Cyclists Federation Sticks To Current e-Bike Legislation

BRUSSELS, Belgium – The European Cyclists Federation (ECF) has joined COLIBI and COLIPED, the European associations for bicycle manufacturers, assemblers and parts and accessories’ producers in their opposition against the new e-Bike regulations as proposed by the European Two-Wheelers’ Retailers Association (ETRA).

“We are in favour of maintaining the current specifications as described in this exemption to Directive 2002/24/EC,” says ECF in an official statement.

“Road safety is the most important reason for our opinion. Both many bicycle lanes and bicycles are not designed for safe use over 25 km/hour. Also, the bigger difference between riders with lower and higher speed will become dangerous. The power limit is comparable to the maximum human power by a trained rider.”

Remarkable is that both ECF and COLIBI/COLIPED emphasize the importance of the speed limit of 25 km/hour as mentioned in the current Directive 2002/24/EC. ETRA’s proposal does not include an increase of this speed limit.

The ECF statement continues: “Extending the limits for speed or power would have a negative safety impact on dedicated bicycle infrastructure or places where only walking and cycling is allowed. In any case, the argument that the current 250W limit is comparable to the maximum human power of a trained rider is a good reason to treat vehicles with more power as motorized vehicles. The good reputation of cycling including cycling on e-Bikes should not be put at risk by treating a new type of a faster or more powerful electric vehicle like a bicycle.”

In a reaction on the ECF statement, ETRA says: “The current power limit proves to be insufficient, for instance in hilly and mountainous areas, for people suffering from obesity, for three-wheelers developed for physically impaired people, for vehicles developed to transport cargo, … The increase of the power will have no negative effect on the safety of the currently best-selling bicycles because in that instance safety is mainly linked to the speed, for which this proposal holds no change.

“We want to underline that this argumentation was fully supported by the Chairman of CEN TC333 “Cycles”, Mr Siegfried Neuberger, who has participated in the meetings at which these proposals were developed. He confirmed that a CEN standard for excluded pedal assisted cycles with a maximum continuous rated power of 0.50 kilowatts can effectively provide the required level of product safety. He also confirmed that, for that purpose, the current standard EN 15194 could be reviewed and adapted to the new requirement in the type-approval legislation

“We find it difficult to understand why ECF opposes possible regulations that may well help to convince a very large number of Europeans to swap their cars for electric bicycles for shorter trips.

“The proposal, which ETRA has submitted to the European Commission end of September, has been developed by the companies present at the meetings and is currently supported by more than 50 companies and organisations. The list of these supporters has been made public on our website. We invite you to further discuss this matter in a meeting.”