Hi all,
What a great read this forum is!
I am the chief designer at Boxer Cycles, we make for the most part electric cargo trikes here at our factory in Dorset. We have been busy designing and building three new models and are about to go into full production. The trouble is we haven’t really been paying enough attention to the flux in the E-bike standards.
Previously we sold our bikes with 'no-name' Chinese 36V 250W systems with twist grip throttles rather than pedal sensors - this was fine as it met the old UK standard. But now I am told that we have adopted the EU standard 15194. I have read quite a few posts on this site and it’s still a little confusing for us. We have now moved on to better motors and LCD displays and the use of the ‘Go Swiss Drive’ motor/display on our high end models.
I would like to be as prepared as possible before we submit our trikes for full EU testing (if we can’t self-certify) in August - so I seek your members expert advice!!!!
We understand that we must test against the specific tests in 15194 and I believe we have a fairly recent copy of this. But there are some clangers or grey areas around the implementation of this which we would like to understand better.
We are beginning to sell our trikes in Europe and hence we would like to build all of our trikes the same, for EU and UK compliance.
1. Are throttle controls now 'illegal' either when used with a PAS or without - do any EU manufactured bikes actually ship with throttle controls or are these basically obsolete because of the requirement for a PAS.
2. Must a 6km walk feature switch be fitted to comply?
3. We understand that the UK now adopts the EU standard so in terms of marking should we be adding to our serial number label that the top speed is 27kmh or 15.5mph???
4. Can we self-certify to 15194 and to 14764 to sell into UK/EU or are these required from a 3rd party testing house like BV. It’s fair to say that we could set up the tests in house for 15194 but not sure about 14764 which requires lots of repetitions of forces against various components on the bikes. It may be cheaper for us to do in house..... so useful to establish this requirement
5. With regards to S and R pedelec classifications used in Europe - when is this going to happen in the UK????
6. There seems to be a big grey area as to whether controllers/motors with switchable nominal power outputs can be used - I would like to get some clarity on this as we offer our Rocket with a Go Swiss Drive 250/500W motor. The display can be used to switch between the two nominal outputs. So the question is, is this something we write into the user manual ie '500W setting only to be used off the public roads' in big red letters or is it actually illegal to have a switchable controller????
6. is there a overlap period between the old UK standard and the actual legal implementation of EN 15194???
If any of you learn'ed people can give us some guidance here, you will be really helping a fledgling British manufacturer get it right and get out to Europe and give the competition a hammering!!!
Best Regards
Jeremy
What a great read this forum is!
I am the chief designer at Boxer Cycles, we make for the most part electric cargo trikes here at our factory in Dorset. We have been busy designing and building three new models and are about to go into full production. The trouble is we haven’t really been paying enough attention to the flux in the E-bike standards.
Previously we sold our bikes with 'no-name' Chinese 36V 250W systems with twist grip throttles rather than pedal sensors - this was fine as it met the old UK standard. But now I am told that we have adopted the EU standard 15194. I have read quite a few posts on this site and it’s still a little confusing for us. We have now moved on to better motors and LCD displays and the use of the ‘Go Swiss Drive’ motor/display on our high end models.
I would like to be as prepared as possible before we submit our trikes for full EU testing (if we can’t self-certify) in August - so I seek your members expert advice!!!!
We understand that we must test against the specific tests in 15194 and I believe we have a fairly recent copy of this. But there are some clangers or grey areas around the implementation of this which we would like to understand better.
We are beginning to sell our trikes in Europe and hence we would like to build all of our trikes the same, for EU and UK compliance.
1. Are throttle controls now 'illegal' either when used with a PAS or without - do any EU manufactured bikes actually ship with throttle controls or are these basically obsolete because of the requirement for a PAS.
2. Must a 6km walk feature switch be fitted to comply?
3. We understand that the UK now adopts the EU standard so in terms of marking should we be adding to our serial number label that the top speed is 27kmh or 15.5mph???
4. Can we self-certify to 15194 and to 14764 to sell into UK/EU or are these required from a 3rd party testing house like BV. It’s fair to say that we could set up the tests in house for 15194 but not sure about 14764 which requires lots of repetitions of forces against various components on the bikes. It may be cheaper for us to do in house..... so useful to establish this requirement
5. With regards to S and R pedelec classifications used in Europe - when is this going to happen in the UK????
6. There seems to be a big grey area as to whether controllers/motors with switchable nominal power outputs can be used - I would like to get some clarity on this as we offer our Rocket with a Go Swiss Drive 250/500W motor. The display can be used to switch between the two nominal outputs. So the question is, is this something we write into the user manual ie '500W setting only to be used off the public roads' in big red letters or is it actually illegal to have a switchable controller????
6. is there a overlap period between the old UK standard and the actual legal implementation of EN 15194???
If any of you learn'ed people can give us some guidance here, you will be really helping a fledgling British manufacturer get it right and get out to Europe and give the competition a hammering!!!
Best Regards
Jeremy
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