There are about 100,000 registered e-scooters in Singapore, and at least 80 per cent of them are not certified by the regulatory required fire safety standard.

This was revealed by Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min in Parliament on Monday (Nov. 4).

E-scooters without UL2272 certification are barred from public use from Jul 2020

All e-scooters in Singapore must be UL2272-certified in order to be used on public paths from Jul. 1, 2020.

This means that currently, about 80,000 e-scooters will be banned from public use from next July.

UL2272, as you might know by now, is a safety standard that involves putting a PMD through a series of comprehensive and stringent tests to ensure that they can withstand various stresses.

Examples of these include over-charging of batteries, repeated exposure to water, and exposure to varying temperatures.

Only about 20,000 registered e-scooters in Singapore now are UL2272-certified, but even then, it doesn't mean that all of them can remain on public roads.

LTA is commencing an inspection regime starting Apr. 1 next year.

Those that fail the mandatory inspection for whatever reasons (scooters that are overweight or illegally modified, for instance) will have their registration cancelled. They will not be allowed to be used in public.

LTA urging users to dispose of non-compliant devices

Earlier in September, LTA also announced an Early Disposal Incentive scheme for non-UL2272-certified e-scooters, promising to give S$100 to users who leave their devices with the authorities by Nov. 30, a deadline that was on Monday extended to the end of this year.

LTA said it has received more than 9,000 applications from owners to dispose of their own non-compliant e-scooters.

Lam also revealed that between Sep. 23 and Oct. 31, LTA disposed of more than 4,800 e-scooters.

Its deadline extension is aimed at encouraging more users to come forward to dispose of their non-compliant devices.

E-scooters permanently banned from footpaths

Separately, the government also announced that e-scooters are permanently banned from all public footpaths from Tuesday (Nov. 5, 2019).

With this ban, e-scooters will from Tuesday not be allowed on all footpaths and roads. If an e-scooter user encounters a public footpath, they will need to dismount and push.

They will only be allowed for use on shared paths (that are between 3.5 to 6m wide), cycling paths and Park Connector Networks.

Getting rid of e-scooters on Carousell

Following the ban, the number of e-scooter listings on Carousell spiked. If you're looking to buy an e-scooter, bear in mind that these might not be UL2272-certified scooters, meaning you might need to dispose of them soon.

Top image via SCDF.

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