PULSE - Europe beyond the beat

Mobility

Regulation of electric scooters in Europe: regulations, challenges and impacts on sharing

In 2025, new regulations will be triggered across Europe to make the use of electric scooters safer and more orderly, including bans, limits and controls

by Silvia Martelli (Il Sole 24 Ore), David Krutzler (Der Standard, Austria), Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain), Maria Delaney (The Journal Investigates, Ireland)

20 May 2025

4' min read

In recent years, electric scooters (e-scooters) have invaded European roads, becoming an increasingly popular means of micro-mobility, especially in urban contexts. Their success, however, has posed significant challenges to legislators, who are called upon to balance safety, sustainability and innovation. Regulations vary considerably from country to country, with more permissive approaches in some states and strict regulations in others, often shaped by cultural, infrastructural or newsworthy factors.

In 2025, the European landscape is still fragmented, but common trends can be seen: speed limits, minimum driving age, insurance obligations and restrictions on driving on pavements or in pedestrian areas. Some countries are also beginning to regulate sharing services more strictly, with caps on the number of vehicles and public tenders for licences.

Diritti fondamentali e intelligenze artificiali

The Italian case: the 2025 bottleneck

In Italy, 2025 marks a major crackdown on the use of electric scooters. Changes to the Highway Code, approved in 2024, came into force this year and introduce much stricter rules to ensure safety and urban decorum. Scooters may only circulate on urban roads with a speed limit of 50 km/h or less and must be equipped with arrows and brakes on both wheels.

It also introduces compulsory helmets for minors under 18, liability insurance for shared vehicles, and number plates, also for private vehicles. It is forbidden to ride on pavements, except for driving the vehicle by hand, and the scooter will be confiscated for anyone who modifies it to exceed the maximum permitted speed, which remains set at 20 km/h (reduced to 6 km/h in pedestrian areas).

Italy is thus aligning itself with other European countries that have already imposed stricter rules, seeking to stem the phenomena of improper use and accidents, which have grown exponentially, especially in large cities. The sharing system remains active in many Italian metropolises, but with more selective concessions and stringent constraints, especially in terms of parking and distribution over the territory.

Austria: Vienna sets the rules, but fines are not enough

Vienna has experienced an explosion of electric scooters in recent years, accompanied by a heated political and social debate. The city, after tolerating an uncontrolled spread of the service for a while, intervened in 2023 with stricter regulations. Today, shared scooters can no longer be left on pavements: they must be parked in some 400 designated areas or in car parking spaces, if marked. The number of operators has been drastically reduced from nine to two, and the fleet has been halved from 9 thousand to about 4 thousand.

Despite the new regulations, the problems of urban coexistence have not disappeared. In less than two years, more than 50,000 fines for illegal parking have been recorded. The most common violations also concern driving on pavements and speeding, with documented cases of private scooters reaching 48 km/h, well over the permitted 25 km/h. Worsening the picture is the increasing presence of electric motorbikes used for deliveries, often confused with scooters and responsible for dangerously crowding cycle paths. The city authorities would like to ban them from cycle paths, but to do so requires legislative intervention by the federal government, which, as yet, has not set a timetable.

Ancora in calo il mercato dei veicoli commerciali

Spain: from deregulation to municipal crackdown

In Spain, the spread of electric scooters has followed a trajectory very similar to that in Italy, with an initial boom that was not accompanied by clear rules, followed by a phase of strict regulation. The legal framework was defined as of 2021 with the entry into force of Royal Decree 970/2020, which recognised personal mobility vehicles (VMP) as an autonomous category in the highway code. Neither a licence nor insurance is required, but it is forbidden to exceed 25 km/h, to drive on pavements or with passengers, and access to suburban roads is prohibited.

National legislation, however, has left ample room for intervention to the municipalities. In Madrid, for example, after a phase of total liberalisation, there was a move in 2023 to a closed system with only three authorised operators, then sanctioned in 2024 for non-compliance with the rules. At the end of the year, the municipality revoked the licences, suspending the circulation of some 6,000 vehicles. In Malaga, too, the service has been virtually reduced to zero, with only one company, Lime, remaining operational. Valencia, on the contrary, is considered a model of virtuous regulation, with compulsory parking, exclusion zones and a control system based on geolocation.

The most common problems are accidents, wild parking and disregard for basic traffic rules. The government has also introduced new type approval requirements for scooters sold from 2024 onwards. Public transport has also moved: in several cities, including Madrid and Seville, scooters have been banned on public transport due to the risk of fires from defective batteries.

Ireland: rules just born, but problems already evident

In Ireland, electric scooters were formally banned until 2024, when the first national legislation came into force. The legislative framework was built from scratch, with clear limits: only those over the age of 16 can ride them, the maximum speed is set at 20 km/h, and lights, brakes, a bell and a manufacturer's plate certifying the technical specifications are mandatory. The vehicles must not exceed 25 kg in weight and must have wheels of at least 200 mm.

The law prohibits the use of scooters on pavements, pedestrian areas and highways, but allows their use in cycle lanes, bus lanes and city streets. The introduction of the legal framework finally made sharing services legal, which first appeared in 2024 in Wexford, thanks to a collaboration between the municipality and the European platform Bolt.

Despite the young age of the phenomenon in Ireland, the issues have already become clear. In late 2024, e-scooters were banned from public transport for battery-related safety reasons. In addition, a study conducted by the Road Safety Authority in 2025 showed a worrying figure: almost a quarter of users had had an accident in the last year and one in three had been involved in a 'near accident'. Health authorities have raised the alarm about injuries caused by scooter accidents, often due to the absence of helmets. Ireland has finally regulated the use of scooters, but the debate on their safety has only just begun.

* This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project "Pulse".