E-Bikes and Electric Scooters in California: A Family Guide

Before you buy: how California sorts e-bikes

In California an electric bicycle has pedals that fully work and a motor rated 750 watts or less. Class 1 helps only while you pedal and stops helping at 20 mph. Class 2 has a throttle that can move the bike without pedaling, but its help also ends at 20 mph. Class 3 also needs pedaling, but the motor keeps pushing until 28 mph, and the bike has to be fitted with a speedometer.

Pedal assist bikes in classes 1 and 3 are allowed a start assist or walk mode feature that moves the bike on motor alone at up to 3.7 mph. A pedal assist bike that will happily cruise at 20 on throttle alone is, legally, misrepresenting its class.

E-bike riders fall under the same Vehicle Code article as cyclists, beginning at Section 21200. So they share a cyclist's rights and duties: riding with traffic, obeying signals, and running lights after dark.

Before you buy: matching the rider's age

Under Vehicle Code 21213, nobody younger than 16 may operate a Class 3 e-bike. At the state level, classes 1 and 2 carry no age floor.

Two counties are allowed to go further. The Marin pilot in Section 21214.5 lets Marin County and its cities bar riders under 16 from Class 2 bikes and require helmets on Class 2. San Diego County's version, Section 21214.7, permits its local governments to keep children younger than 12 off both of the lower classes.

In both pilots, enforcement begins with 60 days of warnings and then becomes a $25 infraction. That ticket goes away if the young rider finishes the Highway Patrol's e-bike safety training inside 120 days. San Diego County owes the Legislature a report on results by January 1, 2028.

Consider a 13 year old in Sacramento: a helmeted ride on a Class 1 or Class 2 bike is legal. The same 13 year old in a San Diego County city that adopted the pilot may also ride, but an 11 year old there may not.

Every ride: helmets by age and class

Section 21212 of the Vehicle Code puts every bicycle rider younger than 18 in a buckled, well fitted helmet certified to the CPSC or ASTM standard whenever they ride on public streets, bikeways, paths or trails. E-bikes live in the same part of the code as bicycles, so minors on Class 1 and Class 2 bikes are covered.

Section 21213 goes further for Class 3: helmets for everyone aboard at any age, kids riding in a trailer or child seat and passengers included. If a minor gets a first helmet ticket under 21212, signing a sworn statement that it is the first one gets it dismissed, and the fine can never exceed $25.

A 2026 change to Section 21212 gives families another way out when a minor is cited for riding an e-bike without a helmet. Within 120 days, show the court a helmet that meets the standard and proof of a finished e-bike safety course (the Highway Patrol's counts), and there is no fee and no court record.

On the ride: roads, trails and sidewalks

E-bikes use roads and bike lanes just like bicycles. Under Section 21207.5, local authorities and agencies in charge of equestrian, hiking or recreational trails may ban e-bikes, or a single class, by ordinance, and California State Parks may ban any class from its bike paths and trails.

Whether bicycles can use sidewalks is left to each city and county, so the answer can change from one block to the next. Check for posted signs and read your city's municipal code before your teen picks a sidewalk route to school.

If the bike is not really an e-bike

A 2025 addition, subsection (d) of Section 312.5, closes a loophole. An electric two or three wheeler that ships ready to be tweaked beyond 750 watts or beyond 20 mph under motor power alone, one that has actually been tweaked that way, or one missing its pedals, is no e-bike, and sellers may not market or label it as one.

Such a vehicle might count as a moped (a motorized bicycle) under Section 406 if it stays below 4 gross brake horsepower and cannot top 30 mph; anything quicker is treated as a motorcycle. According to the DMV, the M2 license is the one for mopeds, motorized bicycles and pedal bikes with a motor bolted on, and M1 is for motorcycles. Mopeds additionally need a helmet and a plate from the DMV.

If your teen wants a stand-up scooter

The law's word for these is motorized scooter, defined in Section 407.5: two wheels, handlebars, a floorboard or seat, electric power. Scooters are not e-bikes, and Section 21235 governs how they are ridden.

Every rider must carry a valid instruction permit or driver's license. Passengers are prohibited, and so is sidewalk riding, apart from crossing one to get into or out of a driveway or property next to it. Minors must wear a bike helmet, and no scooter may legally exceed 15 mph anywhere.

On streets posted faster than 25 mph, a scooter must keep to a Class II bike lane or a Class IV separated bikeway, unless the city has raised the threshold to 35 mph by ordinance. Rental companies also set their own age and parking rules as part of their city permits.