Do You Need Insurance For An Electric Scooter?
Over the past few years electric scooters began to appear on city streets all around us. It seems that the popularity of motorized electric scooters skyrockets whenever a ride share company moves into town. Individuals who have tried to ride one, usually fall in love with them. Many decide to buy an electric kick scooter of their own instead of renting. This increased popularity brought a completely new and fun mode of transportation into the cities, but regrettably it also resulted in a spike of traffic accidents associated with a vehicle that was relatively unknown just a few short years ago. Sure we all knew what a toy kick scooter was, but it’s larger version with an electric motor was not a popular item. If you are planning on buying or renting an eScooter you may be asking yourself: Do I need insurance for an electric scooter? The simple answer is: currently in most states and municipalities you are not required to have insurance for an electric kick scooter, but you should certainly consider getting one. Continue reading below to find out why… First things first. Before we discuss the various insurance options available for electric scooters, lets take a moment to define a few terms. specifically, the various types of scooters available on the market today. Types of scooters: Kick scooter – this general term refers to two-wheeled, three-wheeled or four-wheeled push scooters that have no seat. These scooters are commonly (and unjustly) associated with old-school toys for kids. Versions for adults exist, they include pro scooters capable to withstanding some serious tricks. A kick scooter may have no engine of any sort and be propelled by the rider. But it may also have an engine, either electric or gasoline-powered. Models that have an engine are called motorized scooters. Motorized scooter – commonly referred to by some as stand-up scooter or electric kick scooter. This term applies to a vehicle without a seat, with 2 (or 3) wheels and top speed of 30 mph. The vast majority of them are electric, but there are a few models using internal combustion engine. Moped – a small motorized vehicle, similar to a motorcycle, but with engine capacity no larger than 49 cc and top speed of 30 mph (48 km/h). What makes them somewhat characteristic is the fact that some mopeds have pedals and resemble bicycles. Motor scooter – these include a moped which by definition is a motorized scooter with an engine size 49 cc or less. Those with 50 cc engines and more are called scooters. Motorcycle – in most states and countries defined as a two wheel powered vehicle with an engine capacity equal to or larger than 50 cc. In some locations it may also include a three wheeled vehicle. A note of caution: all these terms are very similar, so it’s easy to get them mixed up. People who are not actively involved in the subject matter may get them confused. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. So, if you are calling an insurance company for a quote or talking to the DMV regarding a license or registration for a specific type of vehicle, I strongly recommend referring to the vehicle in a more descriptive manner. After all, up until about 2 years ago I myself thought that a “motorized scooter” and a “motor scooter” were one and the same thing.
Car Insurance
Your automobile insurance does not cover accidents involving electric scooters. If you get into an accident while riding one, you might be liable because your car insurance does not provide coverage. This is because car insurance does not cover vehicles with fewer than four wheels, as well as those with no registration or license plates. This is a very important distinction. Most people are used to the idea of automobile insurance covering additional activities with which you may be involved with. Quite frequently a personal car insurance policy may provide you with coverage for liability due to accidents involving motor scooters (moped-like), other people’s bodily injury as well as damage to the other party’s vehicles. In other words, your car insurance will not cover your liability sustained from accidents involving your motorized scooter use.
Unlike a privately-owned electric kick scooter (motorized scooter) for which there usually is no specific liability insurance available on the market, companies that provide ride share scooters may include partial liability insurance with their service. This is because some cities require that these companies provide proof of insurance. Rideshare usually have a 450 million insurance policy that basically protects the company in case an accident occurs as a result of a faulty or damaged scooter. This insurance does not cover the rider who happens to cause an accident as a result of his or her own fault or negligence. Furthermore, riders who rent a scooter from one of the rideshare companies must accept the Terms of Use before unlocking the scooter. In most cases the Terms of Use state that the rider will not hold the company liable for any damage or medical harm sustained while riding the scooter. This practice is not universal, but rather changes from city to city. For this reason check with individual companies to find out if insurance is included with their service, and if so, what does it include. The fact that scooter riders are not insured by those big ride share companies is not surprising, but it also isn’t something that many people take into consideration before renting a scooter.
Type of insurance to consider getting:
Electric scooters certainly are not the safest vehicles to travel with. Currently there is no insurance available on the market that would be designed specifically for electric kick scooters. Fortunately, there are other options available that should provide eScooter riders with the coverage and a piece of mind they need. Umbrella insurance – currently this type of personal liability insurance might be the best option for most electric scooter riders. In the past, umbrella insurance policy was used for the purposes of extending liability coverage beyond a house, such as private pool, bicycle use, etc. As such it was mainly used by wealthy individuals looking to extend their liability insurance coverage beyond the offering of standard insurance policy. Umbrella insurance will cover damage to other people’s property, as well as their medical bills. It will not cover you own medical bills. Until other insurance options become available on the market, this choice of insurance appears to be one of the “go to” options for people who own an electric scooter and use it on a regular basis. In other words, if you happen to be regularly commuting to school or work on an electric scooter, an umbrella policy is quite possibly the best option for you that is currently available on the market. Health insurance – in the event of personal injury resulting from an accident, this form of insurance will help you cover the costs of medical treatment. As noted earlier, umbrella insurance will only cover medical expenses of other people. This is where a well-designed health insurance comes in. This option will provide you with a second form of insurance that will assist you in the event of personal medical expenses sustained during an accident. Just remember that health insurance only covers your health-related expenses. It will not cover liability for vehicle and property damage.
If you happen to search online for “Scooter insurance” or anything similar to this term, you will find results that are specific for mopeds and electric scooters. In this case the term “electric scooters” refers to those seated, Vespa-like vehicles that are closer to motorcycles than kick scooters.
Why are electric scooters associated with increased risk of injury?
- For decades, scooters have been largely regarded as toys. In reality, electric scooters are agile and fast vehicles that are also extremely fun to ride.
- Large proportion of electric scooter riders are ride share users, meaning that they may not be experienced riders who may be more at risk of an accident.
- Unlike helmet use in bicycle riders, it has been documented that well over 95% of all electric scooter users do not use a helmet.
- The are no specific and well-designed traffic rules of the road for electric scooters. Furthermore, quite often the rules change from city to city or do not exist at all. In some municipalities electric scooters are required to use sidewalks, at other locations they must use standard roads, while at still other areas they have no clear set rules. This tremendous disparity creates significant confusion for the riders, pedestrians and other users of the road.
Although electric kick scooter riding can be lots of fun, it can also be dangerous to the rider, his or her surroundings and other road users. Electric kick scooters have only been around for a few years, therefore we still don’t have much statistical data regarding electric scooter safety.
Fortunately, there have only been a few isolated reports of deaths attributed to electric scooter use. However, the overall number of injuries associated with electric scooter use has been on the rise. The vast majority of injuries were reported in riders who were not wearing a helmet at the time of accident.
Additional liability insurance provides a piece of mind in the form of an umbrella insurance policy and health insurance. Together these policies will ensure the best liability coverage in the event of an accident involving an electric scooter.
How Much Is Mobility Scooter Insurance? Know The Cost!
Are you wondering how much is mobility scooter insurance?
A few years back, I decided to insure my father’s mobility aid after an accident in the street, so I’m familiar with the process.
So, I’ll try to answer all your question about scooter insurance and help you find the right insurance provider for you.
Quick Summary
You can expect to pay around 100 per year for mobility scooter insurance. It will depend on what type of insurance policy you choose, your vehicle’s age, and your purchase price.
Surewise, one of the cheapest mobility scooter insurances in the UK costs £38.50 per year or 3.85 per month and covers manual wheelchairs. Check this video for more information. (1)
What do you think about this topic? Do you have mobility scooter insurance? Tell us about your experience in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев.
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About GrigorinaLoa
Grigorina discovered that writing is her vocation early in her school years. Since then, she’s taken part in several literary contests. For the past three years, she’s also been an ELS teacher, pouring her heart into showing children and adults how important English is for their future. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics, an ESL Teacher’s degree, and a Master’s degree in Accounting. Follow her on AND INSTAGRAM. Read her LATEST POSTS. Learn more about her HERE.
Cost of General Liability Insurance
On average, scooter rental companies in America spend between 450. 450,000 per year for 450 million in general liability coverage.
Compare the average cost of general liability insurance for a scooter rental business to other professional industries using the graph below:
Several factors will determine the price of your policy. These include your:
- Location
- Deductible
- Number of employees
- Per-occurrence limit
- General aggregate limit
You may be able to acquire general liability insurance at a discounted rate by purchasing it as part of a business owner’s policy (BOP) rather than as a standalone policy.
A BOP is a more comprehensive solution that includes multiple forms of coverage, such as business interruption and property insurance.
Find the Best Rate
Discover the best coverage at the lowest rate in our low-cost business insurance review.
Common Situations That General Liability Insurance May Cover for a Scooter Rental Business
Example 1: An inexperienced rider reverses rather than accelerates forward, crashing before leaving the parking lot. The customer is injured and causes physical damage to a neighboring business’ delivery van. General liability insurance would cover the customer’s medical bills and costs to fix the damage to the delivery van.
Example 2: While visiting your business, a customer trips and inadvertently knocks down a row of scooters. One of the scooters falls onto another customer’s leg. The injured customer must later have surgery due to complications stemming from the accident and is seeking payment for damages. A general liability policy will cover legal representation and any resulting payout.
Example 3: Your marketing representative uses a tagline from a local author’s book. The author names both you and the marketing representative in a lawsuit. General liability insurance would cover the cost of legal representation and the damages ruled by the court, up to the limits of your policy.
Other Types of Coverage Scooter Rental Businesses Need
While general liability is the most important type of insurance to have, there are several other forms of coverage you should be aware of. Below are some of the most common types of coverage:
Commercial Property Insurance
If you own the building in which you run your scooter rental business, commercial property insurance is an essential part of your insurance package. This would cover the building as well as business property you keep on-site.
When considering your coverage amount, be sure to include the cost of any renovations you’ve made to the building and the replacement cost of all business property and specialized equipment stored there. Because your customers drive your rental scooters on public roadways, you may also need a separate auto policy for your fleet.
You can typically purchase this coverage as part of a business owner’s policy (BOP).
Workers’ Compensation Insurance
Your team is an essential part of your business’ success, so it’s important to cover them should an injury occur on-premises. Workers’ compensation is the state-mandated insurance that covers employees in the event of a work-related illness or injury. This covers medical bills for an employee’s work-related injuries, offers payment for lost wages, and also provides legal representation should a lawsuit occur.
You must purchase workers’ compensation insurance as a standalone policy.
Business Interruption Insurance
Could you keep your business afloat if you were forced to shut down for an extended amount of time? If not, you should consider purchasing business interruption insurance. In addition to replacing a portion of lost revenue, this insurance will help pay the expenses to move to a temporary location and any additional costs incurred because of that move.
You can typically purchase business interruption insurance as part of a business owners’ policy (BOP).
Commercial Umbrella Liability Insurance
While rewarding, the transportation industry faces increased liability risks with claims often exceeding the limits of primary liability policies. Commercial umbrella liability insurance increases liability coverage, protecting your business against sizable covered lawsuits.
Will scooters ruin my pants?
As little as we want to admit it, reality isn’t always blue skies and sunny days. It occasionally rains, and that’s a bummer for scooter riders.
There’s a saying among cycling commuters that “there is no bad weather, only bad clothes.” Essentially, riding can be done rain or shine as long as you dress appropriately.
While that’s largely true, it doesn’t hide the fact that swapping on rain pants and an extra jacket is an annoying extra step, whether that be for cyclists, scooter riders, or anyone else on two wheels. If it’s a light drizzle though and you have a scooter with a decently sized front shield (so not a Honda Ruckus), you likely won’t get very wet at all on the bottom half thanks to the scooter naturally redirecting the wet airstream around itself and its rider. Coming to a stop will still leave you getting rained on, but many winter riders already install a skirt on their scooter to keep road spray off, which also helps with rain.
Ultimately, weather is an annoyance that is faced by all two-wheelers, but that can largely be mitigated with a bit of prior planning. And even if an electric scooter is your second vehicle and you rely on a car for the days with bad weather, that’s still a lot better than driving a car 100% of the time.
Are electric scooters fast?
They sure can be! Don’t be fooled by some of the slower 20 mph e-scooters that masquerade under electric bike laws.
There are plenty of fast electric scooters out there, and many are quite affordable. The CSC Wiz will carry you over 40 mph (64 km/h).
My NIU NQi Extended Range gets darn close to 50 mph (80 km/h), though admittedly the top speed is a tad bit less with two riders and a half-discharged battery. NIU’s latest MQi EVO electric scooter pushes even faster up to over 60 mph (100 km/h).
And these are all small, lightweight electric scooters that are often considered to be 125cc-equivalent scooters.
Even higher-speed and higher-power models like the new BMW CE 04 push the envelope even higher to reach 75 mph (120 km/h), offering minimum highway-level performance for commuters that need to access a mix of slower and faster roads on their way to work.
Aren’t electric scooters expensive?
Sometimes, but not always. Many electric scooters are still fairly new. And new rarely means low-cost.
There are low-power and low-speed electric scooters that can be had for under 5000K, but most are going to start closer to 3K.
My scooter was priced closer to 4K in the US when I got it, though I wasn’t in the US and I paid a higher price thanks to import taxes.
Obviously a cheaper gas scooter is going to save some cash over an electric scooter, at least initially. But just like with cars, the gas cost will add up. Gas scooters may be more efficient than gas cars, but the gas still costs the same price, even if you’re using less of it.
Electric scooters, on the other hand, have almost zero operational costs. I use around US 450 in electricity per month to charge and ride my electric scooter. Let me repeat that. My 50 mph electric scooter that takes me and my wife all over the city and is the reason we don’t need a car – it costs me just 450 per month in “fuel.” And then there are the maintenance savings. Unlike gas scooters, which are in constant need of engine maintenance, electric scooters are almost maintenance free. I haven’t had to repair or replace a single thing on my electric scooter in two years. I’ll probably replace my tires in a year or so just due to age, but even my brake pads are still in good shape (partially due to using regenerative braking from the electric motor instead of brake pads much of the time).
So yes, electric scooters will cost a bit more than gas scooters at first. But the fuel savings and the maintenance savings alone will quickly add up and outpace a gas scooter.
In fact, electric scooters are so economical that many people won’t even need to trade their car in order to buy one since an electric scooter is a fraction of the price of a car. As I mentioned before, it can make a great second vehicle, and there’s a decent chance it will even become your first vehicle.
Or as Kluftinger put it while kicking a car door closed, “To get a scooter you won’t even have the sell the old box. Just whenever you can, think outside of it.”
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