Regulations Change Mobility Device Plans
According to the South Korean press, Hyundai Motors (005380.KS) has cancelled plans to launch an electric kickboard due to changes that were made to the country’s traffic laws earlier this year. The company is shifting development from the device to a ‘purpose-built vehicle for the delivery market’ and will expand that to a larger vehicle in the future. The new laws, which were instituted in May, require all scooter, electric bike, and ‘personal mobility device’, users be licensed (minimum age 16, up from 13 previously) and must wear a helmet, with violations ranging from $17 (no helmet) to $85 for underage riders (guardian must pay).
German kickboard producer Wind Mobility (pvt), a producer of kickboards and sharing services that entered the South Korean market in 2019, has seen it usage drop by 70% since the new laws went into effect in May and has decided to leave the market, although ridership for such devices had doubled between 2017 and 2019, while Hyundai Motors spent $3.4m to acquire a South Korean kickboard start-up in 2019 when it began development of its own kickboard.
The laws for electric scooters varies considerably both by country and by city, with 12 states in the US requiring helmets and a few considering them tacitly illegal, although changes are afoot. In Europe, rules vary by country or even city, so uniformity is certainly not a driving force, and in Asia, where e-bikes and scooters are quite popular, rules vary from Japan’s strict control (classified as motorcycles) to India’s lack of helmet requirements being the norm. At a peak speed of 25nph, a fall or collision with another moving vehicle could prove fatal, as it did for 10 users in Korea, prompting the tighter regulations, but it seems some value vanity over the ability to have an intact skull.
German kickboard producer Wind Mobility (pvt), a producer of kickboards and sharing services that entered the South Korean market in 2019, has seen it usage drop by 70% since the new laws went into effect in May and has decided to leave the market, although ridership for such devices had doubled between 2017 and 2019, while Hyundai Motors spent $3.4m to acquire a South Korean kickboard start-up in 2019 when it began development of its own kickboard.
The laws for electric scooters varies considerably both by country and by city, with 12 states in the US requiring helmets and a few considering them tacitly illegal, although changes are afoot. In Europe, rules vary by country or even city, so uniformity is certainly not a driving force, and in Asia, where e-bikes and scooters are quite popular, rules vary from Japan’s strict control (classified as motorcycles) to India’s lack of helmet requirements being the norm. At a peak speed of 25nph, a fall or collision with another moving vehicle could prove fatal, as it did for 10 users in Korea, prompting the tighter regulations, but it seems some value vanity over the ability to have an intact skull.
Hyundai Motors Electric Kickboard - Source: Hyundai Motors
Traffic Stop - South Korea - Source: Yonhap News
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