$6500 Red Bull E-scooter Only Does 20 MPH, Should Do 60 MPH

Redbull Scooter Ts
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Electric transportation is the way of the future, so we’re told, and it’s not just limited to road-going EVs. E-scooters, or zipdingos, as the Australians call them, are becoming increasingly popular, too. It’s a crowded market, and everybody’s getting in on the action, from budget Chinese manufacturers to fancy European design houses. The engineering heads at Red Bull Racing have also thrown their hat in the ring, building a fancy carbon scooter that looks a million bucks, and sadly comes with an appropriate price tag, too.

It’s a slick e-scooter that looks far cleaner than a lot of the cheaper budget models on the market. Extraneous wires and cables have been eliminated from the design, with everything neatly tucked inside the carbon fiber body. The wheels are fat, wide things with purposeful tires and integrated hub motors, and they’re on single-sided mounts for a more futuristic look. They’re well-sized for good ground clearance, and with pneumatic tires, they’ll do a great job at soaking up the lumps and bumps of urban environments. Meanwhile, from the footplate to the dog-leg headstem, it’s all raw carbon fiber under a rich gloss finish, subtly adorned with a few Red Bull Racing logos.

So far, so good, right? The vital statistics leave a little something to be desired, though. That light carbon fiber can’t do much to make up for the weight of the batteries, and the scooter weighs in at a total of 50.7 pounds. It’s not exactly something you’d casually carry around all day. In fairness, the payoff is range, which comes in at a healthy 40 miles thanks to the 760 Wh battery.  Power is rated at 750 W from the dual motors, which is healthy enough, but don’t expect to go particularly fast. While some outlets initially quoted the scooter’s top speed as high as 28 mph, it’s currently reported as topping out at 20 mph. For all that, it’ll cost you a healthy $6,500 of your United States dollars.

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I’m an engineer, so I’ll do the maths for you. That’s costing you $325 per mph. As a guide, you could get this 2004 Buick LeSabre for just $6000 and that’ll hit 108 mph, no problem, which is a comparative bargain at just $55 per mph. Even my own DIY experiments with modifying scooters netted me a Razor E300 capable of 25 mph for just $600 or so, which comes out to a super-cheap $24 per mph.

There’s reason behind this, of course. Since the e-scooter revolution took hold in the last 5 years, cities, states, and countries have brought in strict regulations on these personal mobility vehicles. Oftentimes, there are restrictions on power outputs and top speed, particularly in built up areas.

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There is some neat engineering in it, of course. The four-piston hydraulic disc brakes are sure to be a treat. There are plenty of fun animations of the scooter’s design going through Finite Element Analysis to determine its ability to handle shock loads from jumps or being dropped, too. It’s been through hundreds of hours of testing according to the sales page, and can handle up to 2 tons of weight and 3 G loads. That’s all well and good, but some of the marketing speak gets a bit much. The “semi-slick tires” apparently provide “incredible grip in fast corners,” but at a glance, they don’t look to be any more special than the garden-variety tires you’d find on any other e-scooter. Indeed, they’ve got the same size stamping as most Chinese-produced rubber, and semi-slick? Please, that thing has enough tread to be a full wet.

Indeed, for this writer, a couple of minor details raised an eyebrow. The fact that it’s being sold on “rbr-escooter.com,” the cheap-looking headlight tacked on to the headstem, and the throttle control that looks like parts I’ve sourced for my own builds on eBay. If it wasn’t for a mention on Red Bull Racing’s official Twitter account, I’d be seriously questioning whether this thing might be vaporware or some kind of scam.

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It really looks like a $10 Chinese e-scooter throttle is fitted to these things. That’s a pretty cheap and nasty touch point on a $6,500 scooter.

Fundamentally, it just seems like such a shame. Here you have this amazing carbon-fiber scooter that looks the business. And yet, for all the high-buck engineering that went into it, it will maybe best your grandpa’s swift little mobility scooter by a few miles an hour.

This thing should be a corner-carving, tire-shredding beast; something that can give you some real thrills at a semi-terrifying speed. $6,500 should get you at least 60 mph, bare minimum. That price is just an incredibly steep figure for an electric scooter that lets you pop along the sidewalk at a friendly, non-intimidating clip.

It’s worth noting that there are other “premium” scooters out there that could present better value, too. Bugatti’s line of e-scooters offer slightly higher speeds of up to 22 mph, with comparable power and range. And they don’t come with such a fancy price tag, either; you can have one for well under $2000 if you so desire.

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Not to worry, though, because these things aren’t even out yet. Despite the scooter being announced just about a year ago, it’s not going to be ready to ship until January 2024. Whether it’s coming down the street or coming through the post, the Red Bull Racing e-scooter isn’t coming quickly.

Image credits: Red Bull Racing, eBay, Bugatti

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47 thoughts on “$6500 Red Bull E-scooter Only Does 20 MPH, Should Do 60 MPH”

  2. Back in the day I had a Razor A from the late 1990s with one of those big battery packs that attached to the steering column and a bike brake handle that fit on the handlebars as the throttle (I’m not sure if it was an aftermarket kit or factory and I’ve never been able to find anything on it anywhere), and that thing could get up to 25MPH. From a big chunky lead acid battery and a motor that rubbed against the wheel to rotate it. Red Bull should be able to do better.

    Also, man, extreme sports in the ’90s just made all sorts of dangerous things readily accessible to kids.

  3. I mean, if this thing is anything like the other powerful e-bikes and scooters (though zipdingo is my new favorite word, and I am using that from now on), there should be either a programming pin that needs changing or a jumper wire that needs snipping, and the governor is no more.

    20 mph limit is just RB saying “don’t sue us” to the rich parents who buy this for little James Griffin Wentworth III, Esq Jr, and he promptly does his best meat crayon impression showing off for the other little rich shits with their expensive toys.

  4. So, y’all can say, “THE ZIPDINGO RAN OVER MY BABY BECAUSE THAT ZIPDINGUS WAS RIDING ON THE SIDEWALK!” before tossing these scoots into a dumpster? Cool.

    1. Having had to dodge the rental versions of these in the city, my preferred e-scooter speed is 0 mph because it’s been hurled into a trashcan. At least the privately owned ones usually have riders who behave better, so maybe 20 mph is fine for this one.

      The rental scooters really, really try my moral stance on responsible e-waste disposal, though. (And my nerves.)

  7. Who in his right f**k’ing mind would get on a motorized skate board capable of 60mph w/o full leathers and a Snell approved helmet? Not this old-timer~

    1. When on scooters or é-bike, I wear a closed helmet, leg, arm and back protection. I look like a dork, but I remain a fully articulated and cognizant one.

    1. Same. 20mph is plenty for broken wrist, knee, head or jaw action. I’ve been in the 45mph range on a road racing bicycle and that is freaky enough for me. At least there Cg is closer to the rear but it’s still easy to send yourself over the front on a hard stop.

      1. Lol 45mph isn’t even that fast for a road bike, I’ve been that fast on a Walmart mountain bike.

        You’re right, speed kind of is scary, and I don’t even really want to go 20mph on those little 6″ scooter wheels.

      1. I’m 20 years outta Melbourne (in the US). I’ll look out for them when I’m back for my brother’s wedding in January. Thanks for the tip! Safety … third?

    1. Buddy of mine had a 2-stroke scooter that he rode as a first-mile/last-mile setup after doing most of his commute on the Metro.
      One day a car swerved at him. He juked it to avoid the car, face planted into a fire hydrant.

      Was in a coma for a week, wired up his jaw, etc etc.

      No thanks. I’ll stick to my cage.

      2. Loads of people die doing mundane things all the time–often in their cage which many people underestimate the risk of driving everyday. Wear a helmet, have your head on a swivel, be smart, and you’ll likely be fine.

  12. I would NOT want to do 60 mph on this scooter. Even 20 mph would be rather sketchy. It is not a 60 mph-suitable vehicle, given its small wheels and lack of suspension.

    There are scooters similar to this that can out-accelerate most cars and do well over the legal US interstate speed limit.

    Check out the RION RE90:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-IqhezeZw

    Imagine riding this with a T-shirt, shorts, and flip flops on, no helmet, and hitting a 7″ pothole at top speed.

    The Molicel P42A batteries in this scooter are the same I’m using in my electric microcar/”bicycle” project. I plan to eventually top out at over 100 mph. But I have DOT wheels/tires, hydraulic disc bakes on the front wheels with a DOT3 fluid reservoir, and full suspension. Dynamically and mechanically, it should be at minimum bordering on suitable for the job, unlike the above scooter.

    1. How does this thing weigh 50lbs? I’ve got a 132Wh pack that weighs 500g. Scaled up to 750Wh that should only be around 6lbs of batteries. Considering that an entire racing bicycle can easily clock in under 15lbs, and 350w dc motors are around 5lbs each, WTH is weighing the extra 19lbs??

        1. I have an electric scooter that hits 20mph and I think the low CG exacerbates the instability. It takes nearly zero effort to tilt it over, even at speed. There’s no resistance to leaning, a combination of the low CG, the tiny tires, and having almost no rake.

      2. The battery pack is almost half the weight. It is massive at 2.5 kWh, because the energy consumption at top speed will quickly drain it. A 132 Wh battery at 80 mph on a scooter would get about 1 mile of range, if you didn’t expend it accelerating to speed. Wind resistance is a mean mistress.

        Then there are a sturdy platform, wheels, and tires to handle the mass. And the electric motors need a lot of copper mass to handle that amount of power without melting.

        1. I was talking about the scooter- the article says it’s a 750 Wh battery pack, which should only weigh 6-7lbs. And 5lb per motor is for actual 350W dc motors I’ve found. 20lbs of reinforcement on a carbon fiber scooter seems absurd.

    3. That Rion is nuts. I was noping out within a minute. I’m glad this stuff didn’t exist when I was young! Skateboarding the spillway at Coralville Lake was stupid enough—but that took effort. Having a Rion when you go out your front door would be deadly to young me.

  14. It looks really cool, those tires look more for off road. I would only pay that price if it came in Rosso Corsa. At 750w dual motors, it has to be faster than 20mph, maybe 28 mph for 160lbs and 20 for 200lbs rider.

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