The Shocking Truth About Illegal E-Bikes & E-Scooters in the UK

E-bikes and e-scooters are growing in popularity across the UK — but do you actually know the laws? In this video, we break down UK e-scooter laws and UK e-bike regulations, explaining what’s legal, what’s not, and the serious consequences of riding an illegal electric scooter or illegal e-bike on public roads.

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Many people don’t realise that most e-scooters you see on UK streets are actually illegal to ride, unless part of a government rental scheme. Similarly, illegal e-bikes can get you into serious trouble if they don’t meet the correct standards for road use.

But it’s not just about the law — it’s about safety. Using non-regulated lithium-ion batteries in cheap or modified e-bikes and e-scooters can be extremely dangerous. These unsafe batteries are one of the leading causes of fires and explosions, putting not just the rider but also their family and home at serious risk.

We’ll cover:
✅ The difference between legal and illegal e-bikes
✅ UK e-scooter law explained
✅ The risks of riding an e-scooter on the road or pavement
✅ The dangers of unsafe lithium-ion batteries and fire risks
✅ What the police say about e-bikes & e-scooters
✅ Fines, penalties, and even insurance issues you could face

Whether you’re thinking about buying an electric scooter or already riding one, this video will help you stay safe and understand the UK e-scooter and e-bike rules in 2025.

Filmed in partnership with Devon & Cornwall Police to give you the most accurate and up-to-date advice on UK electric scooter laws and UK e-bike laws.

Stay safe. Stay legal. And know the rules before you ride.

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They’re everywhere, zipping through traffic, across pavements, and even weaving down roads. But catching them is no easy task. Here’s the thing. Most people don’t realize they’re breaking the law when it comes to riding their ebike or e- scooter. Ebikes and e scooters are also quite commonly used in crime. So today, we’re here at Charles Cross Police Station in Plymouth. We’re going to go out with the teams on the ground and we’re going to show you how we deal with the illegal and irresponsible use of e- scooters and ebikes. Now, we need to try and understand what exactly makes an ebike or an e scooter illegal. So, we’ve got a couple of examples that we’ve seized in previous operations. Let’s go and have a look at those and I’ll try and explain how it works. Now, this is a perfect example of a disastrous ebike. And this one is completely illegal. So, let’s have a look at it and I’ll try and explain why. Now, for an ebike to be legal, it’s electrically assisted pedal cycle. Now, what that means is that the motor must help the pedals in its simplest form. So, what it’s doing is it’s assisting the pedaling. It can’t be so that it goes on its own without the pedals. And your ebike must have pedals on it for obvious reasons. So, if we look at this one, we’ll see that this one has been adapted with an aftermarket kit. So, you can buy these things that go in, but a lot of this is illegal. And you can see this is all really untidy. is probably a fire risk as well, but we’ll have a look at that afterwards. So, with this one, if you turn it on, you can see that just by twisting the throttle here, the back wheel will spin at quite a considerable rate. Now, it’s not allowed to do that. On some bikes, it’s got walk assist, and that means that the electric motor will work up to a maximum speed of 3.7 mph. And that’s called walk assist. You see that sometimes on bigger ones um that have frames behind them for heavier weights and things like that. But for this one to be able to just twist the throttle and that back wheel to spin like that, that’s illegal. Okay. You’ve got a maximum speed of how fast it can go before the motor cuts out and you’re down to pedal power only. That maximum speed is 15.5 mph. Also, the motor that’s fitted to the bike can’t be any more than 250 W. Now, there’s one other critical thing that we haven’t mentioned. To be able to ride an ebike, you must be over the age of 14. Now, e scooter should hopefully be a little more simple to explain. Now, an e scooter is technically a mechanically propelled vehicle, and that’s because it goes on its own under its own power. Now, to be able to ride or drive a mechanically propelled vehicle, you need to have your driving license. You need to have insurance. It needs to be taxed, and you cannot get insurance for one of these things. There is no company that will insure an escooter that is privately owned. So, that makes it illegal for you to be able to use it on the road as it currently stands. Now, for ones that are in a higher scheme, they are covered by the higher schemes insurance and everything else. So that means that the higher scheme are paying for the insurance and everything else to be able to make it that you can ride that that machine within the higher scheme. So unfortunately e scooters as they are at the moment privately owned you can only use them on private land. You cannot use them on the road and you cannot use them on the pavement or anywhere else in a public place. Uh so unfortunately at the moment this thing is a no. So, I’m going to paint a picture for you. You’re driving around town, minding your own business, on the way to work, and an illegal driver, whether that be on an ebike, an e- scooter, or in a car, or on a motorbike, smashes into the side of your vehicle and does a runner. You’re then left to front the bill for the damages to your car. That is exactly why I swear on this channel that having a dash cam is one of the best things you can buy. This Road Angel Halo Play in here is absolutely amazing, and I’m going to tell you why. Records 4K on the front, 1080p on the back. It does night vision. It’s also got parking mode if you choose to leave your pride and joy unattended in a car park. So, if someone were to reverse into it, it’s going to record who did it so that you can use it in court or if you were to report it to your insurance. Now, not only does it give you that peace of mind when driving so that you know that if something were to happen, that mishap on the road, you are covered and you can prove yourself in the right, it’s just a really, really good bit of kit. So, if you want to keep safe in your car and make sure that you’re covered in the event of a mishap, use the link in the description. Go hit up Road Angel and make sure you get yourself the Road Angel Halo Play. Thanks, guys. Big ups to Road Angel for supporting this video. But let’s get on with the scooters. Now, before we go out on the operation, it’s probably worth mentioning whilst we’re outside custody that we work with other agencies as well when we’re doing these ops. Uh, now today we’re working with immigration as well. Um, so when we are stopping riders that may be part of the gig economy, we’re checking immigration status and also their permissions to work as well, but also ebikes and e scooters are quite commonly used in crime. They’re used for dealing drugs and moving things around the city. Um, so we’re also checking for things like that. So, let’s go out on the op and let’s see what we get. With almost 300,000 people living in Plymouth, it’s a hustling business hub with people trying to get to their destinations as fast as possible. Ebikes and ecooters are zooming around everywhere. It’s like fishing in a barrel to the police. The general atmosphere during the operation was good. There wasn’t any significant retaliation. In fact, the general perspective from the public was mainly positive, apart from the people that had their bikes and scooters seized. In today’s operation in Plymouth, Owen and his team are in coordination with the drone police. They like to work in secrecy as their intel is crucial as this helps them be effective and efficient. So, we’ve come up to have a look at the drone setup up here. Um, from here we can put the drone up and we can cover quite large areas of the city center, much more than the units on the ground can do. Uh, when the drones pick up what they think is probably an illegal ebike. Uh, and we can see that by looking at whether uh, the rider is pedalling and how fast they’re going. If it doesn’t look right, then they can relay that information down to the ground. Um, and the rider will be intercepted on the ground by the ground units. And but also it gives us the footage as well. um so that if we need it, we’ve got that footage and we can use that if we need to. Part of our operation today looking at ebikes is we’re also looking at mopeds, especially ones connected to the food delivery business because we know some of them are not riding legally, especially with no insurance. So that we had two officers just stop a bumped and they were working with our immigration colleagues to check um that the person that was stopped was basically legally working in this country. Um so they conducted a number of checks and they concluded that the person that they stopped were was entitled to work. So they had um they had confirmed that. So one thing I’ve noticed today is that I imagine there’s going to be a lot of people moaning but actually there’s a good proportion of people that are really happy even particularly people being pulled over on their ebikes saying that they’re happy to be see really happy about seeing this. Yes. And I think that was reflected in and a similar we did two weeks ago. So most people that we stop, the large majority are happy that they’re getting stopped. They actually want us to do more work on these illegal bikes because it affects their own uh ability to work um because these bikes are going at excessive speeds. Therefore, they’re picking up more of the delivery work. So taking work off riders who are legally working on slower bikes. you can understand why they’re actually um in agreement with the rest of the uh wider community and the public about us doing more work to stop these bikes being on on our pavements on our streets and in our community spaces. Some of the bikes we saw coming this morning had some very ropey rogue electronics done to them where they’ve been modified. Absolutely. And I know a lot of people, you know, go on to social media and other platforms to look to see how they can modify their their bikes and they basically do these modifications themselves with with basically no experience or knowh how. And a lot of the components are being shipped in from countries where, you know, the regulations are not there to make sure that those components are safe in the first place. So we’ve got a whole melting pot of risk really around the way these bikes are modified. um which presents risks out in public but also within dwellings and flats around fire hazards. Now we’re here at Bobby Tracy Fire Station and you’ve seen or at least you’ve heard from us what Owen’s team has actually sees today and I’ve got a couple of questions and I’m sure it’s going to be of value to these guys. So talk to us as to why you get what you pay for when it comes to e scooters and ebikes. What’s the dangers of lithium ion batteries? The dangers around uh any battery charging are much the same. If you’re using uh doctor’s equipment or stuff you’ve tampered with yourself or hasn’t been done by a professional, you’re using cheap replacements or anything with any damage, uh it can start what’s called a thermal runaway within the cell uh and increases your risk of fire. Now, we’ve all heard of things like whether it be cheap vapes, cheap mobile phones, or anything for that matter that has lithiumion batteries. I mean, those battery chargers that everyone uses and they carry around in their back pocket. I’ve plugged them in before, they’ve overheated, and even touching them, I thought, “Oh gosh, that could potentially be of risk.” How often do you see as a firefighter those kind of things going wrong? Um we do see them with increasing regularity nowadays. Um the the issue being if it’s not the manufacturer specific uh device you can have um the incorrect uh ampage and uh compatibility with your with your device. Um it may not actually be geared for the UK power system. So again, it runs that risk of causing the damage to the cell or just overcharging and causing damage. And what tends to happen is the cell itself breaks down that then starts to heat the cells next to it within the battery and you go into what’s called a thermal runaway. It starts to produce lots of gases. All these are highly uh toxic. They’re also highly corrosive and highly flammable. Eventually the pressure builds up and it can explode or just burst into flames and then you’ve got a major problem on your hands. Now, if you were to buy a cheap ebike or a cheap e scooter, you were telling us earlier that often people will charge them in their doorway. They might go in a communal hallway and plug them in. And because they’re cheap, and as we said, you get what you pay for. Not only could that potentially set on fire, but it’s also preventing someone from being able to escape the building if there was a house fire. Okay, so this is our first delivery of seized uh ebikes and e- scooters. We’ve got two ebikes that have been seized here um that are illegal bikes. Uh and then in the back we’ve got an e scooter as well. Now the thing with these is that they are seized under legislation that’s called 165A. Okay. Now what that entitles us to do is to seize it because um it’s been driven otherwise in accordance with a license or because it’s got no insurance. Now in order to get it back you would have to prove that you’ve got those relevant documents. No insurance company is going to insure one of these ebikes or an e scooter because they can’t. So, you’re never going to get it back. And that’s the thing you have to remember that if your ebike or your e scooter is seized, you will not get it back because we’re not allowed to give it to you back and it will just go for destruction. Careful cuz it’s on now. Clean this way. Yeah. What with these type of models, they’re very sneaky. What they do is they within the control panel you can switch from walk assist. Yeah. So if somebody stops you right now then oh yeah it’s fine. It’s compliant. It’s got walk assist or whatever until you put it on number five to full throttle. Yeah. You switch across. Yeah. Now this is one of the bikes that’s just come in. And if we have a closer look at it, we can try and explain why this bike is illegal. Now I mean this doesn’t make it necessarily illegal, but this thing weighs an awful lot. It’s It’s a chunk of a bike. So, think about it. What’s the difference between this and a motorbike? Because it’s still twist and go. It still weighs a lot. But for a motorbike, you would need your insurance. You would need your helmet. Uh you would need to tax it. You would need a license and everything that you need for a motorbike. And effectively, that’s what you need for this as well. If we look at this one, so if we put it in walk assist mode. So, it’s on number one there. And lift up the back wheel. We can see that’s quite slow pace. Even though it’s on the speedo, it’s saying 9 miles an hour, but obviously the wheel is off the floor, so that’s not entirely accurate. Uh, but that’s quite low power there. So, if we then put it onto its top power, which is number five, lift up the back wheel, the speedo is now showing 30.2 mph and that’s pretty quick. Uh, it’s not pedal assisted. That is all its own power. Um, so this bike is illegal. And also if you look at the battery uh you will see that the maximum wattage on it is 1,200 uh not 250. So the consequences of getting caught riding one of these is yeah it’s going to be seized like we’ve explained. You can’t get it back. Um but also you can get your points and your fine as you would as if you were driving a motorbike without the documents that you need. So it’s exactly the same principle. If you don’t have a driving license, then a ghost license is created for you and those points are put onto that ghost license. So, when you do come to learn to drive, you’ve already got six points for no insurance on your driving license. So, you have to be really, really careful with it. It’s just not worth taking a risk. Now, you guys join me at Satini in Sult Plymouth. and I’m going to run you through the non-negotiables when it comes to buying an ebike that won’t have you pulled over by the police and also means your bike won’t get seized because this is completely road legal. Now, this particular bike in mention is a Specialized Tero. And what makes it legal is the fact that it hasn’t got a throttle. It’s pedal assist and it’s limited to 15.5 mph. Now, why would you want to buy a pricey thing just like this? This is the sports car of ebikes. You’re not going to get pulled over. It’s got really good parts. There’s a guarantee. There’s a warranty. This is the way you should be doing things. Buying something like this means that you can actually use it on the road completely legally and it’s not breaking any laws. And while I understand it’s tempting to save money, some of the cheaper companies just don’t care about the law. So try and avoid those and make sure you stick to something like this. No throttle, pedal assist, and it’s limited to 15.5 mph. So Owen, how did today go? You’ve been seizing a few ebikes and e- scooters. Help me understand how it went. So today we’ve seized 15 ebikes that are illegal to use on the roads plus a couple of e scooters. Um but also on top of that we’ve had one disqualified driver and also somebody in custody for an immigration offense as well. Um so it just goes to show that it’s not just about the ebike itself. Sometimes it’s people that are using them. Um, so yeah, hopefully from what we’ve shown you today about some of the bikes, what’s legal, what’s not legal, plus the stuff that fire told you about charging these things, cuz I mean, look at this. Do you really want to be plugging that into the mains and that if you if you were living in a block of flats, would you want somebody else plugging that into the mains in your No, I certainly wouldn’t. Um, but yeah, some of this stuff is really, really dangerous for, you know, more reasons than one. So what are the takeaway points then from this video and what we’ve learned today on ebikes and e- scooters. So I think what we’ve seen today is that there is a place for ebikes and e- scooters when you look at the green agenda and sustainable travel. You know there is a place for them but sadly at the moment the legislation doesn’t support the use of certain ebikes and of course e scooters. So, you know, it’s about if you are looking for that mode of transport to find one that is legal and we have looked today at the legal aspects of it as well as those that are illegal. So, you know, don’t make the wrong choice, make the correct choice. If you’re a parent as well and it’s coming up to Christmas, please look at the legislation and what you can and can’t buy for your child cuz what we don’t want to be doing is seizing e- scooters from children. Um, you know, that’s that’s not what we’re here for. So, we’re back again with the public. We want to know are e- scooters good or bad? But I I think they can be they can be quite um threatening to some members of the public. Uh they’re not the safest things in the world used irresponsibly, but um I mean it’s better than pedaling sometimes. What do you think could be changed then with e- scooters and ebikes to make them safer for for all people on the road? Uh just road awareness really for young people, you know, just like there’s some certain dos and don’ts, you know, don’t fly up the wrong side of the road doing wheelies. Uh both are good. I’m an ecooter user on I think it’s called Voy down in uh Portsmouth where my son’s at uni. Okay. Uh so we cut across to South Sea, have some lunch, he gets around on them. Um there’s a little bit of dedication for them. Everybody is expecting them to be there and you take them back to a controlled zone so they don’t get left all over the place. Well, they’re really good when you live at the top of a hill like I do and they keep you not using a car and they keep you getting out. But I know that people get quite nervous when I go past on my big bike even though I ring the bell really carefully. I wanted to end with Ros as I now realize that while ebikes and ecooters can sometimes be linked to crime, they also provide affordable and accessible transport for so many people. It’s not about labeling them as good or bad. It’s about putting the right regulations in place to make them safe for all. Now, quickly as we end today’s video, Road Angel are doing the caught on camera challenge. Now, anything that’s happened that’s wild on the road, things that you wouldn’t believe possible, we want you guys to submit your dash cam footage below. Now, there is a 15% discount code to anyone that uses the link below that’s active as soon as you submit that footage. But if you want to win yourself a dash cam, both front and rear for your car so you can stay safe on the road, you can submit your footage below. A big shout out to Road Angel for supporting me to make these videos, and we’ll see you guys in the next one. [Music] You like