At their best, e-scooters are a fun way to get from Point A to Point B. They’re quick, portable, and relatively cheap, making them an obvious choice for short trips or commutes. However, riding one comes with real risks, and years of incremental increases in top speed have made many models more dangerous in key ways. At the same time, new safety data has shown that injuries on e-scooters are both widespread and, in many cases, very serious. For that reason, Consumer Reports doesn’t currently recommend any electric scooters. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were roughly 10,500 e-scooter injuries in 2017. By 2024, that number grew to nearly 80,000. Unlike e-bike users, who remain seated, e-scooter riders stand upright. That makes e-scooters exceptionally dangerous when you hit something, particularly at high speed, because you have a higher center of mass and may be more likely to fall headfirst. In the U.S., there is no safety standard specifically for adult e-scooters sold to consumers. “Consumers simply cannot trust that manufacturers are putting safety first as long as e-scooters come with such glaring hazards,” says William Wallace, Consumer Reports Director of Safety Advocacy. “If this industry is going to help reduce injuries, they need to agree on a set of strong baseline standards to make sure all e-scooters are designed and built to be safe.”
