Important: e-scooters now require compulsory insurance in Hungary

Starting from Tuesday, around 50,000 e-scooters will only be allowed on Hungarian roads with compulsory insurance. Riders must be able to show proof of insurance at roadside checks and must ensure the vehicle is insured when renting it.

According to 24.hu, under the current legislation, the scooter’s user is responsible for ensuring the vehicle is covered by insurance and must provide proof during roadside checks by obtaining a certificate from the insurance company, either on paper or electronically. Unlike cars and commercial vehicles, e-scooters don’t have unique identifiers, so there is no central insurance register for these vehicles. In the case of rental scooters, the insurance is provided by the rental company, but it is still the responsibility of the customer to ensure that compulsory insurance is in place before starting the rental.

Photo: depositphotos.com

However, not all e-scooters will be affected by the new regulation. Scooters heavier than 25 kilograms must be insured if their design speed exceeds 14 km/h, and all scooters, regardless of weight, must be insured if their design speed exceeds 25 km/h. It is not yet clear how the authorities will determine on the spot what the speed limit of a given vehicle is, Telex reports.

According to the experience of insurance brokers, most scooterists can find suitable compulsory insurance for their vehicle for less than HUF 10,000 (EUR 25.5) per year. However, the price varies considerably from insurer to insurer. The main reason for this may be that there are currently no road traffic regulations for such vehicles, so the true degree of risk cannot be accurately determined.

Importance of insurance for e-scooters

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“It is definitely worth paying ten thousand forints a year for compulsory insurance for e-scooters. Not only to avoid fines (we do not yet have information on the expected practice of the control), but also because these vehicles can easily cause damages worth millions of forints,” stated Zsolt Cselovszki, member of the Hungarian Presidency of Independent Insurance Associations (FBAMSZ).

“The small wheels and the poor road surface in many places make it almost certain that sooner or later everyone will experience a minor or major accident with this vehicle. However, compulsory insurance only covers damage caused to others, so it is worthwhile for scooterists to take out personal accident insurance to protect themselves as well,” he added.

As we previously reported, although more than 60,000 e-scooters have been in use on Hungarian roads for years, their regulation still leaves much to be desired. The rapid development of technology has challenged legislators, who, it seems, have not yet been able to respond adequately to this increasingly pressing, and nowadays not so novel, challenge.

These vehicles are currently not part of the Highway Code, and as such, there is no specific vehicle category in Hungary that covers this means of transport. In 2019, Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér, in response to a question from a member of parliament, said that scooters should be treated as mopeds until separate legislation is created to regulate them. This position was later confirmed by the National Police Headquarters.

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