What is Electric Scooter, How to Rent, How to Use?

electric scooter, It is a nature-friendly transportation vehicle that we are used to seeing a lot on the streets lately, mostly young people use it, that facilitates transportation in short distances, does not emit carbon emissions because it works electrically. What is an electric scooter, how to rent it, how much are the rental prices of electric scooters, which companies have electric scooter services, how to use these tools, are they easy to use? And you will find answers to many more questions in this article. An article that will attract the attention of everyone who has not tried electric scooters yet, but who is curious, is waiting for you, have a pleasant reading!

Do you have any of those who say why our travel blog got interested in the electric scooter business? Actually, I've been wanting to write this article since I started seeing Martı e-scooters in Istanbul, but the time has come. When I started to see these instruments in Istanbul, which I am very accustomed to seeing abroad, especially in flat cities, I really liked it and I did a research on this subject. Organized between 16-22 September 2020 to reduce carbon emissions in Europe and Turkey. European Mobility Week The subject of electric scooters came up again for me. I hope we can find some answers to your questions about electric scooters.

What is Electric Scooter?

An electric scooter is a kind of skateboard that moves on two wheels, can be adjusted in direction and speed thanks to its steering wheel, works by being charged with electricity, and is designed suitable for transportation in short distances with these features. Electric scooters are a means of transportation that can be an alternative to bicycles or electric bicycles.

Why Should I Use an E-Scooter?

The usage area of ​​e-scooters is defined as 2-8 kilometers distance or 5-45 minutes journeys. In other words, if your work and home are close, to commute from home to work, from work to home; If your house is close to the seaside, to go to and from the beach; to go shopping; If your house (like me) is at the top of a steep slope, in order not to climb that last slope when returning home tired; or just to go from place to place in the city, to have some fun with your friends; sometimes you can use the e-scooter just out of curiosity.

Features of Electric Scooters

The features you will need may differ depending on the purpose and route you will use the electric scooter. Especially if you intend to buy an e-scooter rather than rent it, this part of the article will be of interest to you, if you only want to rent it, you can proceed to the next topic.

Battery Duration - Charge: While the charging time varies between 3-6 hours on average scooters, the distance that it can travel with a full battery varies between 20 and 40 kilometers, depending on the charging time.

Motor power: Electric scooters with 250 W – 350 W motor power will not let you down.

Capacity: Generally, the maximum carrying capacity of electric scooters is limited to 100 kg. Therefore, two people are not suitable for riding.

Climbing Capacity: Scooters produced with today's technology are devices that do not cause problems in terms of climbing capacity, unless they are very steep or the person on them is very heavy.

Chassis Height: Height is one of the factors that will affect your road comfort the most. Our road conditions are known, a scooter that is close to the ground will be very difficult for you.

Tire Size: As tire size increases, driving safety and comfort will increase.

Weight: When choosing a scooter, pay attention to its light weight, remember that you may need to carry it in your hand in some places.

Brake Distance: I think this is the most critical issue. Especially if you are using an e-scooter in Istanbul, your brakes must be strong in order to move forward safely in both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

Additional features such as electronic front speed and distance indicator, cruise control system, LED lighting system, horn, stop light, battery indicator can be found as additional features on scooters.

There are many and different types of electric scooter models on the market. The most known electric scooter brands; Xiaomi, Ducati, Inokim, Citymate, Ninebot, Segway, Kawasaki, Hoverway. It is possible to extend this list.

If you are going to buy an electric scooter, pay attention to these features and choose the right tool for you.

How to Rent an Electric Scooter?

What you need to do to rent an electric scooter is simple, I explain step by step below.

1) Download the App for Free

If you want to benefit from the electric scooter rental service, first of all, you need to download the mobile application of which rental company you will benefit from. Since the most common application is currently Martı, my examples will be based on Martı. The applications of all companies are already similar to each other.

If you are using the application for the first time, you need to define your credit card in the application. For verification, a preliminary withdrawal of 1.99 TL is made from your credit card. Your future uses are deducted from this amount.

• 

• 

2) Find the Nearest Scooter!

After downloading the app, you will see the closest scooters to your location on the map. As you can see in the photo above, there are many seagulls around me. Beşiktaş is very rich in this respect, of course. There may not be that many options everywhere.

3) Unlock the Scooter and Get Started!

You need to go to the scooter you want to use and open the application on your phone and press the "START" button. When you read the QR code on the scooter through the application on your phone, your phone and the scooter met each other.

The app will give you a 4 digit password. You will use this password to unlock the scooter. Once unlocked, your electric scooter is ready for use.

It is necessary to push a couple of times with your foot to start the scooter. You can use the accelerator button to accelerate and the left brake lever to slow down.

4) Park and Finish the Journey!

When your trip is over, park the scooter in a suitable spot so as not to disturb pedestrians and cars. If it is not parked in a suitable place, there may be criminal sanctions. The places that are not suitable for parking are specified on the application.

You take a photo that you have locked the scooter again and send it through the application. Thus, your process is completed.

Do you need a license to use an electric scooter?

Currently, a license is not required to use electric scooters in Turkey. However, a draft of the E-Scooter Business Regulation was prepared in September 2020. If this draft goes into effect, users between the ages of 16-18 will be required to have an M and A1 driver's license. No license required for now.

The minimum age to use electric scooters in Turkey is 11 years. In all e-scooter applications, it is mandatory to be at least 18 years old in terms of security. If you are under the age of 18, you cannot rent an electric scooter.

Currently, a license is not required to use an electric scooter. However, it is very important for scooter users to be especially careful with pedestrians. Since it is a very new means of transportation for everyone and its rules are not clear yet, extra attention should be paid to both vehicle traffic for scooters and scooter traffic for pedestrians. It is very important that the tools are used carefully, without putting anyone at risk, and that the parked areas do not interfere with pedestrian and vehicle traffic. There will be regulations on this subject in the near future, but scooter users should be extra careful until those regulations come into force.

Companies Providing Electric Scooter Rental Service

Although Martı is the best known, there are other companies that provide electric scooter (e-skateboard) services. Let's take a brief look at who was there and where they served.

Seagull

Martı is only serving in Istanbul for now. The application with the most widespread scooter network is Martı. So much so that the electric scooter rental service has already started to be called Martı.

Martı first started on the Anatolian side, but spread rapidly. It has an iOS and Android app.

thousand thousand

Binbin provides electric scooter rental services at Istanbul Airport and university campuses. It differs from its competitors with Istanbul Airport. It has an iOS and Android app.

The Android app is far from user-friendly. They used a ridiculous calendar application, such as the need to go month by month from the calendar to 1980 in order to draw the year of birth. That's why I left the process unfinished.

I could not find how much money I would pay for the application, neither on the website nor in the mobile application. I should be able to see this information before I complete my registration. If they want to catch the youngsters, they have to eat forty loaves of bread.

Dost

The Dost application is currently only available in Şişli, Istanbul. It has an iOS and Android app.

HOP!

HOP!, which started to serve in Ankara, plans to expand its service with Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul. It has an iOS and Android app.

I could not find how much money I would pay for the application, neither on the website nor in the mobile application. I should be able to see this information before I complete my registration. This is a serious problem for these applications.

MOBI

There is no information on the website or mobile application about the regions where the Mobi application is common or its pricing. It's unclear what difference it made. I could not log in to the application because it did not accept my e-mail address that I have been using for 10 years. It has an iOS and Android app.

Palm

Palm provides service in Istanbul's districts such as Zeytinburnu, Avcılar and Küçükçekmece with its Ayazağa campus. It aims to serve by spreading to university campuses throughout Turkey. Unfortunately, there is no information on the pricing of this application on the website or mobile application. It has an iOS and Android app.

Electric Scooter Rental Prices

Below you can see the prices of all the electric scooter rental companies I have mentioned above as a comparative table. I calculated the 10-minute driving fee for each company, including the opening fee. I thought that so you can see the most suitable options more clearly. However, apart from Martı and Dost applications, it was not possible to reach price information. I think this is a serious problem for apps. Why would I rent a scooter when I don't know what to pay?

	Opening Fee	Fee Per Minute	10 Minutes Driving Fee
Seagull	1.99 TL	0.59 TL	7,89 TL
Dost	0.00*	0.59 TL	5.90 TL
thousand thousand**	price information could not be found	price information could not be found	price information could not be found
HOP!	price information could not be found	price information could not be found	price information could not be found
Mobi	price information could not be found	price information could not be found	price information could not be found
palm***	price information could not be found	price information could not be found	price information could not be found

*The opening fee of 15 TL appears on the website of Dost scooter until June 0.00, but no update has been made. I assume they continue that way.

**In the BinBin application, you can benefit from a 10% discount on the first ride.

***Palm application gives a gift up to 2 TL at first use.

It is not difficult to understand why the Seagull application is so successful. I downloaded all the apps to my phone and uninstalled all but Martı. Martı is well ahead in terms of user experience and informativeness. Since there are no scooters in my area other than Martı, I can't say anything in terms of skateboarding experience, but Martı is clearly ahead with its application experience.

Although it seems very simple, for example, no application automatically fills in the verification code that comes with SMS, except Martı, I have to go to my messages and remember the password from there and write it to the application. Just an example of how simple but very useful it is. For other applications to be successful, they must make a significant difference, and they must shout about it.

If you want to get information about the content of the first draft of the e-scooter regulation Webrazzi He did a good analysis on this.

If you have questions about electric scooters that you can't find an answer to, please write your question in the comments section below.

Stay healthy.