Build your own board or buy a pre-built one?  This is NOT a simple answer.   The question should be:  Why do you want to build your own board?  If the only reason is cost, then we recommend you to go buy a pre-built board.   Yes, the good quality boards are expensive and yes, the low-budget boards are made in China.  But it should be noted  that the good quality boards are trending down in price and quality is improving with the low budget boards along with a handful of them providing good customer support.    

The quality of a board is dependent on the sum (and the integration) of its parts.   The parts sourced by the Chinese manufacturers will always be cheaper than what you can get  because they can leverage volume.  Then you have the cost of your time as well as the risk of making critical mistakes which may lead to blowing up your motor(s) or frying your batteries.  If you are really good at putting things together, you may come out with a lower cost and have better performance numbers than an Evolve Board with the same quality of parts.  At the end of the day though,  the cost difference will most likely be in the range of 10-15%.  For a $1500 - $2000 USD skateboard, you are saving probably $200 - $300 USD.   But consider that you have no warranty nor customer support if things go wrong post-build.

If you decide to build your own board, then you should educate yourself as much as possible.  It is not an easy decision, but you need to know what you are getting into.  You are designing and building a custom-made electric vehicle.  So if you do not understand the intricate details, many things can and will go wrong.  As this field is also a growing part of the esk8 industry, we will do our best to continue to develop helpful content in this area.

Let's assume that you are like most DIYers and do not have the equipment to build your own motors and machine your own parts.  For starters, one should understand the scope of the work involved and a rough budget of cost and time involved.  As a first step though, below is a sample parts of list and a rough budget for beginners.  Please note that it is a sample list and it does not mean we are recommending or endorsing any of the parts themselves.   Building an electric skateboard is not simple and there are numerous parts to choose from.   Unless your goal is just to get your feet wet and do a cheap test build, picking the parts should neither be the first nor second step in the process.  Careful consideration must be given to the design accounting for various factors such as motor configuration, terrain usage, operational usage (i.e. daily commute in crowded areas or less dense paths?), and battery storage.​

As a beginners 101 course, let's build a belt-drive longboard targeted for recreational use on concrete surfaces that can also be used for daily commutes in less dense areas (rural environments).

Assuming you already have an existing longboard and that you will need new wheels, bearings, and trucks,  you could put together a high quality, single belt-drive electric skateboard for about $650 USD (excluding shipping although you can probably get that for free with some vendors).  This assumes a travel-capable battery of 88 Wh (~8 km (5 mi) range) with the board being capable of exceeding 40 km/h (25 mph).  At $800 USD, you can increase the battery storage to over 200 Wh and increase the board's range to over 16 km (10 mi.).

As mentioned earlier, the DIY market is vast and varied.   Some will surely recommend (and we agree) that a better quality build would be a dual belt-drive version of the same board.  Still others will comment (and we agree as well) that it would be cheaper using LiPO batteries or building your own battery pack using Lithium-Ion cells, connectors,  and a solder gun.   Another growing area are the DIY boards using hub motors instead of the traditional belt-drive motors.  Last but not least, a market generating a lot of excitement is the DIY conversion of mountain (all-terrain) boards (i.e. Trampa boards) into electric boards.   These are all future topics which we will cover in subsequent posts.