Xiaomi M365 vs Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 - Has the Classic Just Been Quietly Replaced?

Fast Answer for Busy Riders ⚡ (TL;DR)

The Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 is the better overall package for most riders: slightly stronger motor, noticeably better brakes, sturdier folding mechanism and a more modern cockpit, all for roughly the same money. It feels like the M365 after a few years in the gym and a visit to a therapist to sort out its hinge issues.

The older Xiaomi M365 still makes sense if you find it used at a good price, care about shaving every gram for portability, or want to tap into the huge modding community and endless spare parts ecosystem. Light riders on flat ground who just want the cheapest workable Xiaomi can still live happily on an M365.

If you want a stress-free, out-of-the-box commuter that you don't have to baby or constantly tweak, go with the Mi Electric Scooter 3. If you're curious where that verdict comes from - and how both actually feel on real roads - keep reading.

Walk through any European city and you're essentially walking through the Xiaomi family tree. The M365 is the ancestor you still see everywhere - battered, stickered, sometimes with rental branding ghosted on the stem - while the Mi Electric Scooter 3 is its tidier, slightly more grown-up descendant.

I've spent more hours than I care to admit riding versions of both: slammed through wet bike lanes at night, crawled up short but nasty bridges, and carried them up enough stairwells to qualify for an amateur fitness programme. On paper they're close cousins; on the road, the differences are subtle but add up over time.

If you're wondering whether to save money on the proven classic or go for the updated commuter workhorse, this comparison is for you. Let's break down where each shines, where they annoy, and which one you'll actually be happier living with day after day.

Who Are These For, and Why Compare Them?

Both scooters sit firmly in the "sane commuter" category: legal urban speeds, modest batteries, relatively light weight, and price tags that don't require explaining to your accountant or your partner. They're built for short to medium city hops, not cross-country adventures or drag racing in industrial estates at midnight.

The Xiaomi M365 is the scooter that started it all: simple, functional, and now mostly found in the used market or as old stock. The Mi Electric Scooter 3 is essentially Xiaomi saying: "Right, we heard your complaints, here's the revised edition" - same basic concept, but with a bit more grunt, better brakes and a sturdier hinge.

If you're choosing between them, you're probably: commuting under an hour a day, dealing with at least one staircase or lift, and living somewhere with reasonably civilised roads. You care about portability, don't need extreme speed, but you also don't want a toy. That's exactly where these two collide.

Design & Build Quality

In the hand, both scooters feel more serious than their price suggests. Aluminium frames, tidy welds, sensible cable routing - no carnival of dangling wires or rattling plastic. The DNA is clearly shared, but the Mi 3 feels like the later production run where the factory finally dialled everything in properly.

The M365 still has a certain classic charm: ultra-clean lines, matte finish, and that now-iconic bell-hook folding latch. It looks coherent, almost minimalist. But live with it long enough and you start to notice the little cost-cut corners: the hinge hardware that loosens into a faint wobble, the plastic battery cover that doesn't love meeting kerbs.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 keeps the same silhouette but tightens everything. The newer folding clasp feels beefier and less prone to play, the deck rubber is well finished, and the integrated display gives the cockpit a "proper vehicle" vibe instead of four lonely battery dots. The grey version with orange accents looks particularly fresh in person - less rental fleet, more personal gadget.

Neither feels premium in the way of high-end, heavy scooters - you can still tell they're built to hit a price point - but the Mi 3 overall feels slightly better screwed together and a bit more confidence-inspiring out of the box.

Ride Comfort & Handling

Neither scooter has suspension, unless you count your knees, so both rely on their air-filled tyres to pretend they're shock absorbers. On decent asphalt or smooth bike lanes, both glide nicely and roll quietly enough that you mostly hear wind and the occasional brake squeak.

On broken pavement, old tarmac and those special European "heritage cobblestones" that seem designed purely to annoy anyone on small wheels, both scooters rattle your joints. Long stretches of rough surface will have you naturally dropping your speed and riding with slightly bent knees, using your legs as suspension. The Mi 3 doesn't fix that fundamental limitation; it just feels a bit more solid as it shudders, thanks to the tighter stem and better hinge.

Handling-wise, they're very similar: narrow-ish decks, modest wheelbase, front-hub motors pulling you along. The M365 feels light and flickable, almost like a scooter-shaped bicycle. The Mi 3 adds a touch more planted feeling at speed - the front end feels less vague, especially when braking hard or carving around potholes.

If your daily route is mostly flat bike paths and modern roads, both are perfectly acceptable. If your city centre is basically a cobblestone museum, frankly, neither is ideal - you'll start daydreaming about suspension scooters after your third or fourth bumpy commute.

Performance

Both scooters top out at typical European scooter speeds, so you won't be blowing past traffic like a motorcycle. But how they get up to that speed and how they cope with hills is where the gap opens.

The M365's motor feels adequate on flat ground: enough punch off the line to merge into bike lanes without embarrassment, but not exactly thrilling. On small bridges or medium inclines, it soldiers on. Hit a steeper hill and you feel it working hard; heavier riders will find themselves assisting with an occasional kick, which is not the dream when you bought an electric vehicle.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3, with its stronger peak power, has a more confident "pull" to it. From standstill, the scooter gets up to cruising speed with a bit more urgency, particularly in its Sport mode. You still won't mistake it for a dual-motor beast, but it no longer feels quite so apologetic when the road tilts upward. Short sharp inclines and typical city bridges are handled with less drama and fewer groans from the front hub.

On the flip side, both scooters suffer the same well-known Xiaomi trait: as the battery drops towards the lower half, performance softens. On the Mi 3 this is noticeable but still manageable; on the M365, with its weaker motor, the slump feels more pronounced if you're near the weight limit or live somewhere hilly.

Braking performance is where the Mi 3 really distances itself. The M365's rear disc plus front regen setup was good for its time, but the Mi 3's updated dual-pad rear caliper gives a firmer, more predictable bite. Panic stops feel more controlled, and you need less lever effort to scrub off speed. On rainy evenings weaving between traffic, that extra margin of control matters more than another kilometre per hour of top speed.

Battery & Range

On paper, both promise roughly the same maximum range. In reality - with stop-start traffic, normal rider weights and less-than-perfect roads - they both land in that familiar "short commute both ways, or one way plus a charge at work" territory.

The M365, with its slightly larger battery, can stretch a bit further in gentle use, but its weaker motor means real-world range and speed trade off more obviously: push it hard and hills plus headwinds will chew through the battery quickly. Baby it in slower modes and you can nurse it along respectably.

The Mi 3 is a touch more powerful but slightly less battery-dense. In practice, for typical riders running mostly in its normal or Sport mode, the range feels extremely similar to the M365 - close enough that you'd only notice if you ride them back-to-back on identical routes. Where it loses out a little on outright efficiency, it gains in the way it lets you hold speed more easily on inclines before the battery drops.

Charging times are comparable: think "overnight or under-the-desk at work" rather than "quick top-up over lunch". Both use compact chargers that disappear into a backpack without drama. Range anxiety is manageable on either, as long as you're honest about your distance: daily urban errands and commutes of several kilometres are fine; long countryside adventures will include some battery watching.

Portability & Practicality

This is where these scooters still make a lot of sense compared to the half-moped monsters now flooding the market. Both are genuinely carryable by a reasonably fit adult, and both fold down to a footprint that fits under a desk or in a small car boot without elaborate Tetris.

The M365 has the edge on pure weight: it's that bit lighter, and you do feel it when hauling it up narrow staircases or lifting it onto a train. Over multiple flights, a kilo here or there becomes noticeable, especially at the end of the day. If you're smaller or you know you'll carry it a lot, that small difference is worth thinking about.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 gives up a little weight but returns better daily usability. The updated folding latch clicks home with more authority, the stem feels more solid when carried by the hooked bell, and the whole process from riding to folded takes only a few seconds once you've done it a few times. It's just less fiddly, and it inspires more trust when you're shouldering it in a busy station.

Both are fine for flat hallway storage, desk-side parking in offices, and quick stashing in the boot of a small hatchback. For pure "carry up to a third-floor walk-up every single day" scenarios, the M365's slightly lighter frame still has an argument. For everyone else, the Mi 3's sturdier hardware makes daily life a bit easier.

Safety

On city streets filled with distracted drivers and surprise potholes, stopping and seeing/being seen matter more than fancy dashboards. Both scooters tick the basics: front light, rear light that brightens when braking, reflectors and electronic plus mechanical braking.

The M365's safety package was impressive for its time: regenerative braking on the front wheel to keep it from locking up too easily, a mechanical rear disc, and a low-mounted battery that keeps the centre of gravity reassuringly planted. As long as you watch for bigger potholes - those can still swallow an 8,5-inch wheel if you're careless - it feels predictably stable up to its modest top speed.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 advances the formula. The improved rear brake gives more consistent stopping power, and the updated front E-ABS integrates more smoothly, so emergency braking on damp tarmac feels less like an experiment and more like a system someone actually tuned. The larger, brighter rear light and extra reflectors also help you stand out from the sea of grey metal and black clothing at night.

Tyre grip is similar on both - same size, same basic concept - so as always, tyre pressure and road reading are part of the safety equation. But purely in terms of hardware and tuning, the Mi 3 clearly gives you a bit more margin when something unexpected jumps into your path.

Community Feedback

Price & Value

In today's market, both scooters sit squarely in the "sensible money" bracket. Neither is absurdly cheap, neither is trying to be premium luxury; they're priced to be realistic daily tools, not toys or status symbols.

The M365 used to be the king of value. These days, with the Mi 3 sitting at a very similar new price, its main financial argument is on the used market. Pick one up in decent condition for a good discount, and you still get a capable, known quantity with cheap parts and a mountain of guides. Pay close to new Mi 3 money, though, and it becomes harder to justify choosing the older hardware.

The Mi Electric Scooter 3 offers more for roughly the same outlay: improved brakes, stronger motor, nicer cockpit, sturdier hinge. You're not getting a revolution, but you are getting a more rounded and slightly more future-proof commuter. Strictly on value for money right now, the Mi 3 edges ahead unless you stumble on an M365 bargain.

Service & Parts Availability

This is where both Xiaomis shine compared to more obscure brands. You can find tyres, tubes, brake pads, fenders, controllers, dashboards - often from multiple third-party suppliers - without hunting through sketchy websites in languages you don't speak.

The M365 benefits from sheer scale and age; it's been around long enough that practically every failure mode has a YouTube fix. Need a 3D-printed shim for the hinge? Someone's uploaded a full how-to. Battery cover cracked? Spares are all over the internet.

The Mi 3 inherits that ecosystem. Many core parts are shared or very similar, so you're not stuck waiting for one specific import shop to maybe restock. Xiaomi's own official support can be hit or miss depending on region and retailer, but the community support network and parts availability are both solid on either scooter. As practical, repairable choices, they're among the safer bets in this price bracket.

Pros & Cons Summary

Parameters Comparison

Final Verdict - Which Should You Choose?

Between these two, the Xiaomi Mi Electric Scooter 3 is the more rounded, sensible choice for most riders today. It accelerates a bit more confidently, copes with city inclines with less drama, stops more securely, and feels tighter and more solid under your feet. Day in, day out, that adds up to a calmer, less fiddly ownership experience.

The M365 still has a place - especially if you find a well-kept one at a noticeable discount. It's lighter, hugely documented, and much loved by tinkerers who enjoy tuning firmware and bolting on upgrades. As a cheap, repairable runabout or student scooter, it can still make plenty of sense.

If you just want to buy a scooter, charge it, and commute without turning your life into a Xiaomi science project, go for the Mi Electric Scooter 3. If you're budget-sensitive, willing to wrench a bit, and happy to accept a more modest motor in exchange for lower cost or lighter weight, a good M365 can still do the job - just go in with eyes open about its age and quirks.

Numbers Freaks Corner

These metrics give a cold, numerical look at efficiency and "bang per gram and euro". Price-per-Wh and price-per-km/h show how much performance or battery you buy with your money. Weight-related metrics tell you how much scooter you carry for each unit of power, energy or speed. Wh per km is your energy efficiency on the road, while power-to-speed and weight-to-power hint at how lively the scooter feels. Finally, average charging speed shows how quickly the battery fills back up relative to its size.

Author's Category Battle

Overall Winner Declaration

In the Numbers Freaks Corner, the XIAOMI M365 scores 5 points against the XIAOMI Mi Electric Scooter 3's 5. In the Author's Category Battle, the XIAOMI M365 gets 18 ✅ versus 29 ✅ for XIAOMI Mi Electric Scooter 3 (with a few ties sprinkled in).

Totals: XIAOMI M365 scores 23, XIAOMI Mi Electric Scooter 3 scores 34.

Based on the scoring, the XIAOMI Mi Electric Scooter 3 is our overall winner. Living with both, the Mi Electric Scooter 3 simply feels like the more complete everyday companion: calmer under braking, a bit more eager when you twist the throttle, and a touch more reassuring when you hit rough patches in the city. It doesn't try to impress with extremes, but it quietly does more things slightly better, and that's what counts on Monday mornings. The M365 still has its charm and a certain "classic scooter" appeal, especially if you enjoy tinkering or snag a bargain. But if you just want to ride rather than wrench, and you'd like your commute to feel a little safer and a little more confident, the Mi 3 is the one that will keep you happier in the long run.

That's our verdict when we try to stay objective – but hey, riding is mostly about emotions anyway, so pick the one that will make you look forward to your commute every single day.