Yadea Elite Prime Review: Is An SUV

Jun 29, 2023

Explore urban mobility with Yadea Elite Prime, an SUV-inspired electric scooter offering smooth rides, dual suspension, and a reliable 40-mile range.

Electric scooters have a lot going for them, but often, looks aren’t one of their strengths. The Yadea Elite Prime aspires to be a classier type of scooter, with a Segway-inspired look and what the company refers to as an “SUV-like” design.

The Elite Prime features dual suspension, relatively high clearance, and a triple-brake system, but Yadea advertises it toward commuters, not off-road enthusiasts. Does the Elite Prime deliver on its promise of “better urban mobility,” or should you look elsewhere for your daily commute?

The Yadea Elite Prime is an SUV-inspired scooter that aims for a smooth, stable ride over off-road performance. With multiple speed modes and 40 mile range, it's suited to both urban commutes and longer weekend rides.

The front of the Yadea Elite Prime is rather tall, which immediately brings to mind the look of a Segway, only with the deck and wheels of a scooter. The look is relatively smooth, with the hydroformed aluminum frame taking a less tubular shape than many scooters.

The height may be a problem for smaller riders, as the handlebar isn’t adjustable. I’m roughly 5’7 (around 171cm) tall and the bars weren’t an issue for me, but if you’re a few inches shorter, stability may suffer. Even at my height, I would have preferred the bars an inch or two lower.

The deck isn’t unusually wide or narrow, and it’s right in line with most electric scooters in terms of size. A raised section at the back lets you put a foot there to better distribute your weight, adding extra stability as you lean into corners. The kickstand is placed in a way where it seems like it would be quite difficult to accidentally lower it while riding.

The front and rear wheels both use self-repairing 10-inch tubeless tires. You’ll often see these on more off-road oriented scooters, but Yadea warns against off-road use both in the manual and in a video you need to watch in the app before you can even start riding the scooter.

The Elite Prime features IPX5 weather resistance, meaning you don’t need to worry about getting caught in the rain for a few minutes, but you shouldn't leave it out.

Putting the scooter together for the first time is a snap. Simply connect the cable between the handlebars and the rest of the scooter frame, slot the handlebars into place, and fasten them with the included screws. Plug in the battery to activate it, and you’re finished.

Yadea claims a range of 40 miles for the Elite Prime, powered by the 46.8VDC 14.5Ah battery. I wasn’t able to test the full range, but based on how much battery was left after some shorter rides, this seems fully attainable. As you get closer to the maximum load of 265 pounds (120kg), expect the range to start to drop.

Having the long range is nice because this isn’t as easily transportable as some other scooters. At around 62 pounds (28kg), it isn’t the heaviest scooter we’ve seen, but it isn’t easy to carry either. Much of this has to do with the design of the scooter.

While the scooter collapses, with the front lowering down on to the deck, it doesn’t fasten as securely as some other scooters. There is a latch near the handlebars that attaches to a corresponding indentation on the deck, but nothing holds this fast in place. Multiple times while moving the scooter, I had the latch give way.

Between the weight and the insecure nature of the latch, this isn’t a scooter many people will enjoy lugging up and down the stairs. If you’re using this frequently, you’ll want to keep it as close to your front door as possible.

Yadea includes a case that attaches to the front of the scooter, which is a nice touch. You could use this for whatever you want, but it works as a handy way to keep the charger with you at all times. That said, a full charge takes seven or eight hours, so you’ll want to make sure you plan on staying put for a while if you start to charge up.

The Elite Prime is outfitted with a full suite of lights. The headlight comes on automatically every time you turn on the scooter, something that you seemingly can't change in the companion app. A rear light helps you stay visible at night.

While many scooters have lights, far fewer have indicators, but the Yadea Elite Prime does. These are only located on the back of the scooter, so you’ll need to rely on hand signals to communicate with anyone in front of you. Annoyingly, the blinkers are accompanied by a loud beeping sound, another feature you don’t appear to be able to turn off.

One handy feature for safety is the 45-degree tilt sensor. This automatically cuts the engine if it senses the scooter leaning past a 45-degree angle, preventing it from accelerating out of control if you start to fall. This won’t completely protect you from falls, but it’s still a nice feature.

The Yadea app is a necessity, since you need to activate the scooter with the app before you can ride it at all. The app also has a handy Bluetooth lock feature, letting you either manually lock and unlock the scooter, or have it automatically unlock whenever it detects your phone nearby.

Press the power button and the scooter turns on, as indicated by the display. Here you’ll see the riding mode you’re in, the speed you’re currently traveling, how much battery life you have remaining, and whether the headlight is activated. For anything else, you’ll want to turn to the Yadea companion app.

In addition to activating and locking and unlocking the scooter, the app has a few other handy features. For example, to use the cruise control feature, you’ll need to first enable it in the app. This maintains speed after holding the throttle button for eight seconds. This could be surprising if you’re not expecting it, so it makes sense that it's an optional feature and off by default.

While you can switch between speed modes using the built-in display, you can only unlock the fastest mode using the app, having ridden the scooter for at least one kilometer. As I’ve seen with other reports on the internet, I haven’t been able to enable this mode despite riding the scooter well beyond that distance.

This isn’t the only bug involving the app. For example, you can use the app to switch between displaying the speed in kilometers or miles per hour. The scooter doesn’t retain this setting, though, so it resets to kilometers every time you turn it off.

None of the issues are complete dealbreakers, but they can be frustrating to deal with.

The Elite Prime features an 800W motor with up to 1500W of peak power. Depending on the riding mode you’re in, the maximum speed is up to 18.6MPH. Theoretically, after unlocking the maximum speed mode you can supposedly go faster, but I was unable to test this.

I spent most of my time testing the Elite Prime with it set to Sport Mode, which is the fastest of the three unlocked modes. Walk mode is self-explanatory, while Driver mode is meant for everyday riding. By comparison, Sport Mode feels like it accelerates more quickly.

Even at top speed, the Yadea Elite Prime feels relatively smooth thanks to the dual suspension. That said, I can see why Yadea doesn’t recommend this for off-road use. The suspension feels like it is meant more for absorbing road chatter than absorbing larger bumps in the road.

Even testing the scooter in a gravel parking lot, I didn’t feel as planted and stable as I did on the road, regardless of which mode I had the scooter in. After this experience, I stuck to roads, which seems to be what the creators had in mind for the scooter.

When it comes time to stop, you have a rear disc brake, a front drum brake, and regenerative engine braking working together to slow you down. Even when you’re at top speed, simply letting go of the throttle bleeds off speed fairly quickly. Squeezing the front and rear brakes brings you to a full stop in no time.

One word of caution to those coming from the world of bicycles: the brakes on the scooter are set up with the front brake on the right lever and the rear on the left lever. In the United States and many other countries, this is the opposite of how bicycles work. Make sure to test the brakes at slow speeds first to prevent squeezing the front brake too hard and throwing yourself off the scooter.

Sometimes the various aspects of a product come together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts, but this isn’t the case with the Yadea Elite Prime. There is nothing wrong with this scooter, minor bugs aside, but nothing about it stands out as particularly remarkable.

If the tall, sleek look of the scooter appeals to you, and you plan on sticking to sidewalks and city streets, the Elite Prime is a solid option. That said, there are better off-road options like the Kugoo Kirin G3 Pro.

Kris Wouk has been writing about technology for more than 10 years, but using it for much longer than that. He has covered Apple and its various products for MakeUseOf, but he's also covered breaking tech news for Digital Trends and other sites. He spends his spare time as a musician, creating and releasing music across multiple projects.