Illegal e-bikes are no longer simply a road safety concern. They are increasingly becoming a direct threat to the legitimate motorcycle and moped sector.
While compliant manufacturers, importers and retailers invest heavily in meeting vehicle approval, product safety and regulatory requirements, a growing market in non-compliant products continues to operate outside those rules. The result is an uneven marketplace that disadvantages legitimate businesses, undermines consumer confidence and erodes demand for compliant vehicles.
The impact is already visible. New registrations of L1 mopeds have fallen by more than 40% since 2022, as illegal e-bikes increasingly occupy the space that should belong to regulated, insured and properly licensed vehicles.
For MCIA, this is not simply a question of road safety or anti-social behaviour. It is also a question of fairness, market integrity and protecting an industry that invests heavily in complying with the law.
What work has MCIA undertaken?
Over recent months, MCIA has undertaken extensive engagement with Police Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners across the UK to better understand how forces are responding to the growing use of illegal e-bikes.
A recurring theme emerged throughout those discussions. While many forces recognised the scale of the issue and its growing visibility within communities, officers often lacked practical and consistent guidance to help determine whether a vehicle should be treated as a legal Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle (EAPC) or as a motor vehicle subject to licensing, insurance and other road traffic requirements.
That uncertainty benefits nobody. It creates inconsistency in enforcement, confusion among users and an environment in which non-compliant products can flourish.
We also heard from forces how enforcement activity around these illegal e-bikes uncovered wider offences, including illegal working, exploitation, drugs and weapons offences, though these cases should not be viewed as representative of all users of non-compliant e-bikes.
The more significant issue is that intervention is often triggered only when additional offending of anti-social behaviour is present. This creates a situation where the illegality of the vehicle itself can become a secondary consideration.
From MCIA’s perspective, that approach is flawed. The operation of a non-compliant vehicle on public roads is itself a breach of the regulatory framework that legitimate manufacturers, retailers and riders are expected to follow. Market harm should not need to be accompanied by anti-social behaviour before action is taken.
Why did MCIA produce guidance?
Our engagement exposed a clear gap.
Police forces repeatedly highlighted the lack of practical guidance available to frontline officers to help identify non-compliant e-bikes consistently and confidently. While legislation exists, translating that legislation into operational decision-making was proving difficult in practice.
With support from the Bicycle Association, MCIA therefore took the decision to develop and publish A Guide to Identifying Non-Compliant E-Bikes, which was launched at a recent National Police Chiefs’ Council event in June.
The guide is the culmination of several months of engagement with policing leaders. It does not create new law, reinterpret legislation or introduce new legal tests. Instead, it translates existing legislation and government guidance into a practical framework that officers can use when assessing vehicles at the roadside.
In short, the guide helps address a guidance gap that has emerged in the absence of updated national direction and a coordinated government response.
What does the guide cover?
The guide provides a straightforward assessment process designed to support frontline operational decision-making. It includes a series of flowcharts that help officers distinguish between compliant EAPCs and vehicles that should instead be treated as motor vehicles. It also highlights common indicators of non-compliance, including throttle-only operation, evidence of modification, “off-road” modes and performance characteristics that fall outside legal EAPC requirements.
Importantly, the guide is not about creating additional rules and regulations. It is about helping officers apply the existing law more consistently – it provides clarity.
Where the law applies, it should be understood and enforced consistently. Ambiguity creates opportunities for bad riders to exploit and for non-compliant products to enter the market. It undermines confidence in the system that legitimate businesses are required to abide by.
What needs to happen next?
While MCIA and the Bicycle Association have taken practical steps to support enforcement through this guide, industry action alone cannot solve the problem.
Illegal e-bikes expose weaknesses across several areas of public policy, including vehicle regulation, product compliance, online marketplaces, consumer protection, commercial delivery operations and policing. Addressing only one part of that system will not deliver a meaningful long-term solution.
Government guidance is necessary, but it will not be sufficient in isolation.
What is now required is a coordinated cross-government response that brings together the Department for Transport, the Home Office and the Department for Business and Trade. Enforcement, regulation, market surveillance and online sales oversight must work together if legitimate businesses are to be protected and public confidence restored.
The publication of this guidance is therefore not an end point. It is one part of a broader programme of work being undertaken by MCIA to ensure that legitimate manufacturers, retailers and riders are not disadvantaged by an expanding unregulated market.
Illegal e-bikes are often discussed purely as a road safety issue. They are, but they are also an industry issue. If government is serious about supporting legitimate businesses, improving road safety and maintaining confidence in the UK’s regulatory framework, it must recognise that compliant manufacturers and retailers cannot be expected to compete indefinitely against products that operate outside the rules.
MCIA will continue to press for that recognition and for the coordinated action needed to ensure the legitimate motorcycle and moped sector is not undermined by the continued growth of an illegal alternative market.
Tony Campbell
CEO, MCIA