this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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In Europe, ebikes just make pedalling slightly easier (or much easier depending on the level of assist you pick). Assist cuts off past a certain speed, normally around 25 km/h. They're bicycles designed for use in normal clothes so that you aren't sweaty on arrival even if you're going on top of a hill.
Apparently in the US, ebikes are anything with an electric motor and two wheels that doesn't go too fast, whether you pedal or not.
So it's two very different approaches. The US lumps what the EU separates in several categories into a single one. Here they would be ebikes, "sports ebikes" (fast, can't be ridden on general roads) and electric mopeds which are treated more or less the same as gas powered ones. Only the first properly qualify as bicycles.
Incorrect. Some people might call them that but we have definitions, legal and otherwise.
It's anything with an electric motor and pedals