Are Electric Go Karts Street Legal Uk?

Are electric go karts street legal in the UK? A great question. Hmmm… here is the short answer : They are not. At the same time, they can be. It all depends. Here is what I mean to say, in case your head is spinning with inquiries right about now ( as it ought to be, he he he heh heh heh ) …..

Electric go karts are considered by many to rightfully be “powered transporters” in some form or another ; whether they are used in the UK or not, the same basic label applies to them. So to make this easy, just think of it like this, friend : LSVs. That is the key word here. Low speed vehicles, in other words… that is what I mean. If you are able to jump through all the legal hoops and boundaries required ( and they can often be quite stringent, across the board… especially out in most countries of the UK, respectively ) to register your go kart as an LSV, then you will be able to use it on roads ( usually not highways, though, and it must be able to go around 35 miles per hour and not be terribly slow… like 10 – 15 miles per hour, which believe me, some really do have that as their max miles per hour limit…. just imagine trying to drive to your destination, while behind the person who is in such a slow – moving vehicle… what a real pain it must be, right? A test of your patience, I guess ) .

In the UK, there is also a max speed limit to keep in mind, and for go karts, it is typically right around that 35 – 40 mile per hour range and usually not much more. This means that any go kart you drive, that is 20 – 30 miles per hour in its max capacity, is ideal. It is just a rule that most would agree was put in place for safety… after all, a go kart should not be able to go fast enough to collide at full speed with another type of vehicle ( like a motorcycle, a car, a truck, an SUV, a trailer, or heck, even another person on a basic 2 – wheel, non – powered bike ) . Nor should it be able to hit a walking pedestrian at a terribly impacting speed…. think about it. If you’re at the max speed, of say, 25 miles per hour, when you slam those brakes, you’ll stop more quickly.