The NYFD found that those (at least the vast majority) of the fires were caused by cheaply manufactured batteries. They were not UL listed - tested and deemed safe. It appears a manufacturer was making cheap knock-offs and that was the end result - short circuits and explosions/fires. Modifications and cheap parts were also part of the problem.
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Major success factor sure is the Lithium battery technology, but let us not forget some other relevant breakthrough technologies here: super magnets for motors with higher power density, new transistor technology like IGBT, GaN, SiC for more efficient and compact drives. Non-tech success factor / driver is e.g. the climate crisis.
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I have seen a few electric scooters go my my house. I live on a hill leading to the river where a town park is. But what I mostly see are electric bicycles. From my casual observation I’d say it’s probably 4 bike to 1 scooter. But then again, I’m not sitting on my porch all day. Sure are a lot quieter than motorcycles & street legal dirt bikes.
A couple of kids from around the corner have electric skateboards. They use them going up our hill instead of walking up it - 4-1/2 blocks uphill.
Something I’ve recently seen are mini-bikes. After almost 55 years are these are making a come-back? Two kids a few blocks over are riding them down to the river park & boat launch. Just wish they’d stay off the streets with those.
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Now there’s an enclosed electric “scooter” that seems more like an enclosed golf cart. It was nice to see it has a heater & defroster for cold weather (like where I am). I wonder how it does in a light snow. Hopefully they sell studded tires as well. This would beat walking up to see my granddaughters or going to my daughter’s house to let her dogs out. Or… I could just take the car. 
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on your e scooter blog, you ignored zappy’s greatest coding horror of all: the human factor. Zappy’s upper managment was only in it for the money. read all about it … somewhere. o read the damning article in 2005, but i will find it.
Lead cars could have been good in the right application, esp when parallel with capacitor banks, and to this day end users struggle to competently manage lithium.
i cant read the artcle. idk why wired would scrub or paywall back issue.
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Great nuance and thanks for sharing it – makes sense in context, the batteries were just too primitive to support electric vehicles at that time. We needed Lithium-Ion to get the power up and weight down.
That’s also why the next big battery tech upgrade is going to be quite transformative to the world IMO.
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