TurboAnt M10 Lite Electric Scooter – Test and Review

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Updated April 9th, 2024

Manufacturer and Model: Turboant M10 Lite
List Price: $399

Summary

The Turboant M10 Lite is the latest affordable scooter offering from Turboant. Turboant scooters always seem to deliver a little bit more when it comes to performance and the M10 Lite is no different. It comes with a 350 watt motor which is unusual for its $300 electric scooter price point. This gave it a surprisingly fun ride and good hill climbing performance. It has 8 inch pneumatic tires that help smooth the ride. It still manages to deliver up to 15 miles of range.

Turboant M10 Lite Review and Test

The M10 Lite is the latest electric scooter from TurboAnt and their cheapest scooter. It shares a name with the TurboAnt M10 but it is a completely different scooter. It is their cheapest scooter to date and is meant to be an inexpensive, easy to carry, commuting scooter.

Some key differences between the M10 Lite and M10

• Price – The M10 Lite retails for $80 less
• Drive Motor – They both have 350 watt motors. The M10 Lite is front wheel drive and the M10 is rear wheel drive.
• Batteries – The M10 Lite has a 6.6 ah battery. The M10 has a 7.5 ah battery
• Control Interface – They are different with different displays. The M10 Lite has a twist throttle. The M10 has a trigger throttle.
• Wheels – The M10 lite has 8.5 inch pneumatic tires. The M10 has 10 inch pneumatic tires.

I am a bit over 220 lbs which is the published weight limit for this scooter. If you are smaller it will perform even better. If you are a 200 lb guy like me wondering how well it will work, you have come to the right place.

1 – Power (8.5/10)

Top Speed

TurboAnt publishes a top speed of 16mph for the M10 Lite. We were able to get it to go 15.78mph, on flat ground, as measured by a Garmin GPS. That is really close to the published number. It gets up to this speed without too much effort with a big rider on it. The acceleration on this scooter is much better than I expected it to be and on par with the Hiboy S2R and Gotrax G4 we recently tested. Both those scooters are at least $100 more expensive.

16mph top speed is competitive for this price range. The Gotrax Apex has a max speed of 15.5mph. The Segway ES1L has a top speed of only 12.4mph.

Hill Climbing

We took the TurboAnt M10 Lite to our standard hill climb testing hill. This is a 0.5 mile hill with a 100 foot elevation gain. It has 2 sections of 10% grade. We use a 250 lb rider. The M10 Lite took 4 minutes and 14 seconds to climb the hill with an average speed of 7.1 mph.

Faster scooters and bikes can finish this hill in under 2 minute. The M10 Lite is a very cheap $300 level scooter. We were impressed that it could make it up the hill at all without stalling out. It didn’t go fast up the hill but it kept chugging away and got to the top.

2 – Range (7.5/10)

Range

The published range for the TurboAnt M10 Lite is 15.5 miles. This is in ideal conditions. It is with a 165 lb rider on flat ground with minimal stops.

We took the M10 Lite out to a nearby bike path that is flat and straight. It has a road crossing every 1/2 mile to mile which means stopping. As I stated at the beginning, I am over the 220 lb published max weight. I am far from the ideal use case for maximum range. I was able to get 8.84 miles. This is about what I expected to get for me and a 6.6 ah battery. I get about 60% of the published range on most electric scooters.

The display has a 4 bar indicator for battery charge. The first 3 bars go a few miles each. The 4th bar has about a mile left. It will turn red when the battery is almost gone and there is a steep power drop off. The scooter top speed will reduce down to 4-5mph. The last bar will start flashing red when it’s out of power. It will still keep going at about 2mph for some further distance. At that point, it’s hard to stay balanced on the scooter and you can walk faster.

3 – Ride Quality (7.5/10)

The 8.5 inch air tires do a good job of smoothing out cracks and small gaps in the pavement. It feels much smoother than 8.5 inch rigid wheels and only a little stiffer than 10 inch air wheels would feel. I always prefer air tires for ride smoothness and traction.

The deck feels large. I have no trouble fitting both of my feet on it without feeling cramped. I have room for my rear foot without resting it on the fender. I tend to ride with my front foot toes next to the frame and my rear foot overlapping it a little.

Large deck

The deck on our M10 Lite measures 6.3 x 17.7 inches making it roomy. It feels like a bit more width than our Hiboy S2R test scooter and feels more spacious. A lot of cheap electric scooters try to cut corners by making the deck a little smaller. They feel really cramped to ride. The M10 Lite doesn’t do this. You get a full adult foot size deck.

4 – Braking (8)

The M10 Lite has decent braking. The electronic brake comes on strong. Then you have to squeeze quite a bit to get the disc brake. The stopping distance was very reasonable and controlled. To get the most out of any rear disc brake you have to shift your weight rearward on the scooter when you squeeze the brakes hard.

5 – Controls (8.5/10)

The M10 Lite has 2 buttons on the top of the stem and an LCD display. The 2 buttons are used to turn the scooter on and off, switch speed modes, and turn the lights on and off. The LCD display is easy to read and has all the basic information you want. It shows speed, what speed mode you are in, and a battery remaining. There is a USB outlet below the buttons you can use for charging your phone.

The handlebars have nice thick grips that are comfortable to hold. The throttle is on the right and the brake lever and bell are on the left side.

Disc and electronic braking

This scooter has dual brakes. It has an electronic brake on the front wheel and a disc brake on the rear wheel. They are both actuated with the brake lever on the left handlebar. The electronic brake kicks in with a little squeeze of the lever. The disc brake takes a bigger squeeze to get into.

Cruise control

This scooter has a cruise control that auto activates after you hold the throttle in one position for a few seconds. It means you don’t have to hold the throttle down while riding. It’s a nice feature if you ride a long distance without any stops. Cruise control turns off if you hit the brakes or touch the throttle lever. There is no way to deactivate the cruise control in the settings or controller if you don’t want that feature.

Bell

There is a small bell located on the left handlebar with the brake lever. It works well and is easy to use. It’s loud enough to let any pedestrian know you are about to pass them.

Lighting

The TurboAnt M10 Lite has a small head light and tail light. The headlight is adjustable and has a reflector. You can adjust the angle so you light up the ground at the distance you like. The tail light will flash red when you apply the brakes. The lights are bright enough to get the job done. If the scooter was any faster you would want a brighter light. You can see good enough for 16mph.

6 – Construction (7/10)

The TurbAnt M10 Lite seems well built. The frame looks sturdy with clean welds. There are some areas where it shows its price point such as the plastic display housing. It’s not as cleanly integrated as more expensive scooters. The plastic hook on the rear fender doesn’t work as well as a metal hook found on more expensive scooters.

Folding Mechanism

The M10 Lite has a 3 step folding mechanism. It has a folding lever and a rotating safety catch. It has a hook on the rear fender that hooks to the handlebar when folded for carrying.

To fold the scooter you rotate the safety catch out of the way. Unhook the folding lever. Fold down the steering tube. Latch the handlebar to the rear fender. On our M10 Lite, the handlebar latch doesn’t easily latch to the rear fender. It’s spring loaded but the latch won’t slide over the plastic fender hook or slide under it. We have to manually slide it under. It doesn’t stay latched when we put the scooter down and leave it sitting. This is one of the very few things we don’t like about the M10 Lite.

To unfold the scooter you do the reverse process. Lift the steering tube up. Fold the release lever closed. Rotate the safety latch into place. You are done and ready to ride.

7 – Assembly

Assembly is easy and quick. There is some potential for a lost important part in the box so we’ll mention this.

You need to install the pin in the folding mechanism. It is supposed to come tightened in the folding mechanism. You use the supplied hex wrenches to loosen it, put the folding mechanism together, then reinstall the pin and tighten it. The bolt and washer for ours were loose in the bottom of the shipping box. Take care when you take your M10 Lite out of the box so that you don’t lose this pin, bolt, and washer. It should come tightened in the folding mechanism but this wasn’t the case for us.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

The TurboAnt M10 Lite delivers a lot of bang for the buck. With a price under $400 it is one of the cheaper adult electric scooters out there. It delivers power and performance well above its price point. If you are looking for a cheap scooter to commute with or just for fun, we recommend the TurboAnt M10 Lite.

Other scooters to consider

Let’s take a look at how the M10 Lite compares to some of the other popular $300-$400 electric scooters. The 2 closest scooters to the TurboAnt M10 Lite are the Gotrax Apex and Segway ES1L.

The Gotrax Apex has a similar top speed, and range. It also has 8.5 inch air tires. It only has a 250 watt motor. It will not perform as well with heavier riders or with hills. It weighs about a pound more than the M10 Lite. It retails for $30 more.

The Segway ES1L has a top speed of 12.4mph and range of 12.4 miles. It has a small front shock absorber to help smooth out the rigid wheel ride. It weighs almost 6 lbs less at 24.6 lbs. If you want the easiest to carry scooter, the ES1L is a good option. If you want more riding performance, the M10 Lite is a better way to go.

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