Razor E Prime III Review

What made the Razor E Prime III a standout in a class of scooters offering stiff competition is that it's an obvious fit for those who make short but frequent commutes that involve carrying the scooter. Obvious candidates are college students and urbanites that use a bus or train as part of their daily travels. The machine is light, easy to fold/unfold, and it has a smooth ride. So, when you're running a bit late, reach for this practical (and fun) machine as it won't let you down.

Performance Comparison

To make accurate and reproducible assessments of the scooters reviewed here, we developed tests that reveal the products' strengths and weaknesses regardless of marketing hype or looks. These exhaustive tests cover common (and some not so common) uses of these products so you know what you'll be getting into before making a purchase. Below is an account of the testing process and the E Prime III's performance.

Range

For many would-be scooter commuters, range is at the top of the list of considerations. If you fall into this category, the 8.2 measured effective miles of flat ground cruising that the E Prime III delivers won't be all that impressive. Nor will its 46-minute runtime. If these limitations don't bother you, you might raise your eyebrows when you find out that it will take a whopping 6 hours to recharge a fully depleted battery.

Further hurting the Razor's standing in the range assessment is the fact that the scooter's top speed and power tapered gradually as the battery charge drained. As a result, the top speed for the majority of the range test was approximately 12 mph. This is a far cry from the max speed of 18.4 mph observed in the power tests (see below).

Power

As with the Range assessment, the power tests render less than impressive results that landed the Razor E Prime III at the bottom of the class. It wasn't all bad, however. When fully charged, this model will cruise at 18.4 mph, which is well above the class average. Additionally, the scooter will work its way up hills as steep as a 3.5% gradient at approximately 5 mph.

Okay, bright spots aside. The Razor's top speed is not maintained throughout the battery's charge and started decreasing around mile 2 in our battery test. By 50% battery life the max speed was around 12 mph. Additionally, the steeper of our test hills which averages a gradient of 10.5 % stopped the E Prime III dead in its tracks.

Ride

No one likes a bumpy ride. That's why we use one of the worst roads in town to run the scooters here reviewed up and down to test the feedback from bumps and cracks. The Razor E Prime III sports a pneumatic front tire (great for shock absorption) and a sold rubber rear tire. Solid tires are nice as they require little to no maintenance but they tend to create a rattly ride.

We use a crack and bump-riddled section of street near our lab to test the smoothness of the ride. This road is traversed on all models more than once and allows testers to comparatively assess the scooters. The Razor's unique combination of a front pneumatic tire and a solid rubber rear tire shows that the front tire is the most important for shock absorption as this tire carries the most weight and is in direct line with the hands and forearms which suffer the most from cracks and bumps.

Braking

The Razor E Prime III uses both an electric brake in the front and a fender brake in the rear. Fender brakes are simple friction brakes and have proven to be effective for rapid stops. While the E Prime III manages to maintain safe and comfortable speeds while descending our 15% test slope, it delivered a lackluster performance in the flat ground stopping tests.

The flat ground stopping test is repeated three times and the stopping distances are averaged. The tester throttles the scooter to approximately 12 mph and at a preset mark engages the vehicle's brakes. The E Prime III averaged 22.7 feet to stop. This is significantly above the average for models with fender brakes.

Portability

The Razor E Prime III gave a stellar performance in the portability evaluation. As the name suggests, this metric evaluates all things dealing with the ability to transport the vehicle when it is not being ridden. As such, the model's feather-weight 24 pounds, hassle-free folding mechanism, and easy to grip carrying handle make this model a standout for the commuter that will be regularly carrying the vehicle.

Most electric scooters collapse the steering column across the standing deck for transport and storage. This is convenient but also poses safety concerns if the steering column isn't properly secured. As such, the safety latch is a focal point in the portability evaluation. Happily, Razor has come up with a slick design that incorporates a secondary locking mechanism into the primary latch that is undone with a simple twist.

The only knocks against the E Prime III are that the steering column/carrying handle is a bit big, potentially making it difficult for those with smaller hands to grip for prolonged periods. Additionally, the scooter is fairly long at 41 1/4" folded. Besides these minor issues, we found this model to be a great fit for the campus commuter.

Value

The Razor E Prime III offers consumers a good, but not great, value.

Conclusion

In the above review, we have taken a deep dive into the performance of the Razor E Prime III. Specifically, we have looked at the range, ride, power, braking, and portability of this machine. Our testing and analysis revealed this model to be economical, of high-quality while offering innovative safety features. Additionally, we found that this scooter is particularly well-suited to short-range commuting where carrying the vehicle is frequently required.