YOTO What buyers ask, answered in writing
No listicles. Each piece takes one decision that goes wrong at the border or at the registration office, and works through it. Written for dealers, fleet buyers and importers — the people who have to defend the decision later.
L2e-U or L7e-CU: which cargo vehicle do you actually need?
The cheaper vehicle is the one whose licence your customer already holds. That is usually an L2e-U — until the route includes a hill.
Read →One unit or a container: the freight arithmetic
A cargo quadricycle might be four units per 40 ft HQ; a light quadricycle nine; a small utility tricycle thirty-six. That ratio decides more of your margin than the unit price.
Lead-acid or lithium in a cargo quadricycle
The chemistry is not a footnote. It changes the unladen mass, the certified range, the cold-weather behaviour and what your customer can replace locally in year three.
Private label on a type-approved vehicle: what is possible
Your name on the plate: yes, usually. Your name on the approval: no, not without a new type-approval. The line between them is where most private-label projects fail.
How registration works for an L-category vehicle
Registration is not one process, it is 27 versions of one process. The documents are similar; the office, the language and the inspection regime are not.
Payload is what the certificate says, not what the brochure says
On one vehicle, the claimed payload was 1,183 kg. The certificate said 1,185 kg laden and 506 kg in running order. The real payload was 679 kg.
Why CE marking does not apply to L-category vehicles
A CE mark on the whole vehicle is not a bonus — it is evidence the seller has confused two regulatory systems, one of which has nothing to do with their product.
EEC approval is not a current standard — and buyers know it
The phrase survives because it sounds official. It has not described a live approval route since 1993, and repeating it costs credibility with exactly the buyers you want.
How to read a certificate of conformity
A COC is a numbered form, not a certificate in the decorative sense. Eight fields out of eighty decide whether the vehicle gets plates.
Which L-category does my vehicle fall into?
Four figures decide the category: wheels, speed, power and unladen mass. Get one wrong and a compliant vehicle ends up in a category it cannot be registered in.
Looking for something specific?
If a question is not covered here, ask it. The answer often becomes the next piece.