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Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 Review: The Perfect Balance

New year, new Xiaomi electric scooter. Introduced in the summer of 2021, the Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 positions itself as an evolution of the Xiaomi Mi Scooter 1S, incorporating some features of the Mi Scooter Pro 2. But is the combination successful? Let’s find out in this comprehensive review.

• Model: Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3
• Advertised range: 30 km
• Advertised charging time: 510 min
• Top speed: 25 km/h
• Motor power: 600 watts
• Maximum supported weight: 100 kg
• Price: 399 on Walmart

Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 Design: A Familiar Look

After a few attempts, Xiaomi seems to apply the same strategy to its electric scooters as it does to its smartphones: endlessly iterating its models, potentially causing confusion among consumers. Unsurprisingly, the Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 closely resembles the Mi Scooter 1S. While it’s true that you don’t change a winning team, some minor improvements wouldn’t have hurt.

At first glance, almost nothing sets the Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 apart from its predecessors, except for the color of the cables. Previously red, they are now blue to indicate that it is indeed a new model. Apart from that, it retains all the hallmarks of Xiaomi electric scooters, including its IP54 certification, ensuring splash resistance for your rides in the rain.

Still Lightweight

Another small detail of importance is the folding stem system. Previously a simple lever, it now features a new safety mechanism requiring a trigger to be activated in either direction. This offers additional security to prevent the scooter from folding mid-ride, but it also makes folding slightly more complicated, especially since the lever is quite sturdy and requires some force to activate the stem movement.

This feature is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The hook mechanism remains simple and efficient: a hook on the mudguard slips into a link near the handlebars, allowing the scooter to fold and be lifted in one smooth motion.

Compared to the Mi 1S, the Mi Scooter 3 is slightly heavier, going from 12.5 to 13.2 kg. However, it is still easily transportable and did not bother me when climbing four flights of stairs, especially since its compact size makes it simple to fit in a car trunk or a small apartment corner. It would be nice if the handlebars could fold as well, but Xiaomi doesn’t seem to have that in mind yet.

When outdoors, however, you’ll need to keep it close to you, as the only secure spot for a lock is the rear wheel.

A Small Deck, Well-Positioned Handlebars

As for the deck, there’s nothing new either. Expect a width of 14.5 cm and a length of 56.5 cm, with 46 cm of actual usable space. This is the trade-off for a compact scooter: to ride comfortably, you’ll need to position your feet at right angles or place one on the mudguard, which is fixed and does not act as a mechanical brake.

Handlebars and Controls

The handlebars are positioned 110 cm from the ground and 95 cm from the deck, making the Mi Scooter 3 accessible to everyone. At my height of 1.75 meters, I found the handlebars correctly positioned, although a bit low after testing the Himo L2. An adjustable height system would be a plus. Nevertheless, I quickly got used to it, and it didn’t bother me.

The same textured rubber grips are used, ideal for preventing slipping even with wet hands and generally quite comfortable, even if you don’t necessarily want to hold them for hours.

With the handlebars in hand, you’ll find the rear disc brake on the left handle, along with the bell and accelerator on the right handle. The layout is very standard, with a well-adjusted accelerator to avoid uncomfortable positions on long distances. However, the bell is a bit far away, and you need to stretch your thumb to reach it.

Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3: A Responsive Ride

While the Mi Scooter 3 reuses the design of the 1S, it primarily adopts the Pro 2’s motor. The nominal power increases from 250 to 300 W (and maximum power from 500 to 600 W). In terms of top speed, you won’t notice the difference, as French legislation requires a motor speed limit of 25 km/h, but the increased power is noticeable in acceleration and uphill climbs.

Climbing Ability

According to Xiaomi, the Mi Scooter 3 can climb slopes up to 16%. On such steep roads, don’t expect to maintain 25 km/h, but it’s quite impressive to hold 10 km/h on a steep section of Ménilmontant Street (14%). For other slopes, the Mi Scooter 3 barely flinches and easily maintains speeds above 23 km/h.

Acceleration and Performance

The most enjoyable aspect of the Mi Scooter 3 is its acceleration. Without being abrupt, it allows you to quickly reach the maximum allowed speed, which is particularly effective for getting out of congested intersections, getting ahead at green lights, or overtaking multiple cyclists at once. I was able to overtake five cyclists in just a few meters during one of my trips before merging back.

Stability, but Still No Shock Absorbers

Light and medium-sized, the Mi Scooter 3 offers excellent maneuverability and overall driving stability. You can easily weave between cars at red lights or slalom at walking pace, and even let go of one hand while keeping the scooter on course without any effort. This is handy if you need to scratch your nose or point in the direction you want to turn since Xiaomi does not offer standard turn signals on its models.

Although very enjoyable to ride, the Mi Scooter 3 suffers from a problem seen in previous generations and many other competing scooters: its small 8.5-inch pneumatic tires alone are not enough to absorb road shocks. In the absence of shock absorbers, cobblestone roads may shake you quite a bit. It’s far from the comfort of heavier scooters.

Braking and Road Holding: Reassuring

Regarding safety and road holding, Xiaomi has improved its design since the first M365 in 2017. The braking system consists of an adjustable regenerative brake and a rear disc brake. It is both progressive on the lever’s travel and biting when pressed to the maximum.

This is precisely the behavior you’d expect from a personal transportation device: it doesn’t send you flying over the handlebars when you want to stop gently but can react quickly in case of emergency to avoid an accident.

It’s worth noting that the road holding is good, and even in case of emergency braking, the Mi Scooter 3 doesn’t skid too much on dry roads. On wet roads, we always advise reducing your speed to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3: Same Battery, (Almost) Increased Range

Regarding the battery, Xiaomi has kept the same NE1003-H accumulator as on the Mi Scooter 1S with a capacity of 7650 mAh for 275 Wh. Slightly heavier and more powerful, it should logically offer a lower range. Yet, Xiaomi still claims 30 km, just like last year.

However, this figure is entirely biased since it’s obtained under very specific conditions that are hard to reproduce: with a 75 kg load at 25°C, no wind, on a flat road, and especially at 15 km/h.

In practice, if you enjoy your scooter in sport mode, it will be tough to reach the 30 km range on a single charge. However, the Xiaomi Mi Scooter 3 proves to be more enduring than the model it replaces. With the 1S, I recorded an average trip of 20 km before running out of battery.

Here, it’s between 20 and 22 km on the same route. The 20 km was achieved on the charge where I performed my uphill tests on Ménilmontant Street.

Battery Life and Charging

Don’t expect a significant increase in battery life. Also, since the battery indicator is not very precise, it’s advisable to remember your trips and/or always carry the charger with you.

For charging, there’s no change either. It still takes around 5.5 hours to charge from 0 to 100%. The charging port is located on the lower part of the deck, covered with a rubber cap to prevent it from getting wet when riding through puddles.

48V 14000mAh battery

The biggest part holds cells and fits nickel strips. The BMS(a green part) is located at the front of the battery. Front and sides are covered by plastic covers. So, we have to print 4 plastic parts: the cage, the front cover and two side covers. Just 20 hours of printing, and the parts are ready to go:

Now let’s mount and solder a BMS. Pay your attention: you must connect wires in the sequence specified in the diagram, otherwise there is real risk to damage the BMS. Wiring diagram:

The next step is mounting of the front cover, which secures the BMS and wires sticking out of the battery. I used M2.5×10 countersunk screws:

36V 19000mAh battery

Now let’s mount and solder a BMS. Pay your attention: you must connect wires in the sequence specified in the diagram, otherwise there is real risk to damage the BMS. Soldering diagram:

Finally we wrap the battery into a heat shrinkable tube, securing the BMS and wires output with a sealant. That is, the 10s4p battery is also finished!

36V battery

No wonder the battery doesn’t fit inside the scooter. A possible solution is printing a plastic spacer, screwing the original cover through it. I designed the spacer and divided it into two parts so that they fit on the standard 3D printer bed. The spacer height it 25.5mm:

And glue the two parts together. There is a small trick: you should glue them screwed to the scooter for perfect joint:

Pay your attention, the spacer height decreases closer to the front of the scooter, because there is no battery in this part of the body, so increased height is not necessary. Such a shape reduces the chance of catching on something while riding. But the solution also has a disadvantage: mounting holes of the original cover don’t match the scooter body holes a little bit, so you have to correct their shape with a drill. And do not forget to stick the foam tape between the spacer and the scooter or cover these joints with sealant. Then we screw the cover on and get such a funny look:

Well, the spacer is a good and cheap option, but I will use a simpler solution – a ready-made extended cover:

You can see that the extended cover keeps about 6mm of clearance, compared to the original cover spacer option:

By the way, the new battery is not screwed to the scooter body, like the original battery is. It is just fit inside and secured by the cover. Therefore it is necessary to stick a foamed PVC tape around the battery perimeter to achieve the best reliability:

We press the power button on the scooter – but the scooter does not turn on. The thing is Happy BMS of a just assembled battery is in sleep mode, and you have to start it by connecting a charger:

Press the scooter power button again – and finally it works. It must be said that sometimes you have to wait a few minutes after starting the BMS before you are able to turn on the scooter. It happens because there is a high-capacity capacitor at the input of the main scooter controller, which creates a short high-current surge, which may cause the BMS short-circuit protection. But after several cycles of protection trip, the capacitor is charged, and everything starts to operate normally. As I told above, this may take 2-3 minutes.

Well, now everything is ready to screw the cover and take a ride, but one more thing needs to be clarified. Generally, when you make a battery equipped with a Smart BMS, you also need to adjust the capacity parameter. The default capacity value of the Happy BMS we used is 19000mAh. It is especially made for people who make a 10s4p battery of typical 5000mAh cells, so they don’t need to configure anything. Why 19000mAh, not 20000mAh? Because the full capacity of the cell is achieved at the full range from 4.2V to 2.5V. We will not discharge cells below 3 volts, and we will not charge them above 4.15 volts: this extends the battery life, with a slight loss of capacity.

That’s why we don’t have to configure anything for the 10s4p battery. Let’s just launch any app for the battery info monitoring, for example, m365tools by Peretti:

The battery is recognized as an original one. All its parameters are dispayed, including voltages of cell groups. We plug in a charger – and see the charging current:

What is included in the kit

• Battery with branded EVE or LG cells
• Cabling from high quality silicone cable
• Case
• Free installation¹
• Free programming²

¹ ²: If you are in Athens, installation and programming are free of charge at our store. If you are outside Athens, the kit can be shipped to you along with detailed installation instructions.

²: Programming is free of charge provided that your scooter is not encrypted. Otherwise, there will be a small fee for hardware unlocking.

¹ ² Prerequisite for free installation and programming is to buy all 3 parts of the kit: battery, cable and case.

Additional Information

We are proud to be the first to manufacture such batteries in Greece in June 2019, and as a result, we have a significant lead in terms of installations in Greece, as well as several exports to Europe! Additionally, we have the highest expertise in Xiaomi scooters and have a better understanding of their software than any other store.

Οι μπαταρίες με EVE στοιχεία είναι έτοιμο προϊόν και δίνονται με 6 μήνες εγγύηση. Οι μπαταρίες με LG στοιχεία κατασκευάζονται στην εταιρία μας από MSc Ηλεκτρολόγο Μηχανικό ΕΜΠ με επώνυμα στοιχεία LG και δίνονται με 12 μήνες εγγύηση!

The batteries with EVE cells is a ready made product and come with 6 months warranty. The batteries with LG cells are built in our company by an MSc Electrical Engineer from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and come with a 12-month warranty!

Cruise control, regenerative braking and handling in practice

We have a lot of experience with scooters and have put many miles on them. With the Pro 2, you can look forward to useful features such as cruise control, recuperation and the ability to connect to your phone. You can use it to set up the scooter in various ways. Whether to turn cruise control on or off, set the scooter lock, or adjust the level of recuperation.

Cruise control comes in handy on longer routes, for example on the cycle path. If you have it activated in the app, just hold the throttle for a few seconds and it will turn itself on. The scooter then rides all by itself, you don’t have to hold the throttle, just the handlebars. Just tap the brake lever and the cruise control switches off.

By recuperation, you can think of engine braking where the energy generated is stored back in the battery. So if you let off the throttle at the handle, the scooter automatically starts to slow down and recuperate. You can adjust the intensity of the recuperation directly in the app, with three levels to choose from. than recharging the battery, a change in the scooter’s controls comes in handy. With stronger recuperation, you can control the scooter practically only with the throttle and there is no need to use the brake lever at all. All you have to do is let off the throttle.

The scooter is otherwise very easy to control and comfortable. Even a child can operate it, provided all safety precautions are taken. Where the scooter loses out, however, is on roads in historic cities, made up of cobbles with large joints. Here, in short, you run into the limits of small 8.5 wheels and regular travel on such surfaces is not very comfortable.

Specs:

• Load capacity: 100kg
• Max speed: 25 km/h
• Max. range: 30 km
• Max. gradient: 16%
• Power: 300W (max 600W short term)
• Weight: 13.2 kg
• Degree of protection: IP54
• Battery capacity: 7650mAh / 275 Wh
• Charging time: 5,5 hours
• Dimensions (unfolded): 114 x 108 x 43 cm (h x d x w)
• Dimensions (folded): 49 x 108 x 43 cm (h x d x w)

Additional parameters

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Overview

To Whom?

The Mi 3 fits nicely in the market of affordable budget e-scooters.

It is built for people who are looking for a lightweight simple scooter to run short errands and for basic commuting.

Xiaomi Mi electric scooter 3 is for sensible riding where minimalism is a feature, not a drawback.

It is definitely not a powerhouse and you can not go offroading with it.

Pros

• Extremely lightweight
• Pneumatic tires
• Durable construction
• IP54 water-resistance rating
• Improved braking system

Xiaomi Electric Scooter 3 Performance

Speed and Acceleration

The new Mi electric scooter 3 is more powerful than the old M365. Also, the acceleration is much better. It’s simply because of the more powerful hub motor, which has a peak power of 600 watts.

You can’t compare this motor with larger scooters. But for a budget scooter, there is not much to complain about in the acceleration department.

However, I would like to complain about the top speed. Although the motor is a bit more powerful than the one in the last version, the top speed is even less.

The maximum speed of Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 is just 15.5 mph. But we must admit that this scooter is not meant for racing. So we really can’t complain about low top speed.

Hill Climbing

In the hill-climbing area, the new scooter performs about the same as the old M365.

The motor has enough power to handle some decently sized hills. Xiaomi claims that electric scooter 3 is capable to climb a slope up to 16%. It means that the max incline this scooter can handle is about 9 degrees.

The braking system has got some nice upgrades.

Mi Scooter 3 now uses a dual-pad disc brake, which is much more efficient than a regular disc brake. Combined with the regenerative braking upfront they work pretty effectively.

Pro Tip: Micah Toll from Electrek suggests using regenerative braking if possible. This way you recharge the battery at the same time. Also, you don’t have to change the brake pads so often.

Design and Features

Build Quality

Xiaomi Mi electric scooter 3 is a lightweight commuter scooter. Despite the light weight, it is still strong enough to support a payload of up to 220 lbs.

The frame of the scooter is made from aerospace-grade aluminum. That’s why it’s so lightweight, yet sturdy.

Xiaomi is known for building cheap but durable electric scooters and this here is no exception.

5 years old Xiaomi M365 electric scooters still ride around. The new Mi 3 has basically the same frame, so you can rest assured that it will last.

Is Mi Scooter 3 Waterproof?

Xiaomi Mi 3 isn’t waterproof. However, it can withstand water from all angels.

It has a water-resistance rating of IP54, which means that it can withstand some water droplets and light showers without any problem.

Pro Tip: Dry it off as soon as you get to the shelter. By that, you can avoid damaging its electrical components.

Portability

On the scale of portability, Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 is definitely on the top side.

It weighs just 28 pounds, so it’s light enough to carry up the stairs or on public transport. It’s one of the most lightweight and easy-to-carry scooters I know.

The folding mechanism is also been improved. 3-step folding is easy, quick, and sturdy. The bell on the handlebar has a hook that you can use to lock the handlebar when the scooter is folded. Very simple, yet Smart feature.

Cockpit

The cockpit of Mi 3 is really minimalistic.

The LED screen is located exactly in the middle of the handlebars. It shows you the speed, driving mode, and remaining battery.

On the right side, you can find a thumb throttle. On the left, there is a brake lever and a bell. That’s it. Very minimalistic design.

Wheels and Tires

The Mi 3 comes with 8.5-inch pneumatic tires. Although 8.5″ wheels are not big, the pneumatic tires on it make the ride quite smooth.

If I could choose between large solid tires or small pneumatic tires, I would pick pneumatic tires at any time.

Pneumatic tires provide so much better ride comfort than solid tires. Also, if you could get a puncture, there is a spare tire with an inner tube included with the scooter.

Of course, Mi 3 is not an off-roading scooter but you don’t have to necessarily only ride on smooth asphalt with it. It can perfectly handle some occasional bumps and dirt roads.

Does Xiaomi Mi 3 Have an App?

Since this is a Xiaomi product, you can pair it with Xiaomi’s Mi Home app.

You can use the app to lock your scooter remotely. If you leave the scooter unattended, someone still can just take it away. But still, it’s a nice safety feature.

Also, you can see different stats like current battery level, average speed, and more from the app. Although, you can see those stats from the scooter’s screen too.

Comparisons

Xiaomi Mi 3 vs Pro 2

Xiaomi Mi electric scooter 3 has a lot less power than Pro 2. The acceleration of Xiaomi Pro 2 is much better. If we compare the mileage, it is clear that Xiaomi Pro 2 wins this battle too.

The advantage of the Mi 3 is an improved braking system.

Xiaomi Electric Scooter 3 vs 1S

Some say that Mi 3 scooter is a slightly improved 1S. We can’t argue if we compare their specs.