In Sweden, and I believe the rest of the EU as well, there is a well-established distinction: if the motor in an e-bike only engages when pedalling, the max output is 250w and the motor only activates up to 25 km/h, it’s considered to be a bicycle and falls under those rules. Anything with a throttle, higher motor output or lack of speed restrictions, it is considered to be a moped and falls under the ruleset for that category of vehicles.
Here in California, I’ve seen homeowners policies by State Farm and others which explicitly mention “two-wheel … personal conveyances… of no more than 1 HP [750 W]” and a top speed of 20 MPH [32 kph] or less. That neatly covers Class 1 and Class 2 ebikes. The coverage is under the personal property section, and is limited to $1000, so this might be a bit low for many people’s ebikes.
Having had this conversation with my insurance agent – and of course your own mileage will vary – anything outside of the specific exception above would indeed be outside the homeowner policy and thus uncovered. And nor would it be covered under an auto policy, unless said ebike was in or attached to an automobile at the time of loss. So at that point, only a Personal Article policy written specifically for an ebike would provide coverage. I’m informed that Personal Article policies run around 2-3% of the covered amount annually.
As for renters policies, I haven’t a clue. As always, it is advisable to review one’s insurance coverage after expensive purchases.
I’ve had terrible luck with State Farm as an insurance company for both my car and my house: You might wanna look at switching companies.
It’s also worth noting that you could also add a specific rider for your ebike regardless of which company you have.
I’m aware of the complaints about State Farm in California, and my conclusion is that a lot of it depends on whether the underwriters actually want to retain certain policies (eg near flammable forests) and how zealous your State Farm agent is. I’ve had some fantastic luck with my agent, who also wrote my parent’s policies dating back to the early 2000s. She retired this year, so the new agent has yet to be tested.
Also, when I checked for better quotes, no one could match State Farm for all my policies. But I still check every few years or so.
In my case, I do carry a policy for my Class 3 ebike; I can’t bring myself to call it a “rider” policy, since that’s too confusing in the context of ebikes haha
I’m not in Cali but State Farm fucking sucks.
The insurance companies will say whatever they can to get out of covering a claim, it doesn’t need to make sense.
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My understanding is that the federal government considers them to be motorized vehicles, it becomes an issue on trails. The insurance industry needs to get their act together. They are not pedal bikes.
It does not. Ebikes are not motor vehicles as long as they adhere to class 1-3 federal classifications.
Makes sense. So especially with those guidelines the insurance industry needs to get on the ball. That $1000 amount in the thread you also posted in is pretty sorry imo.
Yeah, no kidding: There are tons of ebikes out there that cost many times that much. Seems like kind of a scam on the part of the insurance companies.
