NOTE:
Looks like US dept of transportation actually just updated the guidelines for airplane travel with lithium battery powered devices recently and now reads 100 but less than 160wh (and no more than 2g lithium total). I believe the gov just updated them in the recent weeks due to testing on cargo planes that lead to fires as they are still trying to work out a new containment system for lithium batts on cargo planes and have basically prohibited them for the time being. So unfortunately if your scoot is 24v and 8.5ah that is minimum 204 watt hours which puts it over the 160wh limit and this applies to even small portable scooters like the Glion, E-twow, EcoReco and others...Cotemar the US distributor for Etwow just confirmed in his for sale post "You have answered your own question" as well as Jay EcoReco emailed the following to my friend who owns one "We have many customers successfully transporting their scooters via commercial flights, and some were forced to ship via other means. ;( It is really airline specific. Thanks for the info. We will look into it further."
Let's hope the containment system issue is resolved and carry-on's of greater watt hours are allowed back on commercial flights soon...
LATEST INFO:
http://phmsa.dot.gov/safetravel/batteries:
"What about large batteries?
Lithium-Ion Battery, installed in a device (more than 100 but less than 160 watt-hours). Operator approval required.
Larger Lithium Ion Batteries exceed a Watt-hour rating of 100 watt-hours but do not exceed 160 watt-hours. Some very large after-market laptop computer batteries, and some batteries used for professional audio-visual application, fall within this definition. Larger Lithium Metal Batteries contain more than two grams of lithium, and are forbidden in air travel. (No common consumer lithium metal batteries are in the "larger" category.) Most laptop batteries are rated below 100 watt-hours and are not considered to be large batteries."
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=1&SID=bba5ad06518b529c94e1d67a3270196b&ty=HTML&h=L&r=SECTION&n=49y2.1.1.3.12.1.25.5
Looks like US dept of transportation actually just updated the guidelines for airplane travel with lithium battery powered devices recently and now reads 100 but less than 160wh (and no more than 2g lithium total). I believe the gov just updated them in the recent weeks due to testing on cargo planes that lead to fires as they are still trying to work out a new containment system for lithium batts on cargo planes and have basically prohibited them for the time being. So unfortunately if your scoot is 24v and 8.5ah that is minimum 204 watt hours which puts it over the 160wh limit and this applies to even small portable scooters like the Glion, E-twow, EcoReco and others...Cotemar the US distributor for Etwow just confirmed in his for sale post "You have answered your own question" as well as Jay EcoReco emailed the following to my friend who owns one "We have many customers successfully transporting their scooters via commercial flights, and some were forced to ship via other means. ;( It is really airline specific. Thanks for the info. We will look into it further."
Let's hope the containment system issue is resolved and carry-on's of greater watt hours are allowed back on commercial flights soon...
LATEST INFO:
http://phmsa.dot.gov/safetravel/batteries:
"What about large batteries?
Lithium-Ion Battery, installed in a device (more than 100 but less than 160 watt-hours). Operator approval required.
Larger Lithium Ion Batteries exceed a Watt-hour rating of 100 watt-hours but do not exceed 160 watt-hours. Some very large after-market laptop computer batteries, and some batteries used for professional audio-visual application, fall within this definition. Larger Lithium Metal Batteries contain more than two grams of lithium, and are forbidden in air travel. (No common consumer lithium metal batteries are in the "larger" category.) Most laptop batteries are rated below 100 watt-hours and are not considered to be large batteries."
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/retrieveECFR?gp=1&SID=bba5ad06518b529c94e1d67a3270196b&ty=HTML&h=L&r=SECTION&n=49y2.1.1.3.12.1.25.5