Enhancing Urban Safety: EN 17860 Standards and the Growing E-cargo Bike Market

Electric cargo (e-cargo) bikes are an increasingly common sight, carrying families and small cargoes around our cities. But are they safe? Learn how the EN 17860 series of standards for carrier cycles will improve street safety.

Our cities are becoming ever more congested. Slow-moving fossil-fueled vehicles clog our streets and pollute our air. At the same time, we are more aware than ever before of the threat burning fossil fuels has on our climate. Governments and businesses are responding, committing themselves to reducing and phasing out the use of fossil-fuel vehicles for shorter distance trips, while consumers actively look for sustainable alternatives.

In this climate, the e-cargo bike provides the perfect solution. Able to navigate easily through traffic, it is nimble, fast, simple to maintain, cheap to run and sustainable. Its advantages have long been recognized in Europe, where it is common to see last-mile deliveries and trips like taking children to school being conducted on an e-cargo bike. This popularity is expected to continue in Europe, where the market is predicted to grow from USD 1.05 billion in 2024 to USD 1.60 billion in 2029. It is now also starting to happen across the rest of the world – USD 2.01 billion in 2024 to an estimated USD 2.92 billion in 2029.¹

Testing e-cargo bike safety

Until recently, there was only one standard a manufacturer could use to test e-cargo bikes – DIN 79010:2020. This defines the requirements and test methods for both single and multi-lane transport and cargo bicycles used to transport goods and persons. It includes those with electric motor support but does not apply to bicycles under the scope of standards such as ISO 4210, ISO 8098 (children's bicycles), EN 16054 (BMX bicycles) and EN 15194 (EPAC bicycles). It is also only applicable in Germany.

Manufacturers supplying other EU countries could use EN 15194, but this only really applies to city and trekking bikes with electric motors and does not consider the characteristics of cargo bikes. This lack of applicability to e-cargo bikes is a problem because in recent years their weight carrying ability has increased significantly, which can cause problems such as cracked frames.

EN 17860

Developed by the CEN/TC 333/WG 9 working group, this series of standards covers single-track cargo bikes (up to 300kg), multi-track bikes (up to 300kg), heavy cargo bikes (up to 650kg) and bike trailers with their own electric drives.

In total, the series will include seven standards:

• 17860-1: Terms and definitions
• 17860-2: Lightweight single-track carrier cycle – mechanical and functional aspects
• 17860-3: Lightweight multi-track carrier cycle – mechanical and functional aspects
• 17860-4: Heavyweight multi-track carrier cycle – mechanical and functional aspects
• 17860-5: Electrical aspects
• 17860-6: Passenger transport
• 17860-7: Trailers

DIN 79010:2020 is at the heart of these standards, but it has been extended with improved requirements and test method descriptions. There is now also a distinction between commercial and private usage, with the dynamic test for pedaling force being doubled for commercial use – 200,000 cycles instead of 100,000 cycles.

This matters because manufacturers will need to identify the difference between commercial and private usage. For example, what should they do if an e-cargo bike is purchased by a company for an employee to commute to work?

Testing options

There are three testing options available to manufacturers:

• Road test over 300 km with specified road conditions
• Test machine
• Computer simulation