Are electric lawnmowers any good, or just quiet gas mowers in disguise?

How the EGO Power+ self propelled mower actually works

Pop the deck open and you find a brushless motor instead of the noisy brushed motor most cheap electrics use. That distinction matters more than the spec sheet lets on: brushless means fewer moving parts to wear down, less vibration through the handle, and a motor rated to outlast the plastic housing around it. The self-propel system, which EGO calls Touch Drive, reads the pressure of your palm on the handle rather than a lever you have to hold down, so the mower speeds up when you push and slows when you ease off, with a dial at your fingertips setting the ceiling anywhere from 0.9 to 3.1 miles an hour. The real trade to notice is that it's the batteries, not the motor, that decide how big a yard this machine can actually handle. Two 56V 6.0Ah packs ship in the box and together they're rated for up to 100 minutes, which covers a quarter acre to a half acre depending on grass thickness and how many passes you make over the tricky corners. Run out mid-lawn and you're waiting on a charger, not walking to a gas can. The Select Cut system swaps lower blades for mulching, bagging or straight discharge, and eight height settings between 1 and 4 inches mean the deck adjusts to your lawn instead of the other way around. All of that sits on a 96 pound frame, heavier than most gas mowers this size, which the self-propel motor is doing the real work of pushing, so you barely notice it on flat ground, though it matters the moment you have to lift it over a step or into a truck bed.