Electric Scooters - You have to charge them regularly, but what about your car battery?

So, you have joined the e-scooter revolution! Electric scooters, particularly those designed for urban commuting, offer plenty of benefits. They are compact enough to fit in public transport, easily carry over short distances, are generally faster than walking, and you do not get stuck in traffic.

1. Affordable Ride

Electric scooter sharing platforms and private electric scooters offer a more affordable option for commuters. E-scooters are significantly cheaper than cars, from retail price to maintenance. Other expenses, like fuel costs, parking fees, and maintenance costs, cost lower than cars. Overall, they are a cost-efficient personal transport solution, especially for those who need daily rides for work, school, and errands.

2. Less Maintenance

Electric scooters include fewer and less complicated parts than a car. This means your car does not require such frequent maintenance.

E-scooters rarely break down, unless you push them to their limits. As long as you ride, clean, and store your electric scooter properly, you have little maintenance to worry about.

So, for your commute, these electric scooters and other electric personal vehicles can be a great benefit.

What happens to your car battery while it is not being used?

Well, while you are not driving to work, you may only use your car for short shopping trips, dropping the kids off somewhere or visiting your friend who lives 2 or 3kms away etc. These short trips will not be regular enough, or long enough to keep your vehicle battery fully charged. Your vehicle battery life will be significantly decreased through non-use, this could end up leading to a breakdown. So what can you do to minimise that risk?

OptiMate 6 is the answer.

OptiMate chargers are designed to be left connected to your vehicle battery 24/7 while not in use and will safely charge and maintain your vehicle battery. You can also connect once per month for a few hours if you do not have easily accessible mains power where your vehicle is stored. So, you could run an extension lead to your car, plug in the charger for a few hours, then pack it all away again until next time.

 

OptiMate chargers come with a set of battery clips so that you can easily connect to any vehicle battery. They also come with a set of eyelet leads that can be permanently attached to your vehicle battery for quick connection and convenience. If you have more than one vehicle, you can purchase more leads.

Don’t worry if you think that all sounds a bit technical, OptiMate is fully automatic. There are no buttons to press and no settings to choose. Simply connect to the battery, plug in to the mains power then switch on your mains power socket. OptiMate chargers are fully spark suppressed too!

An led display indicates the status of the charger while charging your battery. Once charged, the OptiMate 6 will enter a test phase to check for battery voltage loss or parasitic battery drain. The results are then indicated to you on the front panel.

There are various versions of OptiMate designed for use with different size battery and types of battery.

• Optimate 2 - for smaller batteries such as motorcycles, ATV's, PWc's etc
• OptiMate 2 Duo (can be used for powersports lead acid AND Lithium batteries)
• OptiMate 4 - For Lead acid starter batteries found on powersports vehicles - features recovery mode for sulphated or deep discharged batteries and  CAN-Bus mode for BMW motorcycles
• OptiMate 6 - For larger lead acid batteries used in cars, 4x4's, tractors and farm machinery etc.
• OptiMate Lithium 5A - for larger LiFePO4 Lithium Ion starter batteries