The 5 Best Electric Skateboards of 2024 (2024)

Best Overall Electric Skateboard

Ownboard Carbon Zeus Pro

Tested Top Speed: 34.1 mph | Tested Maximum Range: 33.3 miles

The Ownboard Carbon Zeus Pro is our top-scoring electric skateboard, possessing the fastest top speed and the greatest range of any board we've tested. The padded grip tape on this board is thicker than most, which makes it very comfortable to ride, especially at higher speeds and for longer distances. It can climb up hills with no problem, and the remote is comfortable in-hand and offers intuitive controls. This model has four settings, including a turbo mode, which gives the rider the ability to fit it to their comfort level and allows beginners to ease into the power that this board is capable of.

The only real drawback of this E-board is that its braking system takes some time to get used to. The brakes work extremely well, but the stopping power can be harshly abrupt, with the possibility of tossing the rider off if they aren't prepared. If smooth and stable braking is a top priority, we'd recommend the OneWheel GT or its less expensive sibling, the OneWheel Pint. The Zeus also makes a high-pitched whiny noise when traveling at higher speeds for any sustained amount of time, which doesn't affect the performance but can be slightly annoying. Being a top-of-the-line model, this board is on the pricier side, so for those who may not need the fastest board or are looking for something more budget-friendly, read on.

Read more: Ownboard Carbon Zeus Pro review

Best Bang for the Buck

Backfire Zealot S

Tested Top Speed: 28.9 mph | Tested Maximum Range: 27 miles

If you're looking for a belt-driven electric skateboard and you don't want to break the bank, check out the Backfire Zealot S. This more affordable option holds its own against the best of the best in the speed department — clocking an impressive 29 mph maximum speed during our time trials. Our testing team loved the handling and overall ride of this model. The acceleration and braking are both smooth and gradual so as not to be too jerky, which decreases the likelihood of unexpected momentum changes and bails. The bouncy deck, large wheels, and forged trucks ensure that you'll be carving high-speed turns and cruising over cracks all over town.

During our testing, we found that the Zealot S displayed significant improvements in its range and speed over previous Backfire models; however, it landed in the middle of the road in its braking, hill climbing, and ride comfort when compared to the rest of the test group. For smoother braking or uphilling, check out the OneWheel Pint, which still keeps the wallet from getting hit too hard. Despite the Zealot's few shortcomings, we loved shredding this skateboard around town and would recommend it to anybody looking for this style of electric skateboard who is shopping on a budget.

Read more: Backfire Zealot S review

A Budget-Friendly Onewheel Option

Onewheel Pint

Tested Top Speed: 14.2 mph | Tested Maximum Range: 10 miles

The Onewheel Pint is our favorite of the Onewheel electric skateboards, handling poor-quality pavement as well as off-road terrain with ease. This pint-sized self-balancing skateboard is exceptionally fun to ride, with its massive monowheel easily cruising over obstacles and terrain that would stop other boards in their tracks. It's pretty comfortable to ride, cruises up solidly steep hills with ease, and has excellent braking capabilities.

The Onewheel Pint can be off-putting if you aren't a fan of self-balancing boards. The board is essentially useless when its battery dies, and it can be a little less comfortable than the standard boards to ride for long distances. It also can't go up the steepest hills without bottoming out. We'd steer you towards the Ownboard Carbon Zeus Pro if long rides are a priority, but if you like single-wheeled designs, we'd recommend the OneWheel GT, which offers a better range. The Pint is a fantastic choice if you are searching for the surfy feel of a monowheel board on a budget.

Read more: Onewheel Pint review

Most Budget Friendly

Exway Flex

Tested Top Speed: 24 mph | Tested Maximum Range: 14.4 miles

The Exway Flex redefines the price range of quality electric skateboards. Many would-be E-board riders get turned away from the sport due to price, but options like this make it possible to get a capable, fun ride on a tight budget. This board boasts excellent speed and acceleration, with a concave deck helping you remain confident as you up the throttle. We also loved the Flex's beginner mode, which reduces the speed limit and accelerator/brake sensitivity to help one ease into the sport with fewer crashes. In many metrics, this board hung with competition that was sometimes two or three times more expensive, impressing our testing team with its minimal performance compromise despite its low price.

The Flex doesn't have the most effective braking system of the E-boards we tested. In our stopping distance tests, it took 45 feet for the board to come to a stop. Other options like the OneWheel Pint and the OneWheel GT stop in a third of that distance, also offering a smoother braking system. We were able to engage hilly areas with the Flex — its braking just requires that you start braking sooner and/or keep your speeds more modest when heading downhill. We'd recommend this board to anyone just getting into the sport and/or has a tight budget- just start braking earlier than you think.

Read more: Exway Flex review

Best Ride

Onewheel GT

Tested Top Speed: 19.8 mph | Tested Maximum Range: 25 miles

The OneWheel GT is the new and improved flagship model from one of the most recognizable names in electric skateboards. Its massive monowheel can tackle virtually any terrain and cruises over bumps and cracks better than any of the competition. Riding the GT is super fun and handles more like riding a snowboard than a traditional skateboard. One of the best features is the braking system that's activated by simply leaning back. This action is not only instinctive for the rider but also reduces the chances of getting pitched forward as the board slows down. This intuitive design, along with the fun and surfy ride, made this one of our favorite boards to float around on.

Our main gripe with the OneWheel GT is that your feet must remain in a fixed position, covering the sensors in each footpad at all times. This means that once you're going, you can't adjust your feet without stopping, which makes longer rides tougher. Also, having concave on every edge of the footpads may help somewhat with traction, but it isn't very comfortable when riding for a sustained amount of time. If you're drawn to lengthy rides, we'd steer you to the Ownboard Carbon Zeus Pro, which was a joy to take on even the longest cruises. One other minor consideration for the GT is its steeper learning curve, but that's true with any self-balancing board. OneWheel offers an app so you can adjust ride modes, helping you ease into its single-wheeled design. This app also includes numerous tutorials to reduce your chances of catching unintentional air time on your inaugural rides. Once you get the hang of it, this E-board is a lot of fun and will keep you grinning from ear to ear.

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Why You Should Trust Us?

We spent countless hours researching the specifications of these products and comparing different manufacturer's claims to first determine which boards were good enough to cut it for our review and then to determine a grueling series of challenges to crown the winners. We conducted over 15 comprehensive side-by-side tests, measuring and scoring everything from the maximum speed to the stopping distance on both flat ground and down a steep hill. We rode these boards hundreds of miles to see how they held up to sustained use — even taking them off-road! — and measured their maximum range head-to-head on flat ground.

We break down our overall score into six key metrics:

• Ride Comfort (30% of overall scoring weight)

• Range (20% weighting)

• Braking (20% weighting)

• Speed (10% weighting)

• Hills (10% weighting)

• Beginner Friendly (10% weighting)

Austin Palmer, Zach Lovell, Ross Patton, and David Wise make up our E-skateboard testing and reviewing team. Austin is an avid skateboarder — both motorized and not — and has been riding for almost two decades, logging over a thousand miles. Since 2015, he has personally ridden and tested over 30 electric skateboards. Over these last eight years, he has ridden over all sorts of terrain, including sand, dirt, grass, rough mountain passes, trails, gravel, snow, and ice. Zach has been involved with product testing/design for over a decade, putting his analytical mind to a vast number of outdoor and tech goods, and he first entered the world of skateboards over twenty years ago. Zach's detail-oriented lens can never be turned off (debatably a gift or a curse), and such a point of view has been indispensable in testing flow sports products.

David has formal training as a mechanical engineer and has significant experience with lithium battery and brushless motor systems, including building electric go-karts, race cars, scooters, and even a self-balancing skateboard. He lends his expertise when it comes to comparing and scoring the range and power of each board, as well as aiding in the creation of our test plans for these products. Ross has been skateboarding for more than 30 years and has used just about every size and type of skateboard known to man from freestyle-oriented trick boards to some of the first longboards to come out of Southern California. With a formal education in Environmental Science, he is no stranger to the laboratory-based component of product testing either.

Analysis and Test Results

We broke our test into six different weighted metrics that encompassed the most important aspects of these products and pushed them to the limit. While your first impression of these products may be that they exist only as a novelty item, these boards can be a great daily commuter vehicle for the skateboard enthusiast. It's hard to argue with the ability to easily and quickly activate brakes or to zoom up a hill with ease.

Value

Unfortunately, you are going to have to pay for it if you want a high-performance electric skateboard. Our reviewers were able to unearth some relatively affordable options, but any E-board is a hefty chunk of change. Fortunately, we've done the hard part for you — finding which options are worth the cash and which ones aren't. The Exway Flex is highly affordable and very beginner-friendly — perfect for those that are new to electric skateboarding. If you're ready to invest a little more, the Backfire Zealot S is fast, flexible, and has an impressive range. If you're looking for a unique monowheel experience but don't feel like emptying out your bank account for a new ride, the Onewheel Pint offers comparable performance to some of the higher-priced models from the brand. For top-tier performance, you're going to have to pay top dollar. The Onewheel GT is the best in the world of monowheels and it's hard to beat the overall performance of the Ownboard Zeus Carbon Pro if you're looking for a four-wheeled ride.

Ride Comfort

Your board could offer all of the bells and whistles available, but if you don't enjoy how it rides, how often would you take it for a spin? This metric, weighted at 30% of the total score, encompasses how each board feels in all conditions, from the good to the bad to the ugly. We evaluated the comfort of each board, as well as which models we were drawn to over and over again. In other words, those options that possessed that certain je ne sais quoi. We also assessed how each board fared in the face of adversity — how it handles bumpy terrain and if it can successfully clear unexpected cracks in the road.

The Ownboard Carbon Zeus clearly emerged as a front-runner in this metric, with an insanely comfy, padded grip tape on top of a carbon fiber deck. We felt like we could handle anything and, even more importantly, have a ton of fun while doing it. We could never even feel smaller bumps or cracks, and Zeus handled larger features like the god of thunder.

The Backfire Zealot S is comfortable, has a great grip, and it feels solid at high speeds. Its large wheelbase, big wheels, and wide trucks aid in handling the nastiest of bumps and cracks- though you'll definitely feel those rougher obstacles as you roll over.

We were drawn to the Onewheel Pint and OneWheel GT for all-terrain fun, with a more surfy feel that felt like we were riding snowboards rather than skateboards. Both of these OneWheel options were most comfortable for short to medium-length rides — with footpad sensors and concave shaping causing more discomfort on the longer cruises.

The ability of these OneWheel boards to handle bumpy terrain and unexpected cracks is among the best we've seen. Boards designed for traveling over mud, grass, sand, and snow should easily handle some rough spots on the asphalt, and we confirmed this several times. Either of these boards are great options if you know that you're going to be riding over less-than-perfect pavement.

The Skatebolt Breeze II and the Skatebolt Tornado II aren't especially comfortable to stand on, but we did like the flex, and we felt that they both offer an overall smooth ride.

The Teamgee H5 has a jarring and unpleasant ride when going over bad pavement, so we weren't particularly drawn to it unless we knew we were going to be going over smooth roads. However, it is comfortable enough that we didn't hate riding it for longer periods, provided the road was smooth.

The Exway Flex can handle moderately bumpy terrain, but anything more requires skill to manage. With such a friendly price point, it's still a worthy consideration, but we'd recommend that you use this board on smoother rides.

Range

Our range tests came next in terms of importance, comprising 20% of the final score for each skateboard. We ran each board on relatively flat terrain until the battery died, keeping them in either an "Eco" mode if it was available or in the riding mode most closely in the middle. We also timed how long it took for each board to recharge after it was completely drained.

The Ownboard Zeus topped the charts with a tested range of 33 miles- imagine all of the places you could go with that kind of distance. Its performance also stayed solid for the entirety of its battery life. The battery does take several hours to recharge, though we feel that it's a fair compromise, given how many miles you get out of that charge.

When we range-tested the Backfire Zealot S, we also saw solid results. The Zealot was able to provide top-notch fun for 28.9 miles with decent performance throughout the test. The battery takes over 3 and 1/2 hours to charge, but considering the speed, acceleration, and range, we think this is totally reasonable.

The Skatebolt Breeze II offers a 12-mile range, and the battery remained effective for just about the entire time. Unfortunately, the Breeze II requires 3 and ½ hours to get its battery back to 100% — other options also need that much time but boast much longer ranges. This board's bigger sibling, the Skatebolt Tornado II, offers better range scores with a tested distance of 20.28 miles but with recharge times similar to the Breeze.

The OneWheel Pint, as fun as it is, doesn't offer the best range with a tested max distance of 9.9 miles. The recharge time fared better at just under two hours to bring the battery back to full. With such excellent ride quality, this board's range may be plenty for many riders, but we'd recommend its bigger sibling, the OneWheel GT if you want to take your E-board further.

Finishing at the back of the group, the Teamgee H5 traveled for 7 miles before quitting. Unfortunately, it started slowing down quite a bit after 5.5 miles, and it took around 170 minutes to recharge.

Braking

The stopping abilities of each board comprised this crucial metric, worth 10% of the total score. We tested how the brakes worked at allowing you to maintain a controlled descent down a steep hill, as well as measuring each option's stopping distance on flat ground.

The OneWheel Pint and the OneWheel GT had the best brakes of the bunch, only taking 14 feet to fully stop from a speed of approximately 12 mph. It also makes it very easy to control your speed while going downhill, but you are limited if the hill gets too steep, as the back of the board will start dragging.

If you're looking for the most powerful brakes available, the Ownboard Zeus has impressive stopping power, but its deceleration is so severe it might throw off the unsuspecting rider if they slam on the brakes.

Speed

Do you have a need for speed? This metric accounts for 10% of the final score for each skateboard and is based on both the measured top speed and acceleration. We measured how long it took for each board to complete a known distance, giving it sufficient room to build up to maximum speed before entering the course, and then calculated its top speed. We then averaged the results of multiple trials to determine the final scores.

To assess the acceleration of each electric skateboard, we timed how long it took each model to travel a 50' course with a stationary start. We also took into account our various testers' intuition of the acceleration after they had logged significant time on each board.

The Ownboard Zeus offers the fastest top speeds tested, at a blinding 34 mph. It also offers acceleration times of 3.18 seconds, further confirming this option's rightful place at the top.

The Skatebolt Breeze II topped out at 20.73 mph during our speed assessment, and we recorded an average acceleration time of 4.26 seconds.

The Backfire Zealot S skateboard landed towards the front of the pack with an average acceleration time of 3.64 seconds and a top speed of 28.9 mph- one of the fastest options behind the Zeus.

The Hiboy S22 did fairly well, with a top speed of 18.16 mph. This model's average acceleration time was 4.91 seconds.

The Teamgee H5 is pretty quick, clocking in with an average maximum speed of 17.43 mph in our test.

The Onewheel Pint didn't have one of the fastest top speeds in our tests, clocking in at just over 14 mph, but it has phenomenal acceleration. It's extremely fast off the starting line and gets up to speed faster than almost every other board in the entire group.

Hills

One of the best benefits of having an electric skateboard is the ability to zip up hills — which we weighted at 10% of each option's total. Not all electric skateboards are created equal, and a hill that is easy for one model may prove an insurmountable obstacle to another. We put these products through their paces to find the maximum hill grade that they could climb and see if it matched the manufacturer's claim. Once again, our tester was an average-sized adult male for these tests, and a smaller or larger rider might find slightly different hill climbing abilities than we did. However, the overall trend and order would remain the same.

The Onewheel GT boasted a phenomenal hill-climbing performance. This board has more than enough power for most hills, but it can't make it up the steepest ones since the board will bottom out and start dragging if the incline is too great.

The Teamgee H5 ascended the 15% grade test hill without too much of an issue. However, it protested a bit at the start until it had some momentum built up.

Beginner Friendly

For the beginner-friendly metric, weighted at 10%, we investigated the remote, beginner mode, and weight of every option we bought. After considering our findings between these elements, we deduced how amicable each board was for someone new to the sport.

We loved the Exway Flex for its customizable speed limit and beginner mode, which keeps the sensitivity of acceleration and braking reasonable for a new rider. This board also offers an exceptional price — helping lower the barrier for entry.

We found the self-balancing control input of the OneWheel GT and OneWheel Pint to be intuitive, though there is an implicit learning curve to riding on a single wheel rather than four. The brand's app offers customizable ride modes as well as tutorials that are effective tools for easing into the board after purchase.

As with any of our reviews here at GearLab, we weighed each board ourselves. The lightest option, the Teamgee H5, came in at an impressive 14.5 pounds.

The importance of weight purely will depend on each rider's needs and how often they anticipate transporting/carrying their E-board.

Conclusion

Picking out the perfect electric skateboard that matches your needs and budget can be a surprisingly difficult task, given the enormous spread of costs and capabilities. Cheaper boards can save you initially but can be more of a novelty toy than a high-end model that could even replace a vehicle and become a daily commuter. Hopefully, this review has helped you identify which boards are the best fit for you and aided in your quest to find your first, or your next, electric skateboard.