Lightness is so often top of the list for our mobility scooter customers. Considering some of the ways in which mobility scooters are often used, this makes a lot of sense. There’s a reason why an entire category of mobility scooters – boot scooters – came to be called that. Using mobility scooters in conjunction with cars for day trips is a core reason why people get them. Of course, if you’re taking apart a mobility scooter to get it in and out of a car boot for your adventures, you’ll want the lightest mobility scooter available. So, what is the lightest scooter of all?
Different Types of Lightweight?
Is there more than one way of measuring how light a mobility scooter is? It sounds like a strange question, but the truth is that, yes. Yes there is! Whether they are automatic or manually-operated, folding mobility scooters are usually weighed as one piece, with the batteries removed. This makes it quite straightforward to understand what they feel like to pick up and lift. For example, the Motion Healthcare mLite (shown below) is well-known as very lightweight. It weighs in at only 17.9kg with the 2kg battery pack removed.
Click the image to view the mLite’s product page
Considerations of Convenience
It isn’t only battery packs which are usually removed in order to provide the headline weight figures for lightweight mobility scooters. That goes for both folding and boot scooters. Many buyers, particularly first time buyers, can find this confusing. That is why, on our website, Lifestyle & Mobility like to provide a total weight figure amongst the various weight figures in our scooter specifications. To use it as an example again, the total weight of the mLite when the battery pack is in it is 19.9kg. This is obviously relevant when, say, folding it up to put it into a car boot.
Understandably, many mobility scooter users may prefer not to have to partially dismantle their scooter in order to stow it. Having said that, the end result of choosing what is basically a one-piece folding mobility scooter is that the heaviest single part may well be significantly weightier than the heaviest single part of a lightweight boot scooter. So, what does this mean in practical terms?
Breaking Down Scooter Weight Figures
Let’s consider the mLite folding scooter against a lightweight boot scooter. In this case, the boot scooter example will be the MovingLife ATTO. The base weight of this scooter with the battery removed is 29kg. However, that figure doesn’t tell the whole story. Why is this? Because this mobility scooter easily splits into two parts of roughly equal size. It could be considered as something of a hybrid between a folding mobility scooter and a take down boot scooter. Take a look at the photo below and see why:
The ATTO Mobility Scooter disassembled
Out of the two pieces shown in the photo above, the heavier weighs 17kg. Surprisingly, this is less than the mLite. All that, despite the ATTO Mobility Scooter, when fully assembled, being a far bulkier product.
The Future of Lightweight Mobility Scooters
What is the future of lightweight mobility scooters? The future may lie in ultra-lightweight folding scooters, which the second part of this mini-series will be looking at. These models are popular already, and it seems to us at Lifestyle & Mobility that this trend will only continue. See you next time!