There are essentially two types of electric scooter, stand-on and sit-on. Stand-on electric scooters are lightweight, easy to ride and unfortunately illegal to ride on public roads in the UK. They typically don't have lights or indicators and don't meet any of the whole vehicle type approvals.

Sit-on electric scooters, on the other hand, are fully legal and fall fairly neatly into the motorcycle categories. They can be generally classed into the four categories of: pedelec (electric moped), 50cc equivalent, 125cc equivalent and over 125cc equivalent.

I ride an E-Max 110S to work every day, it's classed as a 50cc equivalent (L1E) and can be ridden on a pre 2001 car licence with category P, but for younger riders they will need to complete a CBT course and pass a test. The E-Max is a premium quality electric scooter which is extremely well conceived and constructed and it's unbelievably cheap to run, costing less than 1p per mile (actually significantly less than 1p, more like between 0.5p and 0.8p). The downside is when it rains, some cheaper scooters have been known to have problems when they get wet, but I've been out in horrendous downpours and through floodwater on the E-Max without any problem whatsoever, and the over-clothing I wear keeps me warm and dry.

In case you were wondering, when it's dry I wear a leather jacket with armour and a Momo Fighter open face helmet, when it's wet I wear either an RST Enduro suit or an RST 1-piece waterproof oversuit and a Lazer LZ6 full face helmet, German paratrooper boots and RST Eiger gloves.

For local delivery riders there is the Oxygen Cargo, which is purpose designed as a commercial duty scooter. It takes just a couple of hours to charge and provides a range of up to 75 miles per charge.

If you are over 17 and have a CBT or passed any of the motorbike tests (A or A1) you can ride a Vectrix maxi scooter, these are a premium quality 125cc equivalent electric scooter, with a good range and loads of performance. 0-50mph is quoted as 6.8 seconds, so the Vectrix will out accelerate most cars, but that will be at the expense of range.

So far there are no electric scooters that come into the over 125cc category, but as battery and motor technology improves they will almost certainly come.