NSW can now seize and crush illegal e-bikes, but does that apply to e-scooters?

What this law actually targets

The Road Transport Amendment (Non-registrable Motor Vehicles) Bill 2026, introduced to NSW parliament in March 2026, gives NSW Police and Transport Authorised Officers new powers to seize and crush illegal e-bikes. The target is specific: throttle-only, high-powered e-motorbikes being sold and ridden as if they were e-bikes, when they actually perform like unregistered motorbikes. NSW's own framing is direct: "if an e-bike is performing like a motorbike, it can be seized and crushed." The legislation is modelled on similar seize-and-crush laws already in place in Western Australia.

This sits alongside a wider set of NSW e-bike measures: reducing the e-bike power limit from 500 watts to 250 watts, enforcing the EN15194 pedal-assist standard already used in the rest of Australia, a minimum age limit for e-bike use, and new lithium-ion battery safety standards following fire risk concerns.

The roadside dyno units

NSW is also the first state to trial portable dyno testing units, three units funded with $100,000 from the Community Road Safety Fund, sourced from Europe where the technology is already used by law enforcement. A dyno tests how a bike's motor performs against resistance, letting police confirm on the spot whether the motor keeps providing power beyond the 25 km/h pedal-assist threshold, rather than relying on visual inspection alone. Devices found non-compliant at the roadside can now be seized and, under this legislation, ultimately crushed.

Where e-scooters fit in (they don't, here)

None of this extends to e-scooters. E-scooters are classified as personal mobility devices (PMDs) under a separate part of NSW's road rules framework, distinct from the pedal-assist and wattage definitions this bill uses to define a legal e-bike. NSW's current PMD framework is also more restrictive than several other states in a different way: private e-scooters are currently limited to private property, with public riding only available through council-approved shared hire schemes operating in specific trial areas, see our full state-by-state e-scooter law guide for the current picture. That's a genuinely different regulatory problem to the one this bill is solving, and the seize-and-crush powers introduced here are scoped to e-bikes and e-motorbikes, not PMDs.

For comparison, Queensland has taken a different path and does now apply seizure powers specifically to illegal personal mobility devices, alongside random breath testing for PMD riders, see our coverage of QLD's PMD seizure and breath testing powers. NSW hasn't announced an equivalent PMD-specific seizure power at this stage, this bill is squarely about e-bikes and e-motorbikes.

The practical takeaway

If you're in NSW and shopping for an e-bike, the message from the government is blunt: check before you buy, because a device that looks like an e-bike online can legally be an unregistered motorbike, and buying one in good faith doesn't protect it from seizure. If you're specifically looking at an e-scooter rather than an e-bike, this law doesn't change your situation, NSW's existing PMD rules (private use restricted to property, public riding via approved hire schemes) are the ones that actually apply, see our comparison of electric scooters vs electric bikes for commuting if you're weighing up which device actually suits what you need.