Pure Advance+ review: Pure’s all-new high-spec electric scooter

Most electric scooters need the rider to stand sideways on a narrow deck but the Pure Advance Plus takes a different tack, with fold down platforms on either side of the main body that mean you can face forward while riding.

Combine that safer, more intuitive ride position with a big battery and excellent range, and 710W of peak power and you have a recipe for what is one of the most luxurious e-scooters on the market today.

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Pure Advance+ review: What do you get for the money?

The catch is, of course, the price. The Pure Advance+ will set you back £899, which trumps all the prices in our Best electric scooter 2023 round up by some distance.

While the Pure Advance+ has a bigger battery and more powerful motor than these scooters, that doesn’t entirely explain the higher price. That’s mostly due to the fact that Pure has simply aimed high with its latest Advance range, looking to boost the all-round quality and strength and make it the safest-riding e-scooter around.

In addition to the novel ‘face forward’ design, which we haven’t seen on any other scooter, the Advance+ is replete with other safety features. It has self-centring steering stabilisation that uses springs to return the steering column to a central position, reducing twitchy steering at low speeds. There are big, bright turn indicators on the handlebars and rear of the standing platforms to help other road users know when you’re going to turn left or right.

There are also front and rear lights plus a brake light, along with fat 10 x 2.5in tyres and a powerful rear hub motor with a quoted peak power of 710w, which also acts as an electric brake in combination with a small drum brake in the front wheel. It all goes together to deliver a supremely confidence-inspiring ride.

But it’s about more than just specifications and safety: the Pure Advance+ simply looks a cut above most other e-scooters I’ve tested. It has super solid construction, especially in the main body of the scooter and the battery placement is clever, too. Normally, scooter manufacturers opt to put the battery underneath the deck or in the handlebar post but Pure has chosen to place it between the fold-out standing decks in a sloping frame member.

This increases the space underneath the scooter (the scooter is also IP65 dust and water resistant), which is very helpful for hopping over kerbs and the like. The only downside is that the battery cannot be quickly removed by the end user for charging.

The folding mechanism consists of a hinge lever near the bottom of the handlepost and a clip mechanism at the back of the central frame member plus folding handlebars that use clever sliding release catches to fold down. Again, everything here is alloy and feels well made. There is a very sturdy looking alloy kickstand, too.

There are some plastic parts, though, and these feel a little more fragile. The front light, for instance, is held onto the handlebars with a small plastic bracket that looks like it could easily snap and I would have liked to have seen the surface of the standing decks made of a more tactile and grippy material, too, as Pure has used a slightly brittle feeling plastic.

The rear light is part of the rear mudguard (the mudguards themselves are made of tough-looking plastic) but all of this construction is quite open to knocks. The display and trigger throttle are plastic, too.

I should stress that I’m holding the Advance+ to a higher standard here due to its elevated price. In reality, most e-scooters use far more plastic than this model and are less well built. In any event, should you have any problems, all these parts look to be easy enough to replace and Pure does have its own spare parts department in the UK.

The warranty is 12 months but I would have liked it to have been longer, especially for the battery, which will be expensive to replace. In the parallel e-bike universe, the battery usually gets a two-year warranty.

Overall weight is 16kg which is pretty average for e-scooters these days and is very respectable when you consider the strength of the hefty alloy mainframe, the larger than average battery and the sizeable tyres.

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Pure Advance+ review: What is it like to ride?

The best thing about the Pure Advance+ is the thing that separates it from the rest: its front-facing ride position. This means it feels more comfortable and noticeably more stable to ride than more traditional side-on models and it wasn’t long before I found myself leaning into corners at full speed, taking advantage of its balanced handling and sure footing. For some reason, even though facing fully forward, I found it easier to look back over my shoulder and keep control of the scooter compared to riding other designs. Perhaps the self-centering steering helps here.

The big 10 x 2.5in tyres add to the sense of security, especially over rougher surfaces and I like the fact that, being a rear wheel drive design, it was very easy to wheelie over kerbs and the like.

The throttle power is ‘live’ once you start rolling at slow speed and is nicely modulated but pretty powerful. Range on full power was around 15 miles over a moderately hilly course over reasonably smooth tarmac and, here, the Advance+ acquitted itself extremely well. Not only did it feel very safe and stable but the motor power was noticeably punchier than the Eskuta KS450, which I rode alongside the Pure for comparison. Just be careful with the throttle in top power mode; apply too much, too quickly with your weight back and the front wheel will lift uncontrollably.

Whilst braking didn’t feel to have the ‘bite’ of some other e-scooters I’ve tried, the combination of a rear motor brake and a front hub brake is pretty effective. Both are activated by a single brake lever on the bars. Compared with cheaper e-scooters it was far more controlled and, allied with those big volume tyres, gave a similar stopping distance while reducing the chance of slipping on surfaces greasy with summer rain.

And the indicating system is superb. Two buttons by your left thumb let you indicate left or right and a beeper sounds when you press either of them, so you don’t forget to cancel the turn signal. The indicator lights are highly visible from the front and rear, too. In all, it’s a very reassuring system and the best I’ve come across, making me wonder why such systems aren’t standard issue across all e-scooters.

The display is the most conventional part of the Advance+ but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a bright and highly visible LCD screen showing your speed up to its maximum of 15.5mph with a battery capacity icon showing battery bars underneath that disappear as you use it up.

As with most premium e-scooters, you can also connect your smartphone via Bluetooth and access some extra info in the companion app. This includes estimated range and the ability to remotely lock the motor as an anti-theft feature. The most useful feature for me, however, is the ability to keep the system up to date via firmware updates and I don’t see the app adding enough features to bother with on a daily basis, at least as it stands.

I am, however, a big fan of the simplicity with which the Pure Advance+ folds. Just fold in the handlebars and the standing platforms, undo the steering column quick release, drop the bars onto a catch on the main body, and you’re done. The catch does a very good job of clipping everything together and I found it pretty easy to pick up and carry around. With the kickstand flipped down, it’s very stable when rested horizontally on the floor and it’s compact, too: I measured the folded size at 103 x 56 x 16cm. The only issue might be that at 16kg it weighs as much as some folding bikes.

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Pure Advance+ review: Is there anything it could do better?

I found it quite hard to find any substantial criticisms of the Pure Advance Plus but there are a couple of places where it could be improved. A removable battery would be nice, allowing for longer journeys or charging away from the scooter. And I’d like a more accurate battery indicator; I found that, in the last few miles, the capacity gauge dropped disproportionately quickly. A sturdy, easily-accessible locking point on the frame would be nice, too, for those who need to be able to leave it somewhere outside securely.

Other issues? I guessed that rattling over occasional sections of rougher ground was down to the kickstand vibrating, although the stand itself worked perfectly. And it would be nice if those previously mentioned plastic parts could be replaced with alloy ones – especially as it already has IP65 protection against dust and water. Other than that, though, it’s a clean bill of health.

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Pure Advance+ review: Should you buy one?

The Pure Advance Plus would suit heavier users most, rather than occasional users, as they will also benefit most from its sturdy construction and longer than average range. Occasional users covering short distances could certainly get away with a less pricey and less robust model, although it would be less enjoyable to ride.

Are there any other e-scooters looking to compete head on with the Pure Advance+? Not that I’m aware of. While the marketing for the likes of Inokim and the Aike T (along with their prices) suggest they have put considerable resources into build quality and performance, they are still based on conventional “stand sideways” designs, so the Pure Advance+ really does stand on its own.

There are other models in the Advance range, however, that you may want to consider. The entry level Advance costs £799 and is the same as the Advance+, except that it has a slightly smaller battery, while the Advance Flex costs more at £1,099 but has a frame that folds in half like a Brompton into a much more compact package.

In short, though, if you want one of the best performing and safest riding e-scooters out there, the Pure Advance+ should be right at the top of your list.

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