Electric ride-ons for children
This category brings together electric ride-ons for children, meaning battery-powered cars, motorbikes, quads and tractors. As toys they come under the standard EN 71-1, which ties their top speed to the age of the child, and on the electrical side under EN IEC 62115, which covers toys up to twenty-four volts. You choose mainly by age, by battery voltage and by whether the vehicle also has a remote control for the parents. The maximum child weight printed on the box, by contrast, does not come from the standard but from the manufacturer.
Electric ride-ons for children
The electric vehicles in this category carry a child on their own motor and battery, not by pedalling or pushing off. Here you will find cars with a body, off-road buggies, motorbikes, quads and tractors with a trailer, in one- and two-seat versions. They differ in battery voltage, in the number of motors, in the type of wheels and in whether a remote control for the parents sits beside the steering wheel. Precisely because this is a motor vehicle and a toy at the same time, two standards apply to it at once.
The standard EN 71-1 ties the top speed to the age, and the figures are lower than most people expect. For children under three the vehicle may do no more than six kilometres per hour, and those same six also stand as the starting value for children under six. Eight point two is allowed only when the vehicle has a two-position limiter that can be moved solely with a tool and solely by an adult, and that must sit in the low position at the point of sale. Only from the age of six does the standard permit sixteen kilometres per hour, so the speed figure is always read together with the age marking.
Every electric vehicle must have a switch that cuts the drive by itself the moment the child lets go of it. The standard adds that if the vehicle has a brake, pressing it must cut the drive as well, and that the brake itself is mandatory only where the wheels have a freewheel. On vehicles with an unloaded mass of thirty kilograms or more at least one brake must be lockable, so the vehicle does not roll away on its own on a slope. Vehicles for children under six must also have a seat, a requirement that falls away for older children.
The figure for the maximum child weight is on almost every box, yet EN 71-1 does not prescribe it. The standard governs strength and the rule that the vehicle must not tip over in the stability test, and the thirty kilograms it mentions concern the vehicle itself and not the child. More surprising still, its requirements include neither seat belts nor a roll bar, so the belts in the photos are optional equipment. The load rating from the manufacturer is therefore worth taking seriously, but it is their assurance and not the result of a test to the standard.
On the electrical side the standard EN IEC 62115 applies, covering toys with a rated voltage up to twenty-four volts, so the whole range from six through twelve to twenty-four. The charger, however, does not come under it, because it counts as a product in its own right with its own standard, so a spare charger is always a separate product from the vehicle. The remote control for the parents has an annex of its own in this standard, which on vehicles for the youngest is not a detail but the main control.