Originally Posted by
bargainguy
I believe the original nano Brompton battery was 266w. So technically illegal by European standards, but one wonders how this is enforced. "Freeze! Battery police! Take your hands away from the handlebars slowly..."
Seems you are confusing some things.
The legal limitation is a maximum
continuous motor support of 250 watts (higher peaks are legal and common) and max. supported speed of 25kph. There is no limitation on the battery (plus batteries are described by voltage (volts), power (ampere) and capacity in watt-hours (wh) or ampere-hours (ah), not in watt as watt would not make any sense at all) .
The power of the motor is not the problem 250w takes you over the 25kph limit and the short (legal) peaks help on hills. The low kph-limit is something I dislike as I think it is too low - even a non-sporty rider will hit this limit continuously and often at least temporarily be faster than that even w/o motor. In the US and Canada there seems to be a limit, too, but it is a bit higher - at least the "US/Canade-mode" in some motors supports up to 32kph (and this is still not an issue with the 250w that the motor delivers). Seems more practical to me. And I would assume if and when the Brompton Electric ever comes to the US it will have this mode as well as it is just software and therefor cheap and easy to implement.