Boosted, known as the leader in electric skateboards, unveiled their newest product today. The Boosted Rev is the company’s first electric scooter, and it is exactly what you’d expect from the king of electric skateboards.

Check out all the specs on the new Boosted Rev below, as well as my first impressions and test ride video.

Boosted Rev electric scooter

The Boosted Rev is nothing like the Bird and Lime electric scooters that are commonly found in cities around the world.

While those scooters are fairly cheap and weak, the Boosted Rev is high quality, high speed, and high power. It’s also fairly high cost, at $1,599. That’s not the most expensive scooter I’ve ridden, but it’s definitely up there. There’s no sugar-coating the cost, but I’m going to make a case for why it is worth it.

First of all, check out the specs. The Boosted Rev is a dual wheel drive electric scooter with a 750 W continuous motor in each wheel. That means a published 1.5 kW of continuous power, and in all likelihood a true peak power value north of 2 kW.

And that’s in keeping with Boosted’s design ethos. As CEO Jeff Russakow explained to me:

“Boosted has always been about last mile transportation, and it’s always been our plan to do a wide variety of vehicles. Our name is Boosted and that’s what we do, we boost stuff. We’re great at making high power electric powertrains, and so we started with the most extreme form of micromobility that one can imagine: an electric skateboard. And now we’ve taken that technology and added handlebars to give people more stability, creating an electric scooter.”

Check out my first ride on the Boosted Rev electric scooter below.

The Boosted Rev electric scooter has power for days

The power of Boosted’s electric skateboards definitely made the jump into the new Boosted Rev electric scooter. That power translates into crazy acceleration and extreme hill climbing ability. As Jeff tells it, San Francisco’s hills are nothing to this scooter.

And with a wider deck than most budget-level electric scooters, you’ll feel more stable while climbing those hills and bombing back down the other side.

The high power also means great brakes. If you’ve ever ridden one of Boosted’s electric skateboards, you know those things can stop on a dime. That takes powerful motors and proper programming to eek out every ounce of performance. And Boosted’s engineers appear to have done just that with the Rev.

Sure, there’s a mechanical disc brake and even a rear foot scrub brake as well, but I didn’t use either of those once on my test riding (more on that in a moment). The regenerative braking is so powerful that it was all I needed to quickly come to a halt. Just like an electric skateboard.

The throttle on the Boosted Rev is unlike any other electric scooter, largely because it is based on the wheel-style throttle from the classic Boosted skateboard remote. It rolls one way to accelerate and the other way to brake. I was a bit worried about how that would feel on a handlebar, but it took me all of three seconds to get used to it. And I love it. The button is nicely knurled so it feels great on your thumb. Applying more throttle or rolling on the brake feels very intuitive. It’s a hard thing to describe, but trust me when I say that it works well and that Boosted executed it nicely.

And of course, the powerful motors also help with speed. The Boosted rev electric scooter can hit a top speed of 24 mph (38.6 km/h) and has a range of 22 miles (35 km). Boosted’s batteries are also top notch, emphasizing safety and performance. Each battery cell is individually isolated and contained in its own isolated housing.

The frame is also made using forged aluminum instead of cheaper casting methods. That results in a stronger, more robust frame that can withstand the years of abuse that these electric scooters are expected to endure. Even the screen is made from scratch resistant material. Boosted really put an emphasis on longevity to make these scooters bulletproof.

As Jeff explained:

“We didn’t want to build a disposable scooter like most of the cheap scooters you see out there today, we wanted to build something that would last for years. Many of our original Boosted Boards from over 5 years ago are still on the road today, and that’s what we want from the Rev.”

That robust construction combined with a pair of high power motors means the Boosted Rev is a bit heavier than most other scooters, weighing 46 lb (20.8 kg). But with such a simple one-handed folding mechanism, it was still fairly easy for me to fold and lift it while filming with my other hand.

The Boosted Rev is available to pre-order online. And if the $1,599 price scares you off, they also have financing options for $70/month. I can spend that much on a few Uber rides each month, which means there’s definitely a market for replacing rideshares with a premium electric scooter.

First ride on the Boosted Rev

Speaking of filming, I had the opportunity to get an early test ride on the scooter in New York City yesterday. It was a bit of rainy, dreary day – but you don’t say no to riding an unreleased Boosted scooter!

Make sure you check out the video at the top of the article to see the scooter in action.

I started out in Mode 1 to get a feel for the scooter, then bumped up to Mode 2, which was plenty peppy. After a few minutes of tooting around Wall Street, I rocketed up to Mode 3 and had some real fun.

Of course with the wet streets, I had to be careful with all of that power and torque. I almost lost it more than once on some wet road plates and subway grates. I’m simply not used to having this much power in an electric scooter.

The giant tires, which Boosted says they had custom designed for the scooter, are some of the thickest I’ve seen on a scooter. During my riding I found that they were great at smoothing out the ride on most of the journey, though they couldn’t really do much for the giant potholes pockmarking the Financial District.

I would have hoped for a bit of a smoother ride on the cobblestones and rough street sections, but there’s only so much a non-suspension scooter can do about a 3-inch crater in the street. Even suspension scooters still take a beating on big potholes.

A feature that I really appreciated was the inclusion of wide handlebars, almost like a mountain bike. Most other electric scooters have narrow little handlebars that might cut it at 10-15 mph, but won’t be stable enough at the Boosted Rev’s top speed. Instead, the wide handlebars that Boosted included give extra stability. Combined with the low deck height, the scooter rides really nicely and feels rock solid.

And because the regenerative braking works so well, I don’t have to keep one hand hovering over the brake lever. That means I can hold on firmly to the handlebars and control both acceleration and braking with just one thumb. The ability to commit all nine other fingers to steering gives you added confidence and further increases the stability of the scooter.

At the end of the day, whether or not the Boosted Rev’s $1,599 price is worth it will really depend on what you plan to do with the scooter.

If you only use an electric scooter once in a while, then a Bird or Lime will probably cut it for you. Though I must say that after riding the Rev, I’m probably too spoiled to go back to a cheap scooter.

If you want a scooter that you can commute on every day for years though, the Boosted Rev can do that for you. It is built to be safe, comfortable and, most importantly, to withstand the test of time. And it looks pretty good while doing it. I test a lot of scooters, and I have fun on most of them. But this is one that I could actually see myself buying to commute on everyday. And that seems like the ultimate test to me.

Let’s hear what you think about the Boosted Rev. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

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