The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has type-approved a new kind of electric two-seat vehicle made in Finland for road use. The Scouter represents a new way of getting around without generating any harmful local emissions.
This four-wheel category L1e-A vehicle can be driven wherever cycling is allowed – following traffic rules applied to bicycles. The driver does not need a driving licence, but the vehicle must be insured with a motor vehicle liability insurance policy. The Scouter has a maximum speed of 25 km/h.
“There was a clear lack of a lightweight road traffic solution designed for transporting both people and goods over short distances,” says Petri Pitkänen, the founder and CEO of Scouter Mobility Oy, about the birth of the idea. “Besides zero emissions, our primary design criteria included simplicity, safety and fun. When you are the first to do something that no one has thought of before, you are inevitably in for an exciting journey. Novel solutions challenge old ways of thinking about the world. Achieving the carbon neutrality goals of cities and holiday resorts requires solutions like the Scouter to reduce transport emissions,” A.A. continues.
Type-approval of new types of vehicles can now be carried out entirely in Finland
The Scouter is the first category L electric vehicle to have been EU type-approved in Finland. “This means that the vehicle can also be approved for road use elsewhere in Europe based on the Finnish approval,” says Specialist Jukka Juhola from Traficom.
Vehicle category L1e-A, which includes the Scouter, is rare, so applying its technical requirements to a four-wheeled vehicle required a new approach.
The testing methods associated with the approval also required some additional effort on the part of research institutes. “It was great to see Finnish research institutes rise up to the challenge by actively developing their own expertise and testing capabilities. What is especially wonderful about this is the fact that now other operators can also get these types of new vehicles type-approved in Finland,” states B.B..
The party primarily responsible for the approval testing of the Scouter was the Finnish company Testmill. “We at Testmill want to comprehensively serve the Finnish vehicle industry to make sure that the range of testing services required for vehicle approval available in Finland is as comprehensive as possible. As the Finnish vehicle industry produces new kinds of products, we must also be able to provide the testing services required for them. This is the guiding principle that we have followed throughout our company’s history, and we were very excited to be involved in the Scouter project from the very beginning. We wish the Scouter all the success in the world!” says the Managing Director of Testmill Teemu Lindfors.
The testing of the vehicle’s electric transmission was carried out by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. “Carrying out the tests required a particular degree of innovation on the part of VTT in regard to adapting its vehicle testing hardware in Espoo, as this was quite an exceptional measuring arrangement. VTT rose to the challenge by developing an entirely new measuring method for lightweight vehicle types like the Scouter, which was accredited by FINAS early this year. The transition from fossil fuels to electricity is bringing vehicles with completely new kinds of transmission to the market. We at VTT have a high level of expertise in regard to this transition,” explains Senior Scientist Jenni Pippuri-Mäkeläinen from VTT.
Additional information
https://scoutermobility.com/ (External link)
Scouter Mobility’s bulletin (External link) (19 May 2021)
https://www.traficom.fi/en/transport/road/electric-personal-transportation-devices (External link)
Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Jukka Juhola, Specialist, jukka.juhola @traficom.fi , tel. +358 (0)29 534 5527
Scouter Mobility, Petri Pitkänen, petri.pitkanen@scoutermobility.com, +358 (0)50 486 7487
Testmill LTD, Teemu Lindfors, teemu@testmill.fi, tel. +358 (0)44 706 0403
VTT, Jenni Pippuri-Mäkeläinen, Senior Scientist, jenni.pippuri-makelainen@vtt.fi, tel. +358 (0)41 455 0427