What do voltage (V), wattage (W), and ampere hours (Ah) mean? Why are the watts in the motor and battery different?Updated a year ago
Our scooter's technical specifications and terms can be daunting to try and read and understand, especially for first-time riders! This guide will help explain what volts, watts, ampere hours, and watt hours are, what these specs mean and how they relate to your scooter.
Volts (V) are the unit used to measure "electric potential", the ability to make electrical charges move! For the purposes of electric scooter batteries, a higher voltage means more charge goes to the motor controllers & then motors, which can make a scooter go faster even with the same motor.
Ampere hours (Ah) measures the capacity of the battery, and roughly correlates to the range you can expect on a scooter. For instance, a 52V 23Ah battery usually gives a rider more range per charge than a 60v 21Ah battery! Ah generally increases as the voltage of a scooter's battery increases, but this does not necessarily have to be the case.
Watts (W) are not a battery measurement, but instead measure the power of the motor(s)! We advertise continuous ratings for the motors (not the peak ratings!) as topline specifications for all of our scooters. Note that the motor is a separate component from the battery - the motor's continuous wattage rating doesn't necessarily relate to the battery specs.
There is a fourth measurement, watt hours (Wh), which can be found by multiplying V x Ah. Watt hours provide another way to measure battery capacity, and can be especially useful for figuring out how much each charge of the scooter costs, as most municipalities charge for electricity by the kilowatt hour (kWh), equal to V x Ah x 1000. Please note that watt hours in the battery and motor wattage are different measurements for two different components, and do not necessarily correlate. Watt hours are not watts!
We hope this guide clarifies.
For any additional questions, feel free to reach out to our A-Team at [email protected]