Buying a Gas Scooter? Check Emissions Standards

Make Sure Your Gasoline Scooter Meets Emissions Standards!

Photo by Glass Window

 Randy Bearup a Sacramento California resident decided to park his SUV and use a gas scooter for 

transportation. He'd owned motorcycles, Harley's, Yamaha's and others. So Randy decided a scooter would be good for short trips to the store, you know stuff like that. So he goes to the Ricardo motors warehouse in Sacramento and gets a Ricardo scooter. It gets 75 miles to the gallon, great for the environment, right? He even asks the guy selling the scooter does it meet California emissions standards, some of the most stringent in the United States. The Ricardo Motors website & catalog say Randy's bike is EPA approved, and a tag on the bike also says so. It also says it's California approved... But it wasn't.

California Wants the Scooter Tag and Registration Back

So Randy gets a letter from the California DMV saying it wants the registration and license plate returned meaning he can't drive it on the road legally. Officials from the DMV say the scooter hasn't been tested and could put out as much pollution as 100 SUVs.

"Realistically, we can see an uncertified motorcycle or scooter, that can emit as much pollution as 100 SUV's or pickup trucks, and that's not an exaggeration."

State regulators say that they're being flooded with scooters using these cheap engines, all of them coming from China. The scooter Randy bought are identical to other brands, they're made at the same factory and branded differently. Some of the other models are approved, but Randy's engine I.D. numbers aren't identical and that means his scooter isn't approved.

So, if you're thinking of buying a gas scooter in California you can call 1-888-END-SMOG, and someone there can tell you if your gas scooter engine meets emissions standards.