Overview
- From January 2, 2026, Spain requires electric scooters to be registered, display visible identification, and carry insurance, with fines for noncompliance.
- A Supreme Court ruling on November 17, 2025 confirms that scooters exceeding VMP limits can be classified as mopeds, triggering potential criminal liability for unlicensed riding under Article 384.2 of the Penal Code.
- Judges emphasized that legal status hinges on technical specifications rather than a vehicle’s appearance, aligning enforcement with EU Regulation 168/2013.
- The case underpinning the ruling involved a 1,900-watt scooter capable of 45 km/h ridden in Barcelona in 2021, which the court treated as a moped.
- EU norms cited in the decision place VMPs in a lower-speed bracket, generally limited to roughly 6–25 km/h, with higher-performance devices falling into moped category L1e-B.