Brobic, thank you. Your unfortunate real-world experience with the 52v Dynavolt battery only serves to illustrate my point as to it’s inadequacy.
There are entry level scooters costing a half or third of what the various Phantoms cost that will give as much range and 30 or 40mph speed. The Ninebot Max G30 is one, it can be purchased from Walmart. And up in the midrange, the Vsett 10+ series offers no less than three LG 60v battery options: A 20.8Ah, a 25.6Ah, and a 28Ah.
In the low-midrange, the new Emove Cruiser, while maintaining the $1,400 price point, has gone from a 600 watt motor to 1,000 watt, for at least 30mph top end speed and better climbing ability, and apparently put an even better LG battery in it to maintain that incredible real-world 60-mile range.
Unfortunately the Phantoms, no matter which version, are weak in range with those comparatively budget Dynavolt batteries. That eliminates them from consideration as a purchase choice for me. Apollo really dropped the ball here, for a company that claims to be in tune with the market. Those 20,000 responses to what riders want to see in a scooter certainly doesn’t seem to have resulted in them taking greater care with the most important part.
I’d almost rather have a 2021 $1,400 Cruiser than a $2,000 hydraulic Phantom. Bottom line, the Phantom scooters, from the base model to the Ludo, will be great in their price range for shorter trips and errands about town, day or night. And apparently will also be quite capable off-road and for limited-distance trail excursions. And for speed and acceleration junkies who need that neck-snapping jolt when they hit the throttle.
But for reasonable riders, with the bigger picture in mind, the most important reason to own one of these scooters is to be able to ride, for whatever purpose. And to do it without constantly having to worry about rationing battery and if we can get back home. It’s almost as if they took great care in deciding the many ways in which they could improve scooter design, and at the end just threw in a low cost battery as an afterthought.
So until Apollo comes to their senses and offers a quality LG battery option, there are better choices out there.
