E-scooter design standards

The findings of wide-ranging research into e-scooter construction standards, designed to help inform potential future Government policy, have been published.

The research project was conducted by TRL and the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), from the University of Warwick, on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT). 

The aim of the project was to provide guidance to the DfT on certain aspects of technical regulations that may in future be applied to e-scooters if their use in public places is to be made legal.

Among the key recommendations of the research are that e-scooters should be fitted with a system that limits their maximum speed ‘which cannot be easily defeated’.

The report also recommends that the Government adopts practical performance-based tests for e-scooter stability based on those currently applied in Germany under the eKFV approval system. In the scheme, German authorities have attempted to regulate the stability and controllability of e-scooters using a series of practical tests which are intended to replicate real world riding conditions.