Too many people travel with this vehicle without insurance, the fine is particularly steep.
In France, the Highway Code is clear: any driver of a motorized vehicle must take out insurance before being able to take the road. Whether it is a car, a motorcycle, a scooter… Article L211-1 specifies that it is obligatory to benefit from civil liability insurance which aims to guarantee minimum protection for third party in the event of damage caused by a motor vehicle. If a driver hits a pedestrian or damages another vehicle, the insurance compensates the victim, even if the person at fault cannot pay. Driving a motor vehicle without insurance is a crime; the absence of insurance can be very expensive for the user.
Several studies, however, point to the explosion in the number of uninsured vehicles in France, with an increase of more than 200% between 2017 and 2023. A phenomenon which particularly affects users of a very fashionable means of transport. According to a survey carried out last year by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), around 2.5 million French people travel on an electric scooter. Among them, only 68% have insurance, which means that one in three users drive in traffic without being covered in the event of an accident. Accidents which, like the sale of these machines, have increased sharply in recent years.
Several hundred thousand users therefore face a very serious risk in the event of a collision with another road user, a pedestrian or quite simply during a simple check by the police. Since October 23, 2019, a decree has listed electric scooters in the category of “motorized land vehicles” which must be covered by insurance guaranteeing the civil liability of the driver.
Being unable to prove that the machine is insured can be very expensive. The law provides that driving without insurance can be punished with a fixed fine of 500 euros. This can be reduced to 400 euros for payment within 15 days or increased to 1,000 euros beyond 45 days.
And that’s not all, in the event of a repeat offense, the user of the electric scooter incurs a fine of up to 7,500 euros, which may be accompanied, depending on the circumstances, by other penalties such as suspension. of the driving license for up to three years, the cancellation of the driving license and the ban on re-taking it for a certain period of time (3 years maximum). For information, civil liability insurance for an electric scooter costs on average between 5 and 7 euros per month.