Varla Eagle One V2 – Dual Motor Offroad Electric Scooter

Updated December 5th, 2023

Dual 1000 watt motors and front and rear suspension make this scooter a beast on or offroad.

Best Overall – Best Electric Scooter For Hills

Manufacturer and Model: Varla Eagle One V2.0
List Price: $1699
Available from: Varla

Summary

The Varla Eagle One V2.0 has a lot of updates over the already very good Eagle One. It adds a bigger battery. It has a new folding mechanism that is one of the best designs I have seen. It’s got a new color LCD display. It’s got wider tubeless air tires. The Varla Eagle One V2.0 has some serious kick with dual 1000 watt motors that makes it a great scooter for climbing hills fast. The front and rear coil spring suspension give it a very smooth and easy to control feel. The Eagle One V2.0 has 5 gears and can be set for 1 motor only making it easy for novice riders stepping up from smaller single motor scooters.

Varla Eagle One V2.0 Review and Test

Electric scooters are a lot of fun to ride around. The larger dual motor scooters add a whole new level of excitement, speed, and control when you are ready for more. The Varla Eagle One V2.0 is the perfect first large dual motor scooter for anyone making the step up. It is not at all intimidating to ride even with all that power. It looks like a beast that is ready to tear up the streets the first time you see it standing there.

The Eagle One V2.0 has a lot of improvements over the original Eagle One. Varla really did a good job on the design with very few things to complain about.

What did Varla change with the Eagle One V2 over the original Eagle One? Let’s take a look.

• New locking mechanism with safety pin and rear fender latch
• Larger 52 volt 20.2 ah battery vs the old 52 volt 18.2 ah battery
• Wider 27.95 inch handlebars vs the old 25.5 inch handlebar
• 3.5 inch Tubeless tires vs 3.0 tubed tires of the Eagle One.
• NFC card locking mechanism
• Updated front and rear suspension design
• Ambient lights under the deck
• The V2 weighs 82 lbs vs the 77 lbs of the original

1 – This scooter is seriously fast. Ride with caution

The Varla Eagle One V.20 has a 40mph top speed just like the original Eagle One. It is a seriously fast scooter. Varla includes a set of pads and wrist guards with the scooter. This should give you some idea of the level of risk associated with riding a scooter that can go that fast. At 40mph you are really in the realm of mopeds and motorcycles and not pedal bicycles or low powered electric scooters anymore. I highly recommend you wear pads and a full face helmet for riding the Eagle One.

2 – Features

Dual 1000 watt motors

The scooter has dual 1000 watt motors that can each produce up to 1600 watts peak power and 36 nm or torque. You can get up to 3200 watts of output and 72nm of torque from the 2 motors combined. This thing has some stump pulling grunt to get up hills in a hurry.

52 Volt 20.8 ah battery

The scooter has a 52 volt 20.8 ah battery that is built into the deck. It is made with 112 18650 cells. They don’t state who makes the cells so it’s safe to assume they are not Samsung or LG cells.

There is also a Eagle One Pro version that upgrades to a 52 volt 27 ah battery for those that want even more range.

Dual front and rear hydraulic disc brakes

The scooter has front and rear hydraulic disc brakes with independent brake levers

Front and rear suspension

The Eagle One V2 has front and rear coil spring suspension. Overall the suspension is pretty cushy feeling and does a great job absorbing potholes and cracks in the pavement. It does a decent job of smoothing out dirt roads too.

3 – Power (10/10)

The Eagle One V2.0 has a lot of power. It is very easy to control and is not intimidating to ride. On lower speed and single motor mode, a beginner could easily handle it. Turn both motors on and set it to high speeds and it will give you a thrill ride getting up to speed right now. It accelerates to 30mph without any struggle very fast.

Top Speed

Varla publishes a top speed of 40mph for the Eagle One v2.0. I took it out to a long stretch of smooth pavement to see how fast I could get it to go. I got it up to 39mph on the display. I measured with a GPS and the max it showed was 35.63 mph. This is only a few mph under what the display showed. With a more aerodynamic and lighter weight rider, it might have been able to get a few more mph before topping out.

Hill Climbing

I take every scooter out to a standard hill climb test hill. I use a 250 lb rider for the test. The hill is half a mile long with several sections of 10% grade. The Eagle One is the scooter that kind of broke the test.

The Eagle One V2 took 1 minute and 36 seconds to go up the hill at an average speed of 19.59mph. The Eagle is capable of going up this hill a lot faster. It can accelerate on 10% grades with a heavy rider. The pavement on our test hill is not that smooth and there is a dirt section on one of the climbs. A very skilled rider might be able to go 30mph on the Eagle the entire way up the hill.

Most average electric scooters struggle to maintain 10mph the whole way up this hill. The Eagle One V2 goes beast and flies up it.

4 – Range (10/10)

I took the Eagle One V2 out to see how far it would go on a charge. I took it on a smooth, flat path and rode it at 20mph to see how many miles I could get out of it. I used a 250 lb rider. I rode it in dual motor mode. I got 26.8 miles before the scooter would go no farther. This is quite a bit below the published 42 mile range. We typically see about 60% of the published range when we test scooters across all the scooters we have tested. 26.8 is 64% of 42 which is right about in line.

If you wanted to get more range out of this scooter you could slow down a bit. It would also go farther in 1 motor mode. You might be able to get the published 42 miles if you had a 150 lb rider and rode at 10mph in single motor mode.

When riding the Eagle One V2, the display went from 100% battery to 60% battery after the first 8 miles. It took 15 miles to go from 60% to 30%. It took about 2 miles to go from 30% down to 25%. The last time I looked down at the display before the battery went dead it said 27%. I figured I had another 10 miles to go before draining the battery. Shortly after seeing it at 27% the scooter dropped down into a “limp home mode” with a top speed of under 10mph and the display read 1% battery left. Within a mile the scooter wouldn’t maintain enough speed to stay standing on it.

This is one of the most inconsistent battery displays I have seen on a scooter or bike. The first 40% makes you feel like your not going to go very far. The middle 35% makes you feel like this scooter will go forever on a charge. It goes off a cliff at 25% with nothing left.

5 – Ride Quality (10/10)

The scooter feels really good up to 30mph.At 30mph on smooth pavement, it feels very stable, comfortable, and in control. It is by far the most stable and smooth feeling scooter I have ridden up to that speed. It is an exponentially smoother feeling scooter than any smaller single motor scooter I have tried. Above 30mph it feels a bit sketchy and you really need to be an active rider and on top of controlling it.

Offroading

I took the Eagle out for a spin on some gravel roads and paths here to find out how it would handle leaving pavement. I was surprised at how pleasant it was to ride on gravel and dirt surfaces. At 20mph it felt almost as good as pavement. The suspension did a good job of smoothing out the ride.

High speed riding over 30mph

Above 30mph is where it starts being a use caution, advanced riders only, kind of machine. You need to give it 100% of your attention and focus. At 35mph on the display it started feeling a little wobbly and could tell it was approaching its safe limit for riding. I fully recommend wearing at least a full face helmet and pads if you’re going to regularly ride this scooter at higher speeds.

6 – Braking (9.5/10)

The brakes feel strong and capable of stopping you from high speed. They are hydraulic and give a much better feel than cable pull brakes. It helps to shift your weight back on the scooter when stopping to make the rear brake more effective. It’s very easy to lock up the back wheel when stopping quick.

7 – Controls (9.5/10)

The controls on the Eagle One V2.0 are very easy to use and intuitive. They don’t leave you wondering what does what while you are going 30mph down the road. There is a simple 4 button controller on the left handlebar and a color LCD display in the center.

LCD Display

The color LCD display looks good and it’s easy to read in bright light conditions. It does a good job of showing you speed and which power level you are in. It’s also got indicators showing when cruise control is on and whether you are in dual motor mode. My only complaint with the display is the battery left. As mentioned in the range test section. It does not have anything close to a linear relation between the percent shown and how much battery is actually left.

NFC Card Lock

The scooter uses an NFC card system to unlock it after power up. You have to press the power button to turn it on. Then you have to hold the NFC cards up against the display to unlock the scooter. The scooter comes with 2 cards. There is also an Android APP that can be used as well instead of the cards.

5 Gears or speed modes

The scooter has 5 gears or power levels. These limit how fast the scooter can go. You can set it up for mild performance in level 1, 2 or 3. Level 4 and 5 turn the speed up. You can also operate the scooter in single motor mode or dual motor mode. Single motor mode gives you longer range. Single motor mode is also really good for beginners to get used to the scooter with a much lower power level.

• Level 1 – Top speed of 6mph
• Level 2 – Top speed of 15mph
• Level 3 – Top speed of 20mph
• Level 4 – Top speed of 30mph
• Level 5 – Top speed of 50mph

Throttle lever

The throttle lever is much bigger with a larger amount of travel than what you usually find on an electric scooter. It gives good range and modulation for controlling the throttle. It doesn’t at all feel like a binary full throttle or nothing control. It is easy to control the scooter going slow speeds in tight spaces by giving just a little throttle. You have to push it in deep to get speeds over 30mph.

Headlight and Taillight

The scooter has a bright headlight that is mounted on the handlebars and a set of tail lights at the back. The headlight is bright enough for lower speed riding or riding on brightly lit roads at night. If I was going to try to ride 30mph or more after dark I would get a brighter headlight and a helmet lamp to supplement it.

Ambient light

In addition to the headlight and taillight, the Eagle One V2 also has ambient lighting under the deck. This makes you much more visible from the side. It also just looks cool. You can choose between 4 different patterns for the ambient lighting.

Menu

The menu lets you adjust a few key features such as enabling cruise control and changing the scooter from a regular start to kick to start. The manual does a good job of walking through the options in the menu and how to change them.

Cruise Control

The scooter has a cruise control feature. You have to hold the throttle in the same position for 8 seconds to activate it. Cruise control is disabled by default. You have to read the manual and go into the settings menu to activate the cruise control feature if you want to use it.

Start mode

The scooter starts by pressing the throttle. You do not need to kick it and get it rolling first. This can be changed in the settings menu if you prefer to start only with the scooter rolling. The deck is farther off the ground than a smaller scooter and it’s a lot more awkward to kick it to get it going.

8 – Construction (9.5/10)

The Eagle One V2.0 looks like a serious piece of machinery. The red (or blue) suspension arms look very robust. This scooter looks and feels heavy duty compared to any smaller single motor scooter. It has a suspension and tires that look ready to handle some offroading. The folding mechanism looks up to the task of holding the steering tube upright while going 40mph.

Large deck

The deck is large enough to easily fit adult feet with room to spare. If you want an wider and more spacious deck, one is available from Varla.

Folding Mechanism

The Eagle One V2 has the best folding mechanism I have seen on a scooter to date. I like how this was designed. It has a screw in locking mechanims to lock the scooter upright. There is a secondary safety pin that inserts into the folding mechanism that also keeps it from unfolding. Both locks are easy to use. Both provide very positive locking. I thought that the Varla Pegasus had one of the weaker folding mechanisms I’ve seen. The Eagle One is very well thought out and gives me confidence that it will never unfold in use.

9 – Assembly

There is very little assembly work to do on the Eagle One. All you have to do is the following:

• Mount the handlebars
• Mount the display on the handlebars
• Mount the light on the steering tube
• Plug in the connectors for the display

That’s all there is to do. It took me about 30 minutes to go from box to ready to ride.

10 – Portability

The Eagle One V2.0 weighs in at 82 lbs. It is a big heavy scooter to lift into and out of the back of an SUV or truck. I loaded it into the back of my Explorer 4 times in one afternoon while working on this review by myself. I was very happy when I unloaded it for the last time that day. This is not a lightweight, easy to carry around electric scooter.

11 – Charging

A 2 amp charger is included. It takes 10-12 hours to recharge with that charger. The good thing is that the Eagle One has 2 charge ports. You can cut the charge time in half by hooking up a second battery charger. Only 1 is included. A second charger will set you back another $50. It is worth getting if you want to charge this scooter in a reasonable amount of time.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

I love riding this scooter. It makes going fast feel easy compared to smaller scooters. It’s smooth enough to work on pavement or dirt roads. It has a monstrous amount of power for going up hills. If you want to go fast, go long distances, and ride in places with lots of hills, then the Varla Eagle One V.20 is the scooter for you.

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