Are Electric Scooters Good for the Environment? 2027

Mostly yes if the scooter replaces a car trip, and not necessarily if it replaces walking, cycling or a bus. That is the honest summary of the life-cycle studies I read. Why are electric scooters good for the environment in the first place? They have no tailpipe, they use very little electricity (a 2025 study put riding at 15.9 Wh per km), and a 2019 North Carolina State study found that when a scooter replaces a car ride it has about half the lifecycle CO2 of that car ride. The catch is that building the scooter, collecting shared ones for charging and short lifespans can erase much of the gain.

I haven't ridden or tested any scooter for this post and I have not measured emissions. Everything below comes from published studies and news summaries, and I name who funded or ran each one. Almost all the research covers shared rental scooters, not scooters people own, so I say where that matters.

This page may contain affiliate links, which means ElectricMood can earn a commission if you buy through them. See the affiliate disclosure. If you are thinking of swapping car trips for a scooter, my guide to the best electric scooters for commuting is the next step.

Why are electric scooters good for the environment?#

The case for scooters rests on three things.

No tailpipe emissions and small energy use. A 2025 life-cycle study of shared scooters in 100 EU cities, by Gao and colleagues at Chalmers University, put average riding energy at 15.9 Wh per km. By my arithmetic that is about 25.6 Wh per mile, which is a small amount of electricity for a trip. The scooter is also silent and produces no exhaust where people breathe.

They beat the car they replace. In the 2019 study by Hollingsworth, Copeland and Johnson (published in Environmental Research Letters), the base-case figure for a shared scooter was 202 g CO2-equivalent per passenger-mile, against 414 g for a personal car at 26 mpg. By my arithmetic that is about 51 percent lower. The authors report that replacing average personal car travel with scooter travel "nearly universally" cut environmental impacts. Their co-author Jeremiah Johnson said the same to WUNC: displacing a car ride, "the scooters look good, they have about half the CO2 emissions."

Net savings in some cities. A 2022 report on six cities (Paris, Seattle, Stockholm, Berlin, Melbourne and Düsseldorf) found net CO2 savings per passenger-km for shared scooters in every one, from 14.8 g in Berlin to 42.4 g in Melbourne. That report was commissioned by Lime and one author is a Lime employee, so read it with that in mind.

That is the "why are electric scooters good for the environment" answer in short. The qualifiers follow.

What the life-cycle studies found#

Here is how the three main studies compare. I have not blended them, because they use different methods, units and fleets.

The 202 g figure is per mile. By my arithmetic it is about 126 g per km, just above the top of Gao's 30 to 124 g range. The studies are not measuring the same fleets, so I would not read that as a contradiction.

Where a scooter's emissions come from#

Riding is the small part. For shared scooters, Hollingsworth and colleagues split the global warming impact like this:

Gao's team found the same shape in a different way: manufacturing, shipping and end of life add up to a fixed 115.6 kg CO2e per scooter, and the emissions per km depend mainly on how often and how far each scooter is used and how clean the local electricity is.

My arithmetic to show why lifespan matters: spread 115.6 kg over 1,000 km and you get 116 g per km from the build alone; spread it over 5,000 km and it is about 23 g per km. I made up those distances to illustrate the point; they are not figures from either study.

It depends on what the scooter replaces#

This is the biggest swing factor, and the studies disagree on the mix.

• Hollingsworth (Raleigh survey): the authors assumed 34 percent of riders would otherwise have used a car or ride-share, 49 percent would have biked or walked, 11 percent a bus and 7 percent would not have traveled. The NC State summary put it as scooters replacing car trips "in only about a third of instances" and replacing greener modes the rest of the time.
• Portland pilot (Berkeley summary): 34 percent of riders and 48 percent of visitors used a scooter instead of a personal vehicle, ride-hail or taxi in the four-month 2018 pilot, but scooter-sharing also replaced some lower-emission walking and biking trips.
• Six-city Lime-commissioned report: private combustion car trips replaced were only about 1 to 7 percent depending on the city, taxi or ride-hail about 4 to 12 percent, and walking 40 to 64 percent, the largest share in every city. The authors say the net impact could turn positive if walking, transit or cycling trips shift too much.

Those figures do not line up. They come from different cities, surveys and years, and I am not going to pick one. What they share is the lesson: a scooter replacing a car or taxi trip helps, and a scooter replacing a walk does not. Per passenger-mile, Hollingsworth found scooters worse than buses at high ridership, e-bikes and bicycles.

For where that leaves a daily commute, see my commuter scooter guide. For the bike side of the same question, see what the point of an electric bike is.

Lifespan and collection: the two big levers#

Hollingsworth's team tested what happens when things improve:

• Longer life: fixing the lifetime at two years cut the average to 141 g per passenger-mile, and the chance of scooters exceeding the displaced modes' impact fell to 4 percent.
• Shorter collection distance (0.6 miles per scooter): 147 g, a 27 percent reduction.
• Collecting only scooters below 50 percent charge: 164 g, 19 percent lower.
• More efficient collection vehicles (35 mpg): 177 g, 12 percent lower.

The authors say claims of environmental benefit "should be met with skepticism" unless lifetimes are longer, materials burdens are lower and collection impacts are reduced.

Lifespans have moved since then. The six-city report says reported shared-scooter lifespans rose from about 30 days in early 2019 to two years or more by late 2020, and it assumes the Lime Generation 4 scooter lasts over five years. It also says that if 20 percent of vehicles are lost to vandalism or theft, per-km emissions rise by about 25 percent. The authors call their results optimistic.

What about a scooter you own?#

Nearly all the numbers above are for shared fleets. I did not find a life-cycle study of privately owned scooters.

My reasoning, labelled as mine and not a study result: a privately owned scooter does not need the overnight collection trips that made up 43 percent of Hollingsworth's shared-scooter footprint, so that part drops out. The manufacturing share stays, and so does the importance of how many years and kilometres you get out of it. If you ride a scooter for years in place of a car, it should land closer to the favorable end. If it sits in a garage after six months, it will not.

The electricity matters less than you might think#

Hollingsworth's team found charging was only 4.7 percent of the impact. Zero-carbon electricity lowered lifecycle emissions by 6 percent, and a coal-heavy grid at 1 kg CO2 per kWh raised them by 4 percent. So the grid mix is worth caring about but is not the main lever. Gao's study found it mattered more across Europe, where emission factors ranged from 30 to 124 g per km and depended partly on local electricity.

Batteries and disposal#

The lithium-ion battery is part of the materials burden, and disposal is the part owners control. The London Fire Brigade says e-bike and e-scooter batteries should not go in regular rubbish or recycling bins because damaged or overheated ones can catch fire, and tells people to check their local authority or the Recycle Your Electricals website for a safe option. That is UK guidance; check your own local rules.

How to make a scooter greener#

These are my suggestions, drawn from what the studies say matters:

• Replace car trips, not walks. That is where the gain is.
• Keep it for years. Lifespan was the biggest lever in the Hollingsworth tests.
• Repair instead of replacing when you can, for the same reason.
• Charge on clean power if you have a choice, though the effect is small.
• Recycle the battery through a proper scheme.
• Use shared scooters that are parked and collected efficiently if you rent, since collection was 43 percent of the shared-scooter footprint.

Where the sources disagree#

• How many scooter trips replace car trips: about a third (Raleigh and Portland) versus 1 to 7 percent (six-city report). I have not reconciled them.
• Overall verdict: Hollingsworth found scooters worse than the modes they replaced in 65 percent of base-case simulations; the six-city report found net savings in every city. One used a US survey and short assumed lifespans; the other was commissioned by a scooter operator and assumed longer ones.
• Units: miles (Hollingsworth) versus km (Gao, six-city), converted only where I say so.

Frequently asked questions#

Why are electric scooters good for the environment?#

They have no tailpipe emissions, use little electricity, and when they replace a car trip a 2019 study found about half the lifecycle CO2. Most of the benefit depends on what they replace.

Are electric scooters better for the environment than cars?#

Per passenger-mile, yes in the studies I read: 202 g CO2e for a shared scooter versus 414 g for a personal car in the Hollingsworth base case.

Are electric scooters better than walking or cycling?#

No. Hollingsworth found scooters higher than bicycles, e-bikes and buses at high ridership per passenger-mile.

Do electric scooters replace car trips?#

Sometimes. Portland found 34 percent of riders used a scooter instead of a personal vehicle or ride-hail, while the six-city report found 1 to 7 percent replacing private combustion cars.

How much CO2 does an electric scooter produce?#

Between 30 and 124 g CO2e per km in Gao's 2025 study of shared scooters in 100 EU cities, and 202 g per passenger-mile in the 2019 US study.

Where do a scooter's emissions come from?#

Mostly the build and, for shared scooters, collection: 50 and 43 percent in Hollingsworth. Charging was 4.7 percent.

Does charging an electric scooter use a lot of electricity?#

No. Gao puts riding at 15.9 Wh per km on average.

Are electric scooter batteries bad for the environment?#

Batteries are part of the 50 percent materials share, and they need proper disposal. The London Fire Brigade says not to put them in ordinary bins.

How long does an electric scooter need to last to be green?#

No study gives a single number. Hollingsworth found a two-year life cut the average to 141 g per passenger-mile, and longer is better.

Are shared scooters greener than ones you own?#

I found no study of privately owned scooters. Shared ones carry collection emissions that private ones do not, which is my inference.

The bottom line#

So, are electric scooters good for the environment? Yes, when they replace cars or taxis and last for years. No better, and sometimes worse, when they replace walking, cycling or a bus, or when they are scrapped in months. If a scooter fits your commute, my best electric scooters guide is where to look.

Written by Paul Gendry. Last checked October 10, 2026. The studies cited are mostly about shared scooters; results may differ for scooters you own.