Faizel Patel – 09/06/2020

(Twitter: @FaizelPatel143)

Photo: Pedego

The deputy editor of Business Insider South Africa says new draft regulations are expected to have an impact of owners of e-bikes in South Africa.

While the new draft law seeks to change the definition of a bicycle to include e-bikes if they can go no faster than 25km/h, anything faster than 45km/h may require a licence to ride.

Speaking to Radio Islam, Phillip de Wet says the draft could have implications for safety, insurance, who gets to use bike lanes, and how legally dangerous it will be to overclock an e-bike.

“There’s another change to a definition of motor vehicles, which says a motor vehicle is anything as long it can have pedals, it can have a motor. The moment it goes over 45km/h, than its considered a motor vehicle. So, some obvious implications there for anyone with an e-bike which can go really fast.”

De Wet says while e-bikes have become very popular in South Africa.

“There’s been a great surge in e-bikes which are used by people who want to keep up with serious bikers, with people who can go really, really fast. We’ve seen e-bikes that go up to 80km/h, so you basically talking about something like a scooter.”

De Wet says that according to lawyers, bringing e-bikes into the realm of motor vehicles will very likely cause trouble when it comes to insurance and the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

Listen to the interview with Phillip de Wet