If there’s one thing that people are noticing lately, it’s the comeback of the scooter. If you go to Europe, you’ll tend to notice quite a few around, but up until recently, that wasn’t the case in North America. In the past, the car dominated all parts of this continent, mostly because of how cheap fuel was. In the fifties, for instance, gas cost pennies a gallon, which was why cars of the time were nicknamed “land boats”. Fuel efficiency wasn’t considered back then and this would be the common practice for decades to come. It’s only in the last ten years that people have begun to reconsider the cost of having a car.
Having a car is a must for many people usually due to just how much they have to do in a day. Before, the cost of a car would include car payments, insurance, and regular maintenance. These expenses alone can be costly, but was always simply viewed as part of owning a vehicle. The real problem came when gas prices went through a series of major increases over the last decade. Cars have become much more expensive to own than in the past, and people have started to second guess just how economical a car really is.
This has resulted in people looking for alternatives to a traditional gas-powered car. The first option for car owners was to look at hybrids, which does use some electricity, but still uses expensive gas.
The second was to look at purely electric cars. This is a favored option at first, but once many people see the price tag for an electric vehicle, they tend to move on.
Enter the electric scooter. Gas prices are high and that doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. If anything, gas prices are likely to continue to increase over the next thirty years to the point of being too expensive to buy. People are turning to alternatives that don’t require a lot of gas. You can buy electric scooters online which is a good option for someone looking for cheap, efficient transportation around town.
A major issue with cars is maintenance. Everyone who has ever owned a car will admit that they had to bring into the garage, not once or twice, but several times over the lifetime of the car. There are the usual oil and tire changes, but parts of a car break down and need to be replaced. The average cost of maintaining a car is about 5 cents per mile. Sounds cheap, right? For the average driver that works out to over seven hundred dollars in maintenance per year! People then think of the electric scooter, which requires a fraction of the cost to maintain.
Then there’s insurance. Car insurance isn’t as cheap as it once was. The average cost of insuring a car is over a thousand dollars today! So, what about the insurance for a scooter? There is none. Period.
What also comes with a car is debt, if you can even afford it. The average price of a car in 2019 is now over thirty thousand dollars! That’s a problem for many households who can’t afford the price, but buy one anyway, and that’s if they get approved for the loan. Loans, themselves, are becoming harder to get because of strict policies regarding people’s credit. When one considers the price tag of a new car, hundreds of dollars to buy a scooter seems like a walk in the park!
Besides all of the issues when it comes to cost, there is also the issue of convenience. A car can be a hassle to get around town in, especially when you’re in need of a parking space. There has been more than one person out there who has driven around a part of town for an hour just looking for a place to park. Scooters can generally be chained to just about anything and then left on a sidewalk or in marked places on the street, which is an attractive trait to some.
There is also the issue of where cars can go, which is basically on roads and in parking lots! It seems a strange thing to point out, yes, but a vehicle is something that can get you just about anywhere although it can’t go everywhere. People who prefer scooters enjoy the fact that they can go down alleyways, sidewalks, and through parks with an electric scooter. Try doing that with your car!
All in all, there are many reasons for wanting to make the switch from a car to an electric scooter. As with many things, you do need to carefully consider all the pros and cons when deciding whether or not to sell your car, but scooters are becoming more visible for a reason!
