New Type-Approval Rules with New e-Bike Categories Expected for Second Half of 2010

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Commission is finalising the future technical regulation of Powered Two- and Three-Wheelers which are due in the second half of 2010. The new rules on type-approval are to include two subdivisions for e-Bikes (speed pedelecs) in the current category L ‘Mopeds’.

The European Twowheel Retailers’ Association (ETRA) proposed the European Commission to include the two subdivisions. One of the two is a new category for pedal assisted bicycles with a motor output of maximum 1 kW and a motor that stops assisting at 45 km/h.

The second subdivision would be defined as “cycles and mopeds with one or more electric motors of combined power not exceeding 1 kW and a maximum design speed not exceeding 25 km/h.” This category is intended to cover the growing number of completely new vehicles that cannot be classified under the current legislation, because that still pertains to traditional mopeds.

ETRA claims that market introduction of these vehicles is severely obstructed by the legal void. At the same time, this category would cover all cycles equipped with an electric motor that can propel the vehicle by itself.

Recently ETRA also pointed the Commission and other EU decision makers’ attention to the potential of electric bicycles. It took place in the framework of the Commission consultation on clean and energy-efficient vehicles. Electric bicycles has so far been overlooked in all of the EU strategies pertaining to clean and energy-efficient vehicles, including Cars 21, the European Green Cars Initiative and Directive 2009/33/EC on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles.