North Carolina

North Carolina's all-terrain vehicle definition covers a motorized vehicle 50 inches or less in width that is designed to travel on three or more low-pressure tires and manufactured for off-highway use. Throughout Chapter 20, unless the context requires otherwise, motorcycles are vehicles having a saddle for the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, including motor scooters and motor-driven bicycles but excluding, among others, electric assisted bicycles and mopeds. Neither definition names a power source.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-4.01 (intro), (1c), (27)h, checked 2026-10-01. Official text for North Carolina, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-4.01 (intro), (1c), (27)h, external site

A vehicle intended to be operated upon any highway in North Carolina must be registered with the Division of Motor Vehicles, and the owner must comply with G.S. 20-52 before operating it; a vehicle driven or moved upon a highway only to cross it from one property to another is exempt from registration and certificate of title. To drive a motorcycle, a person must have a full provisional or regular drivers license with a motorcycle learner's permit or a motorcycle endorsement, and no one may operate a motorcycle on a highway or public vehicular area unless the operator and all passengers wear, with a retention strap properly secured, safety helmets that comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218 (the helmet rule does not apply to an autocycle with completely enclosed seating or a roll bar or roll cage). These sections set the general rule; they do not say whether a particular off-road electric dirt bike can be registered.

N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 20-4.01(6); 20-50(a); 20-51(2); 20-7(a1); 20-140.4(a)(2), checked 2026-10-01. Official text for North Carolina, N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 20-4.01(6); 20-50(a); 20-51(2); 20-7(a1); 20-140.4(a)(2), external site

Until December 1, 2026, a North Carolina electric assisted bicycle has two or three wheels, a seat or saddle, fully operable pedals for human propulsion and an electric motor of no more than 750 watts, and its maximum speed on a level surface when powered solely by the motor is no greater than 20 miles per hour. From December 1, 2026, Session Law 2026-46 replaces that speed limit: a bicycle with a motor of no more than 750 watts must meet one of three classes, class 1 assisting only while the rider is pedaling and ceasing at 20 mph, class 2 able to propel the bicycle without pedaling but ceasing at 20 mph, and class 3 assisting only while the rider is pedaling and ceasing at 28 mph.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-4.01(7a), as rewritten by S.L. 2026-46 (H.B. 1094), s. 19(a), (f), checked 2026-10-01. Official text for North Carolina, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-4.01(7a), as rewritten by S.L. 2026-46 (H.B. 1094), s. 19(a), (f), external site