How Many Horsepower is a 50cc Scooter?

If you recently picked up a 50cc scooter or you’re thinking about buying one, you may have wondered – how many horsepower is a 50cc scooter?

To be completely transparent , not a lot!

Typically, a 50cc scooter will produce up to 9 horsepower. In your average 50cc scooter you’re looking at closer to between 2 and 5 horsepower, in general.

While it’s possible to make a 50cc scooter faster, you’re not going to get more horsepower out of it unless you heavily modify or switch out the engine.

These small scooters are not very powerful or not very fast either. Don’t expect to go any faster than 30 miles per hour on a 50cc scooter, unless you make some modifications.

The Math on 50cc Scooter Horsepower

It’s possible to do the math on the exact horsepower of a 50cc engine in a small scooter.

Start by converting the engine cc to horsepower. On average, you can expect to get 1 horsepower of power for every 14 to 17cc engine size.

This means a 50cc scooter is going to put out around 3.5 hp, on average. The range can definitely fluctuate but this is about what you can expect from any 50cc engine in a scooter.

Is There Enough Power with a 50cc Scooter?

This is something we have discussed already on this site. For example, see our post – is 50cc enough power?

To summarize for you, it really depends on what you need the 50cc scooter for and whether or not the smaller amount of 50cc horsepower is enough.

If you’re just riding in the city, and a congested and urban environment, you’ll likely find that it is good enough. These smaller scooters will typically keep up with traffic between stop signs and stop lights.

They’re also highly portable, affordable, easy to park, and easy to maintain. This makes him a great choice for urban riding or in locations, for example at the beach, where you’re not going to be riding very far.

On the other hand, if you need something that’s Highway capable (you probably don’t want to take a 50cc scooter on the highway) or you’ll be commuting a long distance, you might want to look into a bigger scooter.