Bicycles with real power

It’s not finalized yet, but there’s a breakthrough in the European Parliament discussion on allowing for more powerful motors in electric bicycles. It will mean that e-bikes with a power output of over 250Watt (and with pedal assistance limited to 25 km/h) will remain excluded from the type-approval for mopeds and motorcycles. As a result, they will remain classified as bicycles. Here a majority of the MPE’s voted in favour on one of the amendments on Rapporteur and avid motor rider van de Camp’s report on the new type approval. This amendment pleaded for the exclusion from the type-approval of all electric pedal assisted cycles with assistance up to 25 km/h without specification of a motor output limit, because speed and not power is the determining safety factor. With the majority of the European Parliament in favour of allowing more powerful motors in e-bikes as long as the pedal assistance power stops at a 25 km/h speed; such electric bikes will become suitable for usage in hilly and mountainous areas. Next to that e-bikes with bigger motors will find a wider usage for people suffering from obesity, for three-wheelers developed for physically impaired people, for vehicles developed to transport cargo etcetera. Read more in Bike Europe