Hey guys, thanks for replies. Such a responsible people in this thread.
I’ve looked through german forum. And it it almost made me cry. I’m really in doubt regarding buying eskate. I do not want to care about court, police and 1500 euros fines because I want to go from work to home with pleasure of this wonderful invention. It’s just stupid. But I definitely don’t want to buy bike - I tired of this bulky beast back in my country.
I’m so disappointed… Couldn’t even imagine that it will be so complicated here with electric vehicles.
So im not sure what the ‘procedure’ for these are, of course they are ‘commercially’ made but still… what would else limit the option to register e-board for example, if not for the lack of mechanical brakes?
In Italy we have a vehicle category called “ciclomotori e quadricicli leggeri” (category AM) .These have a tiny license plate
I believe esk8s would be very easy to squeeze into such a category because it has these rules:
Minimum age: 14 years old
2/3 wheels vehicles: max50cc motor; max 45km/h
4 wheels: max 350kg; max 45 km/h
IF ELECTRIC: max 4kw power; max 45 km/h
…and brakes, turn signals, headlights/taillights, and a seatbelt, I think.
The problem with esk8 is that no insurance companies are willing to insure a skateboard, because it is incredibly easy to injure yourself, or someone else with it. I know there are a couple of insurance companies in the states which will insure long boards. It is kind of a catch 22 here though; esk8s aren’t allowed to go over a certain speed because there is no insurance, and there is no insurance because those German companies aren’t willing to take that risk. If the German law was more relaxed, i’m sure it would cause insurance companies to open up. If there was the possibility of insurance, the laws would change to support it.
There will have to be a real boom in esk8 to make any of this change in Germany. There has to be $$$ for politicians to want to change their minds.
Yeh, if someone could ‘explain’ that it is a ‘moped’ without a seat and handlebars… something like ‘‘mobility device’’ then I think it could be done (of course, if other regulations dont work against it)
Even the speed and power limit is somewhat okay I think Im sure it would be possible to limit the power to 4kw at least for dual version.
The German eskate laws are complete bullshit and there is no change in sight. You can only hope for a new EU lay, that Germany will probably fight/boycott but will hopefully give into many years from now. Mellow, Boosted etc. did a lot of PR/interviews stating that normally riding it was a “gray area”, which was a plain lie. But more recently Mellow stated in an interview that they think their “endless ride mode” is legal:
Now this really IS a gray area. Because the law makes an exception for vehicles that:
can’t accelerate on their own above 6 km/h
only assist you in manually increasing the speed
stop assisting at 45 km/h
do not exceed 200 W
I still live in Germany and thought about building one and setting it up in this way for a long time. But since I find these restrictions completely ridiculous (push assist is definitely more dangerous than the normal ride mode), and since I’m going to move to California at the end of this month I decided to f**k it and wait until I am in the US.
The slogan they mention is from the Mobo website - which is not really stealthy so I can see why they might have stopped him. But it is still another bad day for eskaters in Germany
Edit: just checked and the Mobo only has one motor - they mention two 800W motors though. No idea what kind of board he was using then.
Whether the “feeling of boundless freedom” advertised on advertising on the Internet really can arise, must be doubted in the face of such consequences.
I was caught today with my evolve board. I am based in Berlin. I have been riging here for a while without any problems. I had a helmet on and I rode on the sidewalk. Slowly. I was kind to the policeman. They didn’t ask much questions. just said they need to take it and give it to court to decide. Don’t know what to expect. Board is quite powerful.
Did anyone go throug the court decision here? What was the outcome? There is a lot of scary facts around, including police blogpost etc…
I will keep you posted on the progress of this situation
In my case the Police officer took my board and said that they have to investigate…
Some weeks later i got my fine but they did not test the board at all. I just hat to pay a lot of Money…
after everything They gave me the board back that i can destroy it and not use it anymore