Phantom 52V or 60V??

Mikey30

Hey everybody!

It didn’t take long for me to become addicted to scooter-ing and I am looking for a good all around scooter for nearly daily commuting of 8 miles, each way. I know there are a lot of opinions out there, but I have narrowed my search down to the Apollo Phantom. My question is really regarding the 52V vs the 60V.

Has anyone compared the performance of the two? I am most interested in better acceleration over top speed. Also, why does the battery capacity show lower on the 60V (21Ah vs 23 Ah)? I am struggling to find much inforlation on the 60V.
Any news on V3 for the 60V? I see it is available for the 52V in the coming months, but not compatible for the 60V model.
Ultimately, for the same price, I could get either the 52V and the V3 upgrade, or the 60V V2. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance for the help!

PaulN

Mikey30
Interesting,

Mikey, all that I suggest here is that you search and read some of the old posts on the Phantom that are in this Forum and elsewhere on the web/YT. In theory the Phantom would be a good scooter, The design, features and price range all point towards a good product with a robust base.

However they struggle with quality issues, as well as support and parts procurement issues. If you are set on buying one, just get the V3 and don’t get a converted V2. Apollo is IMO pushing that buy now, upgrade later suggestion because of supply chain issues for new V3 models.

I have 4 scooters and sadly i have lost all confidence to use my Phantom for any longer rides. When i ordered my phantom, I was you. So excited, so looking forward to the delivery, only to experience multiple letdowns from Apollo. Even the two included spare inner tubes they delivered with the scooter were poorly manufactured, and didn’t last. I’m on flat no 3 and only 700 kms on the scooter). All 3 flats where the valve gets molded into the rubber on the top side (not from a puncture) 3 displays, 3 throttles, the neck brace, the first “upgrade” kit to fix some QC faults.

I appreciated that the replacements were free, but man I’m constantly taking things apart and mounting new parts. I’m just tired of it. I WANT to love my Phantom. I WANT to speak highly of it. However I just can’t. So I jump on one of my other scooters and take them when i know i’m going for a 50 km ride. Good luck with you decision.

sc00ter

What is your prior experience with electric scooters? Is this a first buy? Reason I ask is I purchased a Apollo Ghost for my first scooter. Thing is fast enough for me and I doubt I’ll need to upgrade anytime soon.

Now, a bunch of others will attack your Apollo purchase. I have just under 100 miles on my Ghost but I mainly purchased it to fart around on. No committed commuting for me at the moment. I will say the Ghost creaks like crazy. I’ve done the lithium grease spray and checked all the bolts.

If you happen to be in the Norfolk, VA area your more than welcome to test ride my Ghost. I have no regrets on my Apollo purchase. I still need to do a real range test on it for this forum. I might be able to do my 14 miles one way commute to work, charge it back up in the back office but I’m not sure my old fat body would enjoy that long of ride.

Let us know what you end up purchasing. Hopefully someone with a Phantom will chime in.

Mikey30

Thanks sc00ter! This is really a third buy for me. I had an old GoPed (anyone remember those 😆 ??) and I recently purchased a NIU KQi3 Pro. Currently living in France, it is limited to 25 km/h and it is rather painful on the daily commute and will likely pass it on to my wife. I know any Apollo, for that matter would be a big upgrade. Looking for something fun, quick and comfortable, under the 2000 euro mark. I can get the Phantom 60V for right about 2000.

I anticipated that many will attack the Apollo purchase and I have no doubt that many have had negative experiences.

I appreciate the offer for the test drive, if only I wasn’t a few thousand miles away. I see a lot of sweet scooters around and some that ride in a group at night with full gear and lights and I just watch from my KQi, with envy. I want it to be under 2000, but something I won’t “outgrow” for a few years.

sc00ter

GoPed,of course I remember those! I love 2-strokes and used to be into Yamaha Zuma 2-strokes. Here we got the pre-bug and bug-eye models. I was riding my lightly modded pre-bug around the neighborhood one day and a kid passed me on a GoPed like I was standing still! I saw him later in the day at his house with his dad and stopped to talk. Turns out his dad was a sales rep for GoPed and they actually raced them! Cool people for sure. I actually saw 2 GoPeds and 2 electric kick scooters a few weeks ago while grabbing dinner with my wife. She saw the group and looked at me and said “There’s your street gang!”, still trying to find out who they were. I don’t do Face Book.

Since you have prior experience with stand-up scooters buy what you want and whats in your general budget. Again, someone with real world Phantom experience should chime in. I based my Apollo on 2 friends real world experience. One has a Air and its all beat up and ugly and the other has a older Explore. Both have had good luck with theirs. I’m hoping for the same with my Ghost.

ItsAqua

@PaulN someone needs help

Mikey30

PaulN thank you for the reply! I appreciate your sincerity and as someone new to scooters in this category, I am very interested in what alternatives would you recommend?

I have done a lot of research, just conflicted with site reviews that rate the phantom highly and people sharing their negative Apollo experiences. I know people are more likely to share than their positive experiences, myself included. I think I was just sucked in by their marketing.

I appreciate everyone’s suggestions on alternatives in this scooter segment. Merci, from France!

ItsAqua

Mikey30 Kaabo Vsett Emove Dualtron Varla

PaulN

Mikey30
I think Aqua and some others made a good suggestion in previous posts.
First make a list of what’s important to you in a scooter and also you price ceiling.
Then you have to hunt around to check off your boxes. Plus having some kind of reliable fast available parts and service should be one of your factors. When you do this you will really cut down your list of possible’s.

When you look at YouTube reviews always take with a grain of salt when a reviewer has an affiliate link embedded within the video and promotes it during the video. It takes a while to shoot and edit a video. I get it, but if someone uses your link to save $50.00 and they get paid a commission when that happens, could it be possible the review is biased if a negative one costs them a commission loss? I think so. Sometimes those videos have very light superficial criticisms that a potential buyer would ignore. “Oh… the scooter is blue and i really wanted black”, but ignores something like top speed or battery range never reaches even 75% of the claimed speed/range. That is referred to as a lie by omission.
Personally, I think Kaabo has decent quality, plus i can get parts + support in two locations in the city i live in, They even have service bays. Some people had some issue with Kaabo as well. But the Mantis V3 GT pro may be a good choice for many as it checks a lot of boxes. What remains to be seen is a few months going by and how they stand up QC wise.

I still think e-scooters are still in a learning curve where the reliability is not perfect and the standards keep changing. Dualtron and Ninebot seem to offer quality and support as well, E-move too. But pricing starts to inch up for some mentioned.

PaulN

Mikey30

I’m on their mailing list because of course i own one, have a look at what i highlighted here… lol. What a joke, for an extra 5km’s per hour - but possible overheating issues. Apollo never ceases to surprise me.

ItsAqua

ItsAqua Solar? Blade?

ItsAqua

@sc00ter how’s your ghost?

sc00ter

I do micro-runs to the stores in the area everyday before work. Hit up either the Harris Teeter at Wards Corner, the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market or my local Food Lion across from Lakewood Ace. I’m running my tire pressure at 50psi and have been purposely hitting bumps and stuff, testing the durability. So far, so good (so what if your’e a Megadeth fan). Still creaks and the spring suspension makes bouncy noises as well. Still fun to ride though and no regrets.

Currently at just over 100 miles. Still need to do a range run and go for a longer ride.

PaulN

sc00ter
If you see me riding when its hot, its either my Megadeth, A7X, or Slipknot shirt. Just saw Mr. Mustaine about a month ago… 🙂

ItsAqua

sc00ter I don’t go down tidewater because that’s out of the way for me but I do go back and forth from wards corner east to west little creek or Vice versus you might see me either on my VSETT or my hiboy 🤷‍♂️

ItsAqua

PaulN I don’t understand why they keep pushing for a upgrade that isn’t going to do much good because there are still quite a few problems that can’t be fix with upgrades. The V2 upgrade kit did fix quite a few problems of the V1 but still V3 is more of a add on kit rather than a upgrade kit imo

PaulN

The upgrade kit did not fix mine, it just created new issues. I had to install and remove them multiple times.
They sent everything for free, took the longest time between deliveries of the replacement parts.
The words “technical upgrade” is something used when you are fixing QC issues but want to make it sound like the customer is getting something that it really isn’t.

ItsAqua

It’s not a upgrade honestly Apollo should market their upgrade kit as if you want more problems with your scooter get the upgrade kit you’ll have more issues to deal with and as a bonus it’ll take forever to get to you and you’ll receive no help from us