The Ninebot ES1 might be the budget scooter from the Segway-family, but it’s a must have if you’re looking for a bicycle alternative!

I’m going to divide this comprehensive review into different sections and try to explain everything as clear as possible. If you don’t want to read, just watch the full review with all the information on the Ninebot ES1.

Our full review:

 

https://youtu.be/kaDmc6qqsVw

 

Build quality

– Wheels
The wheels are made out of hard rubber, which means that you can’t get any flat tires. It also means that there is no suspension on the wheels, but I’d take this over a flat tire. Overall the wheels are great quality and make for a great experience driving the ES1.

– Motor in front
The motor is located in the front wheel. This means that the front wheels gets a bit hot when driving, but it’s not that bad. Besides getting hot, it also means that this scooter is front heavy.

– Heavy
As said before, this scooter is front heavy and actually pretty heavy in general. It’s strong body and heavy parts make sure that this is built like a tank, but also has the weight of a tank, so yeah if you’re driving it’s great, but if you want to carry this around, it’s a real work-out.

– Metal
The frame is built out of full aluminium/metal body and after dropping the scooter for a couple of times (not my fault!) it survived with some scratches and worked as before.

– Side knobs
A bit of a flimsy thing for me: the side knobs on the handlebar. You can pull these out (no idea why) and they tend to stick out from themselves. I think they absorbe fall damage or something, otherwise I have no idea why these are there.

– Durable
As stated above, the Ninebot ES1 is a very durable and well made scooter so big up for this!

Drive quality

– Not a lot of suspension in pits
There is a bit suspension on the front, but it doesn’t really do anything. When you drive in a bit or over cobblestones you will feel it. It’s not that big of an issue for me, but for other people who tested it, it was annoying (knees and stuff). So yeah, it’s more of a personal situation to determine if this is a real deal-breaker.

– Fast
At 20km/h this is not extremely fast, but as fast as a regular person riding a bike. I could easily go on a bike ride with friends while going top speed or less with the scooter. Just make sure it’s charged lol.

– Good breaks front and back
You have two options to break: the front break is electronic and on the other side of the handle bar en the back break is manually: you press this with your foot. Both work very well, although you have to get used to the electronic one a bit. Segway pushes regular updates to improve the braking system, which is great.

– Pushing works as well
One time the battery died and I had to push for a while. It worked better than expected: there is no real drag and when you push, you can still use the throttle a little bit and easily go full speed again with little pushing. It’s also a nice workout to be fair.

– Very depending on weight how long you can drive
One thing I really noticed is that the battery life depends a lot on who’s driving and how much this person weights. If you’re a featherweight like me, don’t worry: the battery will last a long time.

Easy to work with

– Hop on and good to go
It’s really not difficult to drive this. You hop on, push a bit (you have to go 3km/h before you can throttle) and you’re good to go.

– Stupid to carry around
As said above, this thing is heavy. You can fold it up, but it’s very weird to carry around. It tends to slip out of your hand or fall on it’s side. Maybe it’s just me, but I hate carrying this and prefer to drive it.

– Fun to ride with
Did I already mention that this is a lot of fun to drive with? It’s a blast if you’ve never used an electric scooter before. You’ll love it!

– A bit too big for cars
It’s heavy and it’s big. A bit too big for cars unfortunately. I drive a Volvo V40 with a regular sized trunk and it doesn’t fit in my trunk when it’s folded. It only fits on the back seats, but if you have people driving with you, that’s not an option. However: since this will be used during a commute without a car, it’s really not an issue for some people.

 

Safety is no.1 Priority!

– Speed is not too crazy
The speed is okay, but not crazy and that’s important. These things can kill people, but the Ninebot ES1 does a great job providing a safe experience. It’s really important to be safe on these two-wheelers since you can take a nasty fall. The throttle is nice and braking is clean as well so big up for this!

– Kids mode
There’s some kind of kids/limit mode if you want people to test this thing or kids to drive it. You can put a limit of 10 km/h for example if you’re driving it for the first time.

– Light in front reflector back
The light in the front is very bright and works well, on the back and sides there are red reflectors so cars passing by can see you driving at night.

– Lock via the application
You can actually lock the scooter with the app. The scooter needs to be turned on: you go to the app, put it in lock mode and you can’t drive it. Of course people can pick it up, wait for the battery to be drained and steal it: but hey, let’s assume that people are not that nasty, shall we.

Application

– Great app
The application is great: you can see the total distance, enable cruise control, see you remaining mileage, your last trip, change energy recovery level and all sorts of things. It’s well built and pushes a lot of updates as well.

– IOS Android
Of course available on both platforms.

Price

– 450 euro’s
At around 470$ it’s not cheap, but that’s the price for an electric scooter to be fair. There are a lot of cheap alternatives on the market, but I wouldn’t advise these, since they are not as safe as this one. I repeat: for an electric scooter this size, safety is number ONE PRIORITY and Ninebot really does a good job delivering a safe scooter.

Overall I had a great experience driving this scooter. The Ninebot ES1 works well, is very safe and well built, but some minor things could be better. At 450 euros this is a great deal and an awesome alternative for a bicycle (which is not as easy to carry around as this scooter). I used the ES1 when I was on holiday and loved it. If you’re looking for an electric scooter, the ES1 might be your best guess.