surprised to learn that efficient battery charging and management can increase the life of a scooter’s lithium-ion battery by up to eight times. How incredible is that? So finding ways to extend the life of your e-scooter battery is crucial, as it will keep not only the battery but the entire vehicle out of landfill for longer, minimising their impact on the environment.

Remember these 4 key points and you will succeed in lengthening your battery’s life:

· Temperature control is critical, so ask your e-scooter supplier if the battery pack contains heat sensors and temperature management;
· Only partially discharge your battery when in regular use — don’t wait until it’s completely flat;
· After approximately 30 charges, allow the battery to completely discharge to avoid what is called ‘digital memory’;
· If you’re not using your e-scooter for an extended period of time, then leave it at about 40% full to retain the best battery condition.

Because of the complexity entailed in having to take all these aspects into account, at Unigogo we are investing our efforts into finding the best way to automate the process of maximising the battery life of our electric scooters. We think it’s important to focus on monitoring and understanding the state of the scooter’s battery and to simplify your battery management tasks, hence removing the onus on you to remember everything.