Morocco’s electric scooter “Wild West” may be nearing its end
A rider weaves between pedestrians outside Casablanca’s Twin Center, crosses a cycle lane, then joins Boulevard Zerktouni without signalling. In Rabat, another scooter travels along a crowded pavement because the rider considers the road too dangerous. Both scenes have become ordinary. Yet ask a simple question—where is an electric scooter legally supposed to travel?—and the answer remains surprisingly difficult.
A typical accident file illustrates the problem. A scooter rider knocks down a pedestrian, the police prepare their report, but there is no clearly identified category for the machine. Is it a motor vehicle, a cycle, a moped or merely a personal mobility device? Was insurance compulsory? Which traffic offence should be recorded? This is not a theoretical debate. The classification determines who pays compensation, which court has jurisdiction over the civil claim and whether a specific traffic penalty can lawfully be imposed.
Author’s update — 1 September 2026: no rule described below as “expected”, “proposed” or “probable” should be treated as enacted until its final text, number and effective date have been verified in Morocco’s Official Gazette. Press reports and ministerial announcements are not legislation. This article distinguishes current law from possible reform and deliberately avoids presenting unpromulgated fines or technical thresholds as binding rules.
The debate surrounding electric scooter regulations in Morocco in 2026 focuses on five practical issues: legal classification, a possible 25 km/h design or operating limit, permitted traffic areas, identification of scooters and compulsory third-party insurance. Here is what the existing Moroccan legal framework already says, what it does not say, and how riders can protect themselves while awaiting an unequivocal national regime.
1. What does current Moroccan law say about electric scooters?
1.1 An old legal framework facing a new machine
The foundation of Moroccan road traffic law is Law No. 52-05 establishing the Highway Code, promulgated by Dahir No. 1-10-07 of 26 Safar 1431 (11 February 2010). Its detailed implementation was supplemented by several regulatory texts, including Decree No. 2-10-311 of 20 Chaoual 1432 (19 September 2011).
The difficulty is chronological and technical. The Highway Code was designed before shared and privately owned electric scooters became a significant feature of Moroccan cities. Its definitions and administrative categories revolve around established concepts such as motor vehicles, mopeds, motorcycles, cycles, drivers and pedestrians. It does not create a clear autonomous category comparable to the French engin de déplacement personnel motorisé, or EDPM, introduced into French road law in 2019.
That does not mean that an electric scooter exists outside all law. General road safety rules, local traffic measures, criminal law and civil liability remain applicable. Nor does the absence of the expression “personal mobility device” automatically prove that every scooter is legally invisible. Depending on its construction, power and maximum design speed, an authority or court could attempt to bring a particular model within an existing definition of a motor vehicle or moped. The result depends on the statutory wording and the machine’s technical characteristics.
1.2 “Tolerated” is not the same as expressly legal
People often say that electric scooters are “legal because they are not prohibited”. That formulation is too broad. Ownership and ordinary use are not subject to a general national prohibition specifically naming electric scooters. However, using one in a pedestrian area, travelling dangerously, ignoring a police direction or operating a machine that legally falls within an already regulated vehicle category can still create liability.
Under the principle of legality of offences and penalties, an officer cannot invent an electric scooter fine in Morocco where no legal provision defines the offence and sanction. But conduct committed on a scooter may correspond to an existing offence independently of the machine’s name. Dangerous speed near pedestrians, bodily injury caused through negligence, or refusal to comply with a lawful order must therefore be analysed separately.
1.3 The registration question remains unresolved
There is no generally published, scooter-specific national registration procedure equivalent to the ordinary registration system for cars and motorcycles. Decree No. 2-14-619 of 12 Rabii I 1436 (4 January 2015), concerning vehicle registration, provides a useful reference point for registered motor vehicles, but it does not by itself establish a simplified plate or sticker for every electric scooter.
In practice, the owner should keep the purchase invoice, serial number, import or conformity documents, battery specifications and photographs of the scooter. These documents help prove ownership after theft or an accident and may become necessary if a future identification scheme is introduced.
In practice: photograph the serial number and retain the invoice in both paper and digital form. Do not pay an alleged “registration fee” to an unofficial intermediary. A genuine new procedure should identify the competent authority—likely NARSA or another expressly designated administration—its documents, tariff and legal basis.
2. What could the 2026 reform change?
2.1 A legal definition is the first essential step
The most urgent reform is not the fine schedule. It is the definition. A future Moroccan personal mobility device category would need to specify whether it covers a single-seat vehicle, whether it must be self-balancing, the number of wheels, permitted motor power and maximum design speed. It must also distinguish ordinary scooters from seated high-power machines that resemble mopeds.
This distinction matters. A light scooter capped at 25 km/h does not create the same risk as a machine advertised at 60 or 80 km/h. Treating both identically would be poor regulation. Conversely, selling a fast electric motorcycle under the commercial label “scooter” should not allow the user to bypass moped or motorcycle rules.
2.2 Will the maximum speed be 25 km/h?
A ceiling of 25 km/h is widely regarded as the most plausible benchmark because it is used in several European regulatory systems and technical standards. Nevertheless, as at the date of this update, the figure must not be stated as a nationally enforceable scooter-specific limit unless a promulgated Moroccan text confirms it.
There is also a difference between maximum design speed and the speed permitted in a particular place. A device may be manufactured so that motor assistance cuts out at 25 km/h, while local rules could require walking pace in a shared zone. General posted road limits are maximum limits, not a guarantee that any lower speed is automatically safe. A rider travelling at 20 km/h through a dense pavement can still be negligent.
2.3 Cycle lanes, roads and pavements
The likely regulatory model would prioritise cycle lanes and tracks, permit use on certain urban roads, and prohibit powered riding on pavements except where a sign or local measure expressly allows it. This would answer the most common question about the rules for electric scooters on Moroccan public roads.
Until a national rule is verified, riders should not assume that silence creates a right to use pavements. Pavements are designed primarily for pedestrians, including children, elderly people and persons with disabilities. Where a local order reserves a space for pedestrians, it must be respected. The safest course is to dismount and walk the scooter through a dense pedestrian zone.
2.4 Minimum age, passengers and equipment
Public discussion has mentioned minimum ages of 14 or 16, but no such number should be presented as final without the published text. The same caution applies to mandatory helmets, reflective clothing and bells. A reform may impose different duties according to age, road type or night-time use.
One restriction is easy to anticipate: carrying a passenger on a one-person scooter is inherently unsafe and may breach the manufacturer’s load specification. Parents should not wait for a fine before preventing young children from using powerful scooters on public roads.
In practice: voluntarily cap the scooter at 25 km/h, avoid pavements, never carry a passenger and use cycle infrastructure where it is safe and lawful. These precautions are not a substitute for checking the final law, but they significantly reduce accident and liability risks.
3. Registration or simplified identification?
3.1 Two possible regulatory models
A future electric scooter registration system in Morocco could follow one of two paths. The first is formal registration, with an administrative record and visible plate similar in principle to motor-vehicle registration. The second is lighter: a tamper-resistant identification sticker or engraved number linked to an owner database.
Formal registration helps identify a rider after a collision, supports insurance checks and makes stolen scooters harder to resell. It is also administratively expensive for low-value devices. Simplified marking costs less and can be implemented through authorised dealers, but it offers weaker control unless the database is reliable and accessible to police.
3.2 Likely documents and transition period
If registration is adopted, owners may be asked for proof of identity and address, a purchase invoice, serial number, certificate of conformity and technical specifications. Imported second-hand scooters without traceable documents could become difficult to regularise.
Estimates of 200 to 500 MAD and a transition period of six to twelve months have circulated in commentary. They are not official tariffs or deadlines unless reproduced in an enacted decree or administrative decision. Readers should be particularly cautious with social-media posts claiming that registration has “already started” without linking to an official form or legal text.
In practice: prepare a file now containing a copy of your CIN, invoice, serial-number photograph, model sheet and conformity certificate. Once a reform appears in the Official Gazette, check its effective date and transitional provisions before visiting NARSA or the prefecture.
4. Insurance: the issue riders should not postpone
4.1 Is scooter insurance already compulsory?
The answer requires more nuance than a simple yes or no. Morocco does not have a clearly identified insurance product made compulsory by a provision expressly naming ordinary electric scooters as a standalone category. But the wider insurance legislation may apply if a particular scooter is legally classified as a motorised land vehicle subject to compulsory motor liability insurance.
The relevant instruments include Law No. 17-99 establishing the Insurance Code and Dahir-Law No. 1-84-177 of 6 Moharrem 1405 (2 October 1984) concerning compensation for victims of accidents caused by motorised land vehicles. Their application turns on legal definitions, the nature of the accident and the characteristics of the machine—not merely on whether it has a number plate.
Consequently, it is unsafe to claim categorically that no insurance obligation can ever apply. It is equally unsafe for an insurer or seller to assure a customer orally that a home policy “covers everything”. The contract, exclusions and definition of insured vehicles must be read.
4.2 What coverage should a rider request?
The essential protection is third-party civil liability. It covers, within contractual and statutory limits, bodily injury and property damage caused to another person. Personal accident cover for the rider, theft and damage to the scooter are separate guarantees.
Ask the insurer to confirm in writing that the exact scooter model, motor power and maximum speed are covered during use on public roads. Some household comprehensive policies cover private-life liability but exclude damage caused by motor vehicles. An exclusion of that kind may leave the rider personally exposed.
Market estimates of roughly 200 to 600 MAD per year for basic protection are plausible but not a statutory price. Premiums depend on the product, guarantees, deductibles and risk assessment. Wafa Assurance, AXA Assurance Maroc, MAMDA and other authorised insurers or intermediaries may be asked for quotations, but their current products and conditions must be verified directly.
4.3 What happens without effective insurance?
A serious pedestrian injury can generate medical costs, temporary incapacity, permanent disability, lost income and moral damage. If no insurer intervenes, the rider may have to pay compensation from personal assets. The fact that the scooter cost only 4,000 MAD does not cap liability at 4,000 MAD.
The intervention of a guarantee fund must never be presumed. Eligibility depends on the governing legislation, the vehicle’s classification, the nature of the damage, procedural conditions and statutory deadlines. Even where a fund compensates a victim, it may have recourse against the responsible uninsured person.
For a disputed coverage file, consult an insurance lawyer in Morocco before signing a discharge or accepting a rejection based solely on a call-centre response.
In practice: send the insurer the model sheet by email and request an insurance certificate expressly covering third-party damage caused while riding the scooter. Keep the reply on your phone. A vague oral assurance has little evidential value after an accident.
5. Fines and sanctions: separating enacted law from estimates
5.1 No official fine without an official legal basis
Figures between 300 and 1,500 MAD have been suggested for future scooter offences, including speeding, pavement riding, missing lights or failure to wear required safety equipment. These amounts should be treated as scenarios, not as a promulgated national schedule, unless the final amending law and implementing decree state them.
The constitutional principle of legality requires an offence and its penalty to be established by a competent legal text. A commune may regulate traffic within its powers, but it cannot freely invent a criminal offence and determine a penalty without national legal authority.
5.2 Conduct likely to be targeted
A coherent reform would probably address riding above the technical or local speed limit, using prohibited pavements, carrying a passenger, using a telephone while moving, riding at night without front and rear lights, modifying the speed limiter and operating a scooter while impaired.
Immobilisation could be considered for a dangerously modified or unidentifiable device, while confiscation would require a clear legal basis and appropriate procedure. The Highway Code’s points system should not automatically apply to a scooter rider’s driving licence. Any extension would need express provisions identifying the offences, the person affected and the number of points withdrawn.
5.3 How to respond to a police check
Stop safely, remain courteous and provide legally required identification. Ask for the exact offence, legal reference and official report or receipt. Never pay cash without an official procedure. If a penalty notice appears legally unfounded, preserve it and use the applicable challenge process rather than arguing at the roadside. Our guide to contesting a fine in Morocco explains the basic evidential steps.
In practice: record the date, location, officer’s unit, report number and wording of the alleged offence. A challenge is stronger when it identifies a precise defect—wrong vehicle category, absent sign, mistaken facts or lack of legal basis—rather than merely asserting that the fine is unfair.
6. Accident liability: who pays?
6.1 The current basis in the Dahir of Obligations and Contracts
Where no special scooter regime gives a complete answer, Moroccan courts can apply the Dahir of Obligations and Contracts, commonly called the DOC. Article 77 establishes liability for a person who, intentionally and without legal justification, causes material or moral harm. Article 78 deals with fault consisting of an act or omission that causes damage.
Article 88 of the DOC establishes liability for damage caused by things in a person’s custody, unless that person proves that he or she did what was necessary to prevent the damage and that it resulted from a fortuitous event, force majeure, or the fault of the injured party.
An electric scooter is a “thing” under the rider’s control. Article 88 can therefore be central when the machine hits a pedestrian or damages a parked vehicle. The claimant must establish the damage, the involvement of the scooter and the relevant causal connection. Medical certificates, CCTV footage, witness details and the police report are often decisive.
6.2 Scooter versus pedestrian
If a rider strikes a pedestrian on a pavement, the place of impact strongly supports the pedestrian’s case, particularly where the rider was moving too fast for the circumstances. Compensation may include treatment costs, temporary incapacity, permanent impairment, lost earnings and non-pecuniary harm, subject to medical assessment and the applicable legal regime.
The pedestrian’s conduct may also be examined. A sudden, unforeseeable movement can affect causation or apportionment, but a rider cannot rely on ordinary pedestrian behaviour as if it were force majeure. In a pedestrian space, children stopping abruptly and people changing direction are foreseeable.
6.3 Scooter versus car
When a car and scooter collide, classification becomes especially important. Investigators will examine priority, signalling, lane position, lighting, speed and each driver’s conduct. The 1984 motor-accident compensation regime may be argued where its definition of a motorised land vehicle is satisfied, but its exact application to a specific electric scooter should not be assumed in either direction.
The victim should notify the potentially relevant insurers promptly and avoid signing a final settlement before the injuries stabilise. For procedural assistance, consult an accident compensation lawyer in Morocco and the Moroccan road accident compensation guide.
6.4 Minors and parental responsibility
Article 85 of the DOC contains rules concerning responsibility for damage caused by persons for whom another person is legally answerable, including parental responsibility in the circumstances prescribed by the article. The precise family situation, custody, cohabitation and facts must be examined. Parents should not assume that handing a high-powered scooter to a child creates no financial exposure because the child has no income.
6.5 What does Moroccan case law say?
Published Moroccan appellate and Court of Cassation decisions specifically classifying modern electric scooters remain difficult to identify. First-instance judgments are not systematically published, so responsible legal analysis cannot manufacture a Casablanca or Rabat decision number merely to make the issue appear settled. In practice, lawyers rely on established DOC principles, motor-accident law where applicable, expert reports and the factual findings in police records.
For a Casablanca file, an experienced road traffic lawyer in Casablanca can check local court practice and obtain the procedural documents. Serious injury files should be handled before the competent court with proper medical expertise rather than settled informally at the scene.
In practice after an accident: call the police or gendarmerie, secure the area, seek medical care, identify witnesses, photograph the vehicles and road layout, and obtain the report reference. Notify the insurer immediately within the contractual period. Do not repair or dispose of the scooter before it can be examined.
7. Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech: can cities impose their own rules?
7.1 The communes’ legal powers
Organic Law No. 113-14 relating to communes, promulgated by Dahir No. 1-15-85 of 20 Ramadan 1436 (7 July 2015), gives local authorities responsibilities affecting local services, public space and administrative policing. Article 100 addresses the president of the communal council’s exercise of administrative police powers, subject to the competences legally assigned to other authorities.
A commune may therefore organise circulation, protect pedestrian areas, regulate use of municipal spaces and install signs within its legal powers. But local authorities cannot contradict national legislation or create an autonomous criminal penalty without legislative authority. The exact author, publication and territorial scope of any alleged local order must be verified.
7.2 Electric scooters in Casablanca
The density of Casablanca makes pavement conflicts particularly acute around Maarif, the city centre, Casa-Port and major tram stations. Riders should obey local signs and avoid assuming that every cycle-looking strip permits motorised scooter use. Claims about a citywide ban or a specific Casablanca fine should be checked against the actual prefectural or communal order, not a screenshot circulated on social media.
7.3 Rabat and Salé
Rabat’s developing cycling environment may allow better integration of light mobility devices, but infrastructure alone does not answer the legal classification question. A marked track can have access conditions fixed by signage or a local measure. Anyone facing an accident or disputed notice may consult a road traffic lawyer in Rabat.
7.4 Marrakech and tourist rentals
Marrakech presents a particular risk: tourists rent unfamiliar machines near crowded areas and may not understand local traffic conditions. Rental businesses should provide functioning brakes and lights, a written safety briefing, insurance information and a contract identifying responsibility for damage. Riders should not enter pedestrian souks or other restricted spaces merely because the scooter is small.
For an injury involving a visitor, rental company or hotel, a road traffic lawyer in Marrakech can examine jurisdiction, insurance and contractual liability.
In practice: before operating a rental fleet, obtain the relevant local orders from the commune or prefecture and secure written insurance confirmation. A verbal statement from a seller that scooters are “completely unregulated” is not a compliance strategy.
8. How to prepare for stricter rules now
8.1 A sensible compliance checklist
- Use a properly fitted helmet meeting a recognised safety standard.
- Fit effective front and rear lights, reflectors and an audible warning device.
- Check both brakes, tyres, folding mechanism and battery before travelling.
- Keep speed below 25 km/h and reduce it sharply near pedestrians and junctions.
- Do not carry passengers or use a hand-held telephone while moving.
- Keep the invoice, serial number, conformity documents and insurance response.
- Avoid software modifications that remove the manufacturer’s speed restriction.
A CE marking may offer useful evidence that a product was manufactured for a particular market, but it is not a universal Moroccan road-use authorisation. Ask the seller for the exact standard applied, battery documentation, maximum design speed, motor rating and after-sales support. Be wary of invoices that describe a powerful scooter only as a “toy”.
8.2 Buying a compliant scooter
Buy from a traceable retailer that issues a detailed invoice and can supply replacement brake components and tyres. The invoice should identify the model and serial number. For imported devices, request the customs and conformity documents where applicable. If a future scheme distinguishes 25 km/h devices from faster machines, these technical records may determine whether the scooter can be regularised.
8.3 Following the official reform
Monitor the General Secretariat of the Government, the Official Gazette, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics and NARSA. Check the promulgation date, publication date and effective date: they may not be identical. Implementing decrees can also be necessary before registration or technical procedures become operational.
In practice: do not rely on headlines alone. Search the Official Gazette for the law or decree number, read the transitional articles and confirm whether an administrative platform has actually opened. Until then, no unofficial agent can guarantee registration or immunity from penalties.
Conclusion: prepare now, but do not confuse predictions with law
Morocco needs a clear electric scooter law. Riders, pedestrians, insurers, police officers, rental companies and judges all need the same answers: what counts as a personal mobility device, where it may travel, how fast it may go, whether it must be identified and which insurance applies.
The most plausible reform model includes a 25 km/h technical ceiling, restrictions on pavement use, safety equipment, an age threshold, third-party insurance and some form of identification. Yet none of those details should be treated as binding merely because it appeared in the press. The decisive event is publication of the final text in the Official Gazette and, where required, the entry into force of its implementing measures.
Until then, ride defensively, keep your documents, obtain written insurance confirmation and treat pedestrian safety as the priority. If an accident has already occurred or an authority has classified your scooter as a moped or motor vehicle, seek advice from an Moroccan lawyer specialising in traffic accidents. The legal cost of early advice is usually modest compared with an uninsured bodily injury claim.
