Bringing Ebike from US to Portugal

I'm using a cargo company to ship my ebike to my new home in Porgutal. They assured me I can ship the battery if it is disconnected from the frame. I am worried that they will ship it but that when it arrives in Portugal it will be rejected somehow.

From this forum I have found one post that said up to 1000 watts is OK in Portugal, but I have not found any source of information in either Portuguese or English related to batteries. My setup is an Xtracycle cargo bike with an Bafang 8Fun middrive and currently a 48 volt / 12 ah battery. It has a throttle and pedal assist. I will be upgrading the battery, either here or after I arrive in Portugal.

I would appreciate anything you can tell me about Ebikes and Portugal.

1) Can I bring a 48 - 24 Ah battery to Portugal (via cargo ship)
2) Where can I read about Portuguese ebike laws?
3) Do the police stop you and check wattage or battery?
4) Where do people lock their bikes outside? I don't see many bike racks where I will be living (Caldas da Rheinha)

maybe you could ship your battery separately. so they can't complicate things with your cargo box.

International shipping of Lithium Ion Batteries (any chemistry) is covered by UN3480, UN 3481 and UN3090.
There is a good summary here: https://www.gwp.co.uk/guides/un3480-regulations/

I'm mighty curious myself. I'd sure love to have my motorized recumbent - the roads are said to be mostly OK for cycling, but there's often some stretches where the only route from point A to point B is more of an auto corridor with no room for slow traffic on the sides. (Just from what I can see in street view data, haven't been yet.)

At a glance, the code puts the usual European limit at 250W, for velocípedes. From there up to 4kW, you're a ciclomotor (and speed limited to 45km/hr.) I got started on that at https://www.e-bike.com.pt/?mod=bicicleta-codigo-estrada, which looks like an interesting guide to bicycle rules maintained by an ebike retailer.

From there, it looks to me like a ciclomotor means

• special license - Licença de Condução para Ciclomotores
• registration from the câmara municipal - um certificado de matrícula (livrete), donde constem as características que os permitem identificar, de modelo a fixar em regulamento, o qual deve acompanhar o veículo sempre que este circule na via pública.
• homologation, which the factory has to work out with the Direcção-Geral de Viação.
• lights etc. to meet the spec

So - if that's all true - I guess the thing to do would be to feign ignorance (by the way, sorry to bear this news, I won't tell anyone), and then once you're busted, pay the fine and do the time, and get a scooter. I wouldn't guess you'd ever get your Bafang crank drive through that legal process. It may not all be true, though. I'm not a lawyer, and I ran out of steam pretty quick looking through this stuff. The details from one source don't seem match another (45km/hr?, 40km/hr?), and I may have dug up outdated info. It might be possible to get some insight from retail/rental sites, like https://pt.ciclo-ebikes.com/shop.

Caldas da Rainha seems nice. I have a thing for Marinha Grande, myself, kind of hard to explain.

Great Links! thanks for the info

Put it in a bicycle transport case and register it as extra luggage at the airport. Only, ship the battery separately via a courrier/transport company who will conform with the rules. UPS, FedEx, DHL, .... they all have a license to ship batteries and people to fill the list of requirements.

If I get to the point where I'm exporting my household across the Atlantic, not much of it is going via airport luggage. Bicycles, tubas, etc. shipping the classic way, on a ship. You need an inventory / manifest, including I believe value of each item, and a notarized statement that you own the lot. Can't imagine the customs people would care if it's legal to ride on the road. If the shipper says a battery is OK, then I suppose they would know. (Though if the battery is due to be replaced anyway, worth the trouble?)

We are bringing 8 pieces of luggage. My bike is a cargo bike (Xtracycle) so I think it would exceed any limits on bike size for inside the plane. We might pack my wife's standard bike in a bike box and fly it.

I also have the Swytch kit for my Brompton Folding bike, and if the shipper is fine with the battery, then I'll ship that battery too. I think it will be cheaper to buy a new battery here than in Portugal.

Thanks for all your suggestions so far, it's helpful.

I did some research on shipping electric bikes and got a lot of conflicting information, mostly around shipping with or without the battery. I found a company called shipbikes.com where there web site specifically states the battery must be installed and plugged in. Given all of the conflicting information I decided to call them and spoke with them about this. Their representative told me that all the hazmat laws around shipping lithium batteries are when they are shipped separately. He told me as long as my battery is plugged in and shipped with the bike it was good to go. I even explained to him I have a DIY ebike with a 1kwh battery and he said no problems. Here's a link to the reference about shipping an electric bike. https://www.shipbikes.com/HowMuch.aspx.

We were talking about shipping within the states and he quoted me $103.00 from Florida to Texas. I haven't used their service yet but they seemed like the best way to get my bike across counrty. They do have international shipping so I would suggest you contact them. Here's a link to there international shipping page https://www.shipbikes.com/international-shipping/index.html.

Good luck with your move. Let us know how shipping your ebike worked.

I need to know the answer to this shipping the bike with the battery attached is the best way to go ? I would like to hear this from someone who had a real life experience.

You are not shipping from one state to another within the US. International shipping has strict safety rules, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t shippers who cheat.

Any bike that is in a case or a box can be transported on a plane, but gassers must be empty and EV batteries removed. Shipping gas or batteries must be done separately, and need to conform a book of rules.

Boats are different, with different shipping rules. And, the container transit is so busy that only a small fraction of them are inspected anyway. If you pack your ebike in a container with the rest of your goods, chances are very thin to have any problem.

Update. My shipper, Shumacher, told me the batteries were OK to ship. I found Lithium ion batteries on their list of "dangerous cargo" and pointed this out to them but they told me it was OK. I boxed up my bikes, but left the boxes open so they could close them and say that they packed it. There are either customer packed boxes or shipper packed boxes and it's preferable if you can mark them as "shipper packed". The batteries were not handled any different than the rest of the pieces. they labeled them, "bike parts" and "electric bike parts".

I did create a list of my items and sent it to the Consulate so they could issue me a Certificate of Baggage (Certificado de Bagagem) which i was to bring with me to Portugal. The ship arrived in Rotterdam (almost 4 months later), then traveled by land to me in Portugal and I never needed that "Certificado de Bagagem". Batteries were fine.

I've seen a few electric bikes here, mostly manufactured ebikes not like my conversion.

Thanks for the update