In a Nutshell:
Recommended For: Only recommended for more lightly built people, weighing no more than 250 pounds, who are interested in a scooter designed mostly for indoor use.
Have you been increasingly frustrated by the limitations your mobility issue places in your life?
Are you looking for a scooter or electric wheelchair that can change that? And finally, are you content to mostly use your chosen scooter on flat, level terrain? If you answered yes to the questions above, you’re going to be very interested in our EV Rider TeQno review.
Haven’t heard of EV Rider?
If not, you’re certainly not alone. Although the company has carved out a nice niche for itself, they’re not an especially big or well-known player in the mobility industry. They have, however, built a solid reputation for themselves, and their design team is top-notch. Best of all, EV Rider is a company that enjoys pushing the envelope, adding innovative, cutting-edge features to its designs.
We’ll be the first to admit that this model won’t be a good fit for everyone. The TeQno scooter is a fairly narrowly targeted machine aimed at a specific segment of the market. Are you a member of the market segment the TeQno is optimized for? Read on to find out!
An Overview of the EV Rider TeQno AF S26 Mobility Scooter
The first thing you’ll notice about almost all of the products EV Rider makes is that this is a very good-looking machine. It’s got good lines and offers a very appealing aesthetic. We like that, and we think you will too. Even better, if you decide you want one, you can order yours in either metallic gold or metallic red. Granted, it’s not a huge color selection, but many models on the market today don’t offer any variety at all on that front.
Unfortunately, the sharp look of the machine by itself isn’t enough for most people to warrant a purchase.
The devil is in the details, as they say, so let’s take a closer look at those in this section here in our EV Rider Teqno review. Here’s a broad overview:
Overall, these numbers are quite good, but now a picture is beginning to emerge. A picture of a machine designed for a very specific kind of user and optimized for use in a fairly specific way.
Note the weight limit and seat dimensions, first and foremost. The TeQno EV Rider is not a machine designed for bigger, taller, or heavier folk.
If any of those things describe you, then this simply isn’t the scooter you’re looking for.
Also, note the maximum slope that the EV Rider TeQno AF S26 mobility scooter can handle. Most of the electric scooters and wheelchairs on the market today can handle a slope of at least six degrees. This one can only do half of that, which means that this one simply won’t be up to the task if you live in a hilly area or plan to use the scooter on uneven or hilly terrain.
Check out the ground clearance. It doesn’t sit high enough off the ground to use on uneven terrain at just 2.5,” which circles back to the point we just made about the minimal slope handling.
Finally, the turning radius of 55” marks this as a machine you’ll need plenty of room to use. If you don’t have that, you’ll need to resign yourself to making frequent three-point turns to get yourself reoriented. It’s also worth mentioning that the range is slightly below average for comparable scooters.
Put all of those elements together, and you get a scooter designed for more lightly built people who plan to use their scooter mostly in flat, urban environments or on flat, level lawns that are relatively free from obstructions. If that describes you and how you plan on using the scooter you ultimately select, this is an excellent fit for you. If not, then the EV Rider TeQno will leave you feeling underwhelmed.
Adjustability and Comfort of TeQno Power Scooter
This isn’t a terribly strong section of our TeQno power scooter review, and we’re basically okay with that.
We think you will be too, once we explain.
First, there’s nothing adjustable about this scooter. It’s strictly “what you see is what you get,” so you’ll want to take careful measurements to be sure that your measurements and those of the scooter are a good fit for each other.
In terms of comfort, there are a couple of important things to make a mental note of: One, the TeQno utilizes a padding “fishing style” seat that really isn’t built for lounging. It sports 1.5” of conventional block foam padding, covered with vinyl upholstery that features a pattern.
The addition of the pattern helps mitigate the biggest problem with vinyl upholstery, which is its lack of breathability, which will make you hot and sweaty the longer you sit in it. Looking back at the numbers we talked about earlier, though, it’s unlikely that you’ll be spending extended periods of time in the scooter anyway. If you operate it at its (fairly impressive) top speed, you’ll run the battery down in less than two hours. At that point, you’ll need to plug in, get up and do something else for a while.
All that to say that while the scooter isn’t what we’d call luxuriantly comfortable, it’s certainly adequate for a shorter period. In any case, if you find the padding to be inadequate, that’s an easy thing to fix. You can find a dazzling array of seat cushions, all well-priced, that will enable you to enhance the level of comfort of the scooter to pretty much anything you desire.
Extras and Options of EVRider TeQno Auto Folding Scooter
Unlike the section above, we regard this as one of the stronger sections of our EVRider TeQno auto-folding scooter review.
Most smaller companies don’t offer anything in the way of extras, and if they happen to offer something, it’s limited to just a couple of basics.
In this regard, EV Rider is a pleasant surprise. You’ll find all sorts of goodies on the company’s “Accessories” page, including:
These are outstanding.
Just about everybody will need onboard storage, and, usually, the more, the better. The cup holder is almost universally useful, and the safety features are excellent additions. Our only real complaint is that, in our view, some of the safety features (the horn and seat belt, for example) should have been standard with the EV Rider TeQno mobility scooter.
It’s a small complaint, but we did want to draw your attention to it. If the extras offered by the company itself don’t give you as many customization options as you’d like, you’ll find an endless variety of accessories on the aftermarket. Kudos to EV Rider for an excellent job here!
Portability and Ease of Use
The EV Rider TeQno automatic folding scooter weighs in at 73 pounds with the battery included (65 pounds without). At that weight, it’s certainly not the lightest scooter on the market today, but it’s also not the heaviest. We’d rate it as being somewhat portable and travel-friendly. If you’ve got decent upper body strength, the EV Rider TeQno scooter folds into a small enough package that you should have no trouble storing it in the trunks of most mid-sized sedans or SUVs.
Flying with the TeQno is another matter. Airlines charge by weight, so every pound matters. Most airlines will allow it, but you’ll pay a premium. You’ll want to call the airline you plan on flying with to make sure it’s on their allow list.
In terms of ease of use, the TeQno fares exceptionally well. We rate this section as hands-down the strongest in this review and the main reason most people will fall in love with this model.
The controls are exactly what you’d expect, and it will only take you a matter of minutes to master the scooter’s use. It gets better, though. We pointed out at the start that EV Rider has a habit of introducing cutting-edge features in its designs. Well, this model has not one, but two of those, and they’re both fantastic.
First, the scooter utilizes lasers as guide lights, which allows you to navigate tight spaces with ease.
Normally, we’d rail against the rather dismal 55” turning radius, but the guide lights take most of the sting of frustration out of any problems that may arise from the turning radius. We love it, and we think you will too.
Second, it folds up automatically at the touch of a button. You literally don’t have to do anything to make this scooter fold up for travel. Just push a button on the remote, and it will collapse for you. This is a magnificent convenience feature and another thing we’re sure you’ll love about this design. No more wrestling with your scooter to get it ready for travel, ever.
Pros & Cons of EV Rider TeQno Automatic Folding Scooter
So, where does that leave us?
Well, clearly, the EV Rider TeQno mobility scooter isn’t for everyone, but then, it wasn’t designed to be. The team behind the scooter made several conscious design decisions that narrowly and precisely target this model. If you’re a member of the group EV Rider targeted with this product, you’re almost certainly going to love it. If you fall outside that group, it’s not going to impress you. Basically, anything negative we might say about the scooter is a direct result of specific design decisions.
EV Rider TeQno Review Conclusion
As mentioned in the previous section here in our EV Rider TeQno review, this is an extremely self-selecting chair. It was designed for a person who:
The more of those conditions that apply to you, the happier you’re going to be with this design. The fewer that apply to you, the less impressed you’ll be. On that basis, we provisionally recommend this model.
Comparable Products to Consider
If you like the EV Rider TeQno S26, but it’s not a perfect fit, you may want to consider one of the following alternatives if you’re interested in staying within the EV Rider family of products:
Recommended For: This is definitely a niche product, recommended for users weighing no more than 250 pounds who are looking for a machine for indoor use only.
This is a three-wheeled model that’s very similar to the scooter we just described, but it’s optimized for travel friendliness and weighs significantly less.
Recommended For: Anyone who needs a chair that can support up to three hundred fifty pounds of user weight.
The City Rider, which has most of the same features, but loses the fun laser guidance system. It does have the advantage of supporting an extra hundred pounds of user weight though, which makes it a good fit for the vast majority of the potential market.
References & Resources:
- EV Rider, Official Brand Website.
- EV Rider TeQno Mobility Scooter User Manual
- A Survey of Adult Power Wheelchair and Scooter Users, PubMed.gov.
- Mobility Scooters: Legally Not Vehicles, independent LIVING.
- Practice Considerations For the Introduction and Use of Power Mobility For Children, Wiley Online Library.