The German bicycle industry association, ZIV, has published a position paper, “E-bikes – Active Mobility as Success Factor”, that supposedly aims to protect the legal status of electrically power-assisted cycles (EPACs) by keeping them out of the type-approval system in Regulation 168/2013. If ZIV’s proposals were ever adopted, a large share of the EPACs that are currently excluded from Regulation 168/2013 would actually be pushed into that ill-suited and expensive legal framework. That would destroy a large part of the EPAC market. Will your EPACs or EPAC components survive the ZIV proposal?

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At the moment, all EPACs with a maximum continuous rated power of 250 W and motor assistance up to 25 km/h, provided the rider is pedaling, are excluded from Regulation 168/2013 under Article 2.2(h). As a result, they fall under the Machinery Directive. In the meantime, the sector has developed European standards to help manufacturers comply with that Machinery Directive framework: EN 15194, EN 17404, and the EN 17860 series. Under this system, which allows self-certification, millions of EPACs have been placed on the market. Under the type-approval system, in category L1e-A for EPACs with a maximum continuous rated power of 1 kW and motor assistance up to 25 km/h, not a single bicycle has been brought to market, because the legal framework of Regulation 168/2013—written for mopeds and motorcycles—is unsuitable and far too expensive for EPACs.

However, ZIV proposes to add several technical requirements to the current exclusion of EPACs from Regulation 168/2013. On top of the existing maximum continuous power and speed limit, ZIV proposes the following:

• A limit on motor assistance to a maximum of four times the power the rider produces themselves. So if you cannot produce enough power to get the motor’s needed help to move the EPAC—for example because you are not physically strong enough or because the terrain is too hilly—your access to EPACs will be severely restricted. In other words, access to EPACs for physically weaker people is put at risk. The use of cargo EPACs in non-flat areas is also jeopardized.
• A limit on peak power to 750 W. Peak power means the highest power the motor can deliver for a brief moment, for example to accelerate or, again, to get up a hill. Current law does not impose a limit on that power. This proposal would also restrict access to EPACs to those who are physically strong enough to pedal the EPAC forward on their own.
• Finally, ZIV also wants to limit the weight of EPACs that are excluded from Regulation 168/2013: to 250 kg for single-track and to 300 kg for multi-track. As a result, almost all cargo EPACs for logistic purposes would fall under type approval.

Conclusion: a large share of the EPACs that can currently be built according to European standards and self-certification would end up under Regulation 168/2013 and type approval. This legislation consists of 1,032 pages of technical requirements and associated tests. The vehicle type must be approved by an accredited test house—of which there are only a handful in Europe. When anything on the vehicle type is changed, there is a good chance that type approval will have to be performed again.

That is exactly why no vehicles are approved in L1e-A. All EPACs that would be pushed into type approval by the ZIV proposal are therefore as good as doomed. On top of that, most Member States do not grant L1e-A the same conditions of use as EPACs under the Machinery Directive. They would no longer be allowed on the road under the same rules as conventional bicycles, and there is a real risk they would be subjected to helmet requirements, driver’s licenses, insurance, and more.

ZIV is already trying to make this proposal a reality. In CEN/TC 333, the European committee where EPAC standards are developed, ZIV is continuously pushing for a new standard with so-called performance requirements for EPACs, with maximum assistance ratio and peak power as the main elements. Together with its members, LEVA-EU is systematically filing objections in TC 333 against such a standard. If that standard were ever formally put on the table, ZIV would then have a perfect argument to get those same parameters added to Article 2.2(h) of Regulation 168/2013. That would mean only EPACs would be excluded that have:

• a maximum continuous rated power of 250 W, and
• pedal assistance up to 25 km/h, and
• a maximum assistance ratio of 4, and
• a peak power of 750 W, and
• a weight up to 250 kg for 2-wheel EPACs or 300 kg for EPACs with 3 or more wheels.

This would immediately push a large part of EPACs and their components into type approval—and ultimately out of the market. So ZIV’s proposal, which supposedly is meant to protect the status of the EPAC, would in reality destroy a significant portion of EPACs, their components, and the businesses behind all of this.

Last Chance to Act

LEVA-EU will close this initiative this week and send the open letter to policymakers. This is your final opportunity to sign and make your voice heard.

Read and sign the full open letter below. Then, go one step further: share it with your colleagues, partners, and networks.

Do not let Europe become the desert of light electric mobility innovations.

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Read and sign the full open letter here. Then, go one step further: share it with your colleagues, partner, and networks.

Stand with LEVA-EU. Sign the open letter.
Please note that when you sign, your name, company/organisation and your job title will be published