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regular bicycles – even though they
are clearly not. ‘As you can imagine,
the terms of use for these vehicles is
much more attractive than for electric
bicycles categorised as mopeds. As a
result, hardly any other type of electric
bicycle is coming on the market.’
To date, only vehicles that fall outside
this type-approval are subject to the
Waste Electrical & Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Directive. ‘As far
as I know, L-category vehicles are not
subject to any end-of-life legislation,
except for the batteries in electric
vehicles,’ Roetynck says. The argu-
ment has always been that the com-
ponents of mopeds and motorcycles
are being re-used. ‘However, that
does not apply for other, new vehicles
in the L-category, such as speed pede-
lecs. It is totally illogical that some
LEVs are excluded from existing elec-
tronics waste management rules.’
a simpler way?
It’s fair to state that both the WEEE
and the Battery directives function
quite well through national schemes.
‘Even so, European technical legisla-
tion creates very serious bottlenecks
in the value chain because it is still
based on out-dated concepts of day-
to-day transportation,’ Roetynck main-
tains.
The outcome is that many companies
now have great difficulty understand-
ing and therefore correctly applying
all the laws. This applies not only to
product and traffic safety but also the
recycling and transporting of lithium-
ion batteries.
‘Our association believes that it is
really necessary to subject all light
vehicles to the same rules. The fact
that there are two separate registers
for batteries and for WEEE constitutes
an unnecessary administrative burden,
Roetynck argues. ‘Businesses would
benefit from a simplification in this
field.’
She thinks consumers and local author-
ities may be able to make a difference.
‘There are multiple awareness cam-
paigns to encourage people to bring in
household batteries for recycling.
Perhaps it would be useful to develop
a similar campaign for lithium-ion bat-
teries considering the importance of
recycling in improving the environmen-
tal impact of these batteries.’
Meanwhile, LEVA-EU and its industry
partners – such as Recharge – will con-
54-55-56-57_e-mobilityupdate.indd 56 15-04-20 15:30
