UL2272-Certified Escooters - A look at LTA’s List (Part 1)

UPDATE [6 Aug 2019]: The PMD safety certification deadline has been moved forward to end June 2020. All non-UL2272 certified devices will be auto-deregistered and cannot be used in public after July 2020. Users can continue to ride only UL2272-certified escooters beyond the end June 2020 deadline.

For all PMD riders out there: the news is out.

On 12 Dec 2018, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) released information on the e-scooter registration process. This includes key dates and what you should prepare. You may have heard the details in the news.

If you haven’t, this is a short summary of the key dates to keep in mind:

• 2 Jan 2019: start of e-scooter registration
• 31 Mar 2019: last day of $20 registration fee waiver
• 1 Jul 2019: riding an unregistered PMD is now illegal
• 30th June 2020: riding a non-UL2272 certified device is prohibited

However, there is a very important list that many overlook. It is LTA’s list of UL2272-certified devices. We did some investigative work to find out each PMD’s availability.

LTA’s UL2272-certified escooters list

There are a total of thirteen e-scooter models that are LTA-approved and UL2272-certified escooters. In other words, you should be able to use each and every device on this list past the deadline.

Unfortunately, that's not the case. We did some digging. Also, we contacted the PMD manufacturers directly. After doing the groundwork, we’ve come to a conclusion. That is that many of the scooters on this list can't be purchased. Here’s why:

• Not available in e-market places

Firstly, we can’t find any of the PMD models on the internet. Except, on a single B2B (business to business) website. Besides that, there was nothing on Lazada, Qoo10, Amazon or Alibaba.

Also, this particular model is not available for the average consumer. That's because the minimum order number the website allows you to input is 1,150 sets.

• Discontinued by manufacturers

Six e-scooter models out of the thirteen are unavailable because:

1. We did not hear from the manufacturers.
2. Or these models are no longer produced.

On top of that, we still have not heard from four of the companies in over a week. So, we can safely disqualify their models from the list. That is until we get a reply from them.

Moreover, a quick internet search showed us something else. That is that production has long ceased for two e-scooter models on the list.  Which means, naturally, you can’t buy them anymore.

• Outdated PMDs

The technology that fuels PMD developments are ever-adapting and changing. Thus, an e-scooter that was once considered the best will become obsolete in a few years. This is what happened to two other escooters on the list.

We discovered that the maximum distances that can be travelled on two of the listed e-scooter models are very low. This is after contacting their manufacturers in China. One model can go for 6-8 km while the other one can only travel 15 km.

• PMDs that are not UL2272-certified

To get a UL2272 certification the factory manufacturers have to work in conjunction with safety standards companies.

Under the UL2272 testing proceedings, factories have to give the PMD to Underwriters Laboratories - or one of its partner organisations. Devices will only be UL2272-certified when they pass all mechanical and environmental tests.

Unfortunately, one of the manufacturers we reach out to confirmed that their e-scooter model is not UL2272-certified. This is as shown below:

What now?  

There is good news. There's more to this list of UL2272-certified e-scooters. Read part 2 of our series where we’ll reveal which e-scooter on this list is available for purchase in Singapore.