Australia's e-Bike Dilema in 2025

This is a trial to see if its worth the effort and I thought I would start with a discussion about a recent article published by Flow Mountain Bike titled 'Stats With Latz / Legal, Illegal and Everything in Between: Australia's e-Bike Dilemma'.  This article from Phil Latz was published by Flow Mountain Bikes in May 2025 and came to my attention through a Pedal Power ACT Advocates weekly list of bike related articles that I and my fellow advocates might find interesting when we are developing potential cycling policy for Pedal Power.

I'll start off by quoting Phil's opening sentence - ' There is no doubt you've noticed e-Bikes loaded with multiple riders buzzing around your local streets and bike paths, well beyond 25 kph and not even pretending to pedal'. He went on to state that 'These aren't the Bosch, TQ, Yamaha or Shimano equipped e-bikes made by Trek, Merida, Norco, Focus or Canyon (or Specialized) you're likely familiar with that see a 250w max continuous power output and a 25 kph cutoff.  

So what Phil's article focuses on is two issues - first how the Australian Government via the then Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister, Kevin Hogan from the National Party, in January 2021 removed e-Bikes from the Road Vehicle Standards Act, thus removing the requirement for importers of e-Bikes to provide evidence that the imported bikes meet Australian Standard EN15194.  The second is that in 2023 the NSW Government, against the advice from the Australian bicycle industry and its own Transport Department increased the maximum allowable continuous power rating from 250w to 500w. Fortunately, no other State or Territory has implemented thus change but it does mean that people living outside NSW can buy and have 500w bikes shipped to them from NSW.

The implications for e-bike riders and the general community are immense - I read Phil's article a couple of days after I returned from a visit to family on Sydney's northern beaches where we noticed the e-Bike scenario that he described.  We were staying near a high school and we were amazed at how many young people we saw riding heavy duty e-Bikes with multiple riders on each bike and often no helmets.  Pedalling was not required and the speeds were often well in excess of 25 kph. And to be fair, it's not just students in NSW.  Most major cities in Australia now have food deliveries performed by riders on similar e-Bikes that they must be importing via NSW - they are ridden on roads and paths and the drivers trying to minimise delivery time ride them at great speeds and without apparent regard for other riders, pedestrians or motor vehicles.

Another emerging issue is the reporting on e-battery fires which are becoming more common.  Phil notes in his article that the removal of the standard has lead to cheap and nasty e-Bikes being imported from overseas, often with poor quality electronics.  He states that there have been no reported fires from quality e-battery systems and notes that quality home e-chargers coming with cut out switches that stop batteries charging when they are fully charged. My Specialized and Ryobli lithium battery charging systems certainly do this.  Cheaper battery systems don't have this feature and batteries left to just keep on charging get hotter and hotter and sometimes get so hot they burst into flames. Just one more reason to take control of what e-products are imported in to Australia.

What am I wanting to do about this?  I have proposed to Pedal Power ACT that the organisation needs to get on the front foot and develop  comprehensive e-Bike  policy that can be recommended to the ACT and Commonwealth Governments as a sensible way of promoting an effective e-Bike presence across Australia.  I will be taking this up at the mid July 2025 Advocacy Meeting.  In the meantime I would love the Mature Forum readers to put forward their thoughts on both the issues arising from current e-Bike legislative arrangements and on how you thunk we shouldn't be moving forward to take advantage of the benefits offered by safe and effective e-Bikes?  

For those reading this in locations other than Australia you might be wondering the relevance to your situation.  I would suggest that while the particular standards and regulations might be different for you, the implications may very well be the same.  To date e-bikes seem to have been lumped into a single category with one set of rules (if any exist)  applying whether or not they should be?  I aim to lead the charge in Australia and would certainly welcome feedback on what is happening in other parts of the world. Who knows, a little agitation may be all that is needed to get the regulatory wheels rolling and the implementation of rules and standards that make sense as they are applied to the very diverse world of e-bikes.

Steve Ryan June 2025.