Journey to getting an electric moped (A1, A2 class)

Hi all, can anyone confirm for me what license you need for Niu NGT...will a full AM Irish license do it?

Thanks

So the scooter I'm looking at buying is the Niu NQI GT, the 75 Km/h one.

I have a full car licensse and the full AM part came with it..

So is the scooter covered under that AM part of the license ? or do I need to do a driving test for the A1 or A2 or whatever category the Niu NQI comes into...

Thanks all

Ok...thanks very much

Have elion gone ?

Is there nobody in Ireland selling these scooters....???

Thanks.

There are still very limited options in terms of an Ireland based servicing/ backup organisation selling these.

Here are 3 models, i came across, of well known brands, with what might be considered stable and solid backup.

Seat have the “Mo”, which is basically the Spanish Company “Silence” model re badged, but it does have a half decent 137km range, and it says servicing carried out at Seat centres. Its a 125cc equivalent, re licence.

2 year warranty, 4 years on battery, but must be charged every month or battery warranty voided.

I have not seen official pricing though, but might be more than €7,500 here, as its £5,800 after grant in the UK, it has a Max speed is 95kmph, and Seat have good basic info here:

https://www.seat.ie/urban-mobility/mo/overview.html

The Mo has the same unique removable battery on wheels, (as the Silence)to suit those in appartments etc

Then there is the Vespa Electtrica, which is not even listed on the Vespa Ireland site, but its here on this Dublin website. There are two models a 45 & 70 kmph, both have range max of around 100kmph. Price is a hefty € 8,200, for the faster 70kmph, €7,795 for the 45 kmph.

https://megabikes.ie/catalogsearch/result/?q=Vespa+elettrica

Then there is the “coming soon” Yamaha “Neo’s”, a smaller less powerful model, which has a very small range of 37km, (7 hours +recharging time)can be almost doubled with 2nd battery but this eats up, most of the under seat storage space, and a TBC guide price of €4,444, it has the advantage of being AM licence, so people who have a car licence (B+AM) can drive it without further tests etc. Top speed is 44kmph to keep it in the lower licence category

https://megabikes.ie/yamaha-neo-s-tbc

I contacted Seat, and they confirmed the Mo 125 has not been released in Ireland yet.

Their website has a lot of detail on the Mo 125. and they had press announcements in recent months fanfaring its release, but is still not available, nor, is pricing confirmed either.

Ok so I did a big brain dump into chatgpt so apologies in advance that it reads like some AI generated stuff, but otherwise would be like three pages long. So this is for Silence S01:

I bought my Silence secondhand from someone who had originally bought it through Harley-Davidson Dublin. Harley-Davidson had briefly become an authorised Silence dealer and imported a few bikes, but from what I can tell they exited pretty quickly because the bikes just never really took off here. Apparently they still even have one sitting on display in the shop.

I came across the bike while looking for a practical commuter. I specifically wanted something electric: low maintenance, cheap to run, easy to live with, but still enjoyable. I’m in my late 30s with kids, so unlike younger me, I was deliberately trying not to get too deep into “bike culture” or end up chasing bigger and faster bikes. I even went for an A2 automatic licence partly to put barriers in front of myself. I wanted something functional first and foremost.

The biggest shock by far was insurance.

Honestly, trying to insure an electric bike in Ireland was an absolute disaster. None of the mainstream insurers wanted to touch it, even though some had the bike listed on their systems. I eventually had to go through the declined cases route and ended up with AXA, who were actually very decent in fairness, but the process was painful. Their risk team wanted engineer reports, photos, technical specs, power outputs, and all sorts of supporting documentation.

Even getting the Certificate of Conformity from Silence Spain was nearly impossible. By pure luck I eventually got a copy through Revenue because they still had one from when the bike was first imported into Ireland. I believe Spirit Motor Group originally imported them, while Harley-Davidson handled sales.

From buying the bike in September, it took until around November or December before I could actually get insured and legally ride it. That was probably the single most frustrating part of the whole experience.

One thing I also discovered the hard way was that the bike couldn’t actually be used for my A2 driving test, despite effectively performing like an A2 bike. The issue is how electric bikes are categorised for RSA purposes. The battery weight apparently isn’t included when calculating the power-to-weight ratio, which makes absolutely no sense because the battery is both massive and essential to the bike functioning. Combustion bikes include the engine weight in their calculations, but electric bikes seem to get treated differently (EU rules, not updated yet to handle electric motorbikes).

So after all my planning, I found out I couldn’t use my own bike for the test and had to do it on a combustion 250cc I’d barely ridden before. Thankfully I passed, but it definitely added stress.

As for the bike itself, though, I genuinely love riding it.

It’s incredibly smooth, very zippy, and honestly feels more like a 250 than a 125. The instant torque is brilliant in traffic and actually makes you feel safer because you can get yourself out of awkward situations quickly. The hub motor setup also means the under-seat storage is enormous. I can fit two helmets plus clothes under there easily, so I don’t even need a top box.

The app side of things is also surprisingly good. GPS tracking, alarms, telemetry, remote features — loads of stuff I genuinely didn’t expect from a scooter.

The funny thing is that electric bikes are still so uncommon in Ireland that the Silence gets loads of attention. Mine is green, so if you see a silent green moped gliding around Dublin, that’s probably me. In Paris last week they were absolutely everywhere, but here they’re still a complete novelty.

The biggest concern I have now is support and long-term reliability.

Consumable stuff like tyres and brake pads is no issue, but if something major goes wrong with the battery, BMS, electronics, or telematics, you are basically on your own in Ireland. That reality only really hit me after buying the bike. There’s effectively no proper support network here anymore, and only limited support in the UK. Most of the actual expertise seems to be in mainland Europe.

I’ve already had to learn how to take apart fairings and do some small repairs myself, including fixing badly routed brake lines and replacing the brake light switch. Thankfully there are Facebook groups, workshop manuals, maintenance schedules, and enough online discussion that I think most things could probably be figured out eventually, but it’s definitely intimidating as a first-time bike owner.

I also started reading forum posts about reliability issues appearing once these bikes hit 10–15k kilometres, which worried me a bit. On the other hand, seeing thousands of them operating normally in cities like Paris reassured me that online forums probably overrepresent the horror stories.

So overall, I’d say this:

The riding experience itself is excellent. For commuting, city riding, practicality, storage, ease of use, and running costs, I think these bikes are genuinely brilliant. But in Ireland specifically, you really need to understand what you’re getting into from an insurance and support perspective before buying one.

I’m hoping I get a good few years out of mine because honestly, despite all the headaches, I really do enjoy riding it.

**

Okay there is more I can talk about but that's the general jist of it.

17% loss after just 3000 miles sounds the opposite though.

I asked Ai

"What electric motorbike 125cc equivalent is most likely to be insurable in Ireland due to its popularity"

Answer : The Super Soco TC Max is currently the 125cc-equivalent electric motorcycle most likely to be insurable in Ireland.

Insuring an electric motorcycle in Ireland can be notorious because the domestic underwriting market is incredibly small, and insurers often refuse to quote vehicles that are not pre-loaded into their computer databases. Because the Super Soco brand (and the Super Soco Ireland distributor network) has been active in the country for several years, its models are widely recognized by the major Irish two-wheel underwriters

"Even the IBT Trainers I done my IBT with were not sure if electric bikes could be insured or if it was worth them getting one."

Don't get me started on that, plus the RSA too had no idea how to confirm if I could use the bike for test. As I said in the end I didn't due to how dry weight is calculated. It was mental it was basically like the assessor may or may not accept your bike and may or may not accept the technical specs to support that it's within category.

It is mad the whole lack of electric bikes support here but at the same time the market is small. Interestingly in work there is a lot of hand wringing by the building managers about my charging my bike in the building. AI this and AI that bit God forbid you stick 600 watt charger in a 13 amp plug. They even said something about "what if the bike is wet"..

And again in fairness to AXA we had a ton of back and forth and they were doing their best to help me out, while balancing the risk from their perspective of this new unknown thing.

Anyway I'll keep an eye on the thread but I'll drop off, so if anyone has more Qs I'll get to them eventually, apologies in advance for any delays! Cheers