E-scooters

I've no actual idea about it all but I'd have thought it's the current lack of regulation and wild west nature of the whole thing that makes them more prone to such things (or at least appear to be). I'd wonder as well if they're more likely to be shook around and damaged more due to the smaller wheels with less shock absorption and being on the deck possibly hitting bumps and kerbs and bearing the weight of the rider?

There are clearly some batteries that are sub standard. Hopefully as they inevitable get more and more popular regulation keeps up. The current status is unacceptable.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2021/11/05/third-of-e-scooter-trips-replaced--car-journeys-reveals-survey/?sh=5775e0174fda

Interesting. Scooters increase the utility of public transport vs taking the car. Obvious when you think of it.

Hah, hah, hah. Company surveys, eh? If you believe that, you'll believe anything. It's just a puff piece. Ignore.

Have you noticed how everyone you see on an e-scooter has a smile on their face, even if they haven’t just snatched your phone?

Has a sketchy ride on an e scooter (not in the UK) and must admit, as much as I hate them in London, it was a fun ride.

London is just too busy for them in a lot of places

I am surprised so many kids admitted they would have stolen a car instead.

To be fair, they have commissioned independent surveys.

Spent the weekend in Cambridge where there's a tonne of the scooters to hire. All by one company so they're conveniently everywhere and the right brand for your one app. Got a day pass for £4.90 which included up to 9 45 minute trips.
Me and the other half couldn't stop grinning every time we got off them. Properly fun but then the centre of Cambridge, bikes outnumber cars easily 20 to 1. I would absolutely not ride one in London, at all. And I'm a very confident cyclist, driver, motorcyclist.

https://imgur.com/t/awesome/R3C7nu2

I live in Cambridge and have used Voi scooters a few times, and like you laughed my head off every second, so so fun.

I try to ride a bike where I can but a fold up e-scooter with a strap for slinging over your shoulder would be brilliant, like for nipping to the shops or going into town when you can't be arsed to find somewhere to lock your bike up.

Most of my old commute from E17 to Clerkenwell was bike and bus lanes so I'd feel pretty safe using one, the main issue would be some of the shitty surfaces but a lot of that was being remedied when I moved away. Those tiny wheels are terrible over anything other than pristine blacktop.

Jesus, broken back much?

Here's another report of a fire caused by a faulty battery, on an e-bike, not a scooter. With some e-bikes, the problem seem to be homemade conversions with cheap components. I've seen quite a few of those in London, although I think stock models are taking over more and more. With e-scooters, you probably get hardly any homemade conversions (at least, I've definitely not seen any), but you get a lot of cheap models that probably use similarly questionable components as the e-bike in this article.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/ebike-thornton-heath-london-fire-brigade-battery-b968300.html

As the market becomes more established, will it go the same way as for pedal cycles, i.e. will a large number of unsafe, cheaply-componented models be the main sellers, only to be obsolete after a short time? I think most of the models you see around right now are probably like that, but I don't have any knowledge of the market.

I've seen quite a few of those in London...

"few" is putting it mildly, it's the cheapest option for those who do gig work.

The problem isn't the conversion, it's the gigs economy.

Well, yes. Obviously, e-bikes are the new mopeds. There's still evidently a need to ensure safe(r) batteries.

The issue is that none of them are BS kitemarked, because they’re all bought online and there’s no restrictions on what’s coming in to the country. The idea of a cheap li-ion battery would have been ludicrous even a few years ago, but that’s what we’re getting now, and the reason they’re cheap is because there are zero safety features built into them. A Bosch or Shimano battery will cost £500 while a Chinese one will cost around £150. The chargers you get with cheap bikes & scooters have no cut-outs either, so if the battery fails the charger will keep pumping into it, exacerbating the issue. Cheap li-ion batteries are made from cheap materials, and the cells are badly insulated - eventually the insulation will break down, debris will fall down to the bottom of the cell and short out the next cell, and wahey, it’s thermal runaway time.

Basically you get what you pay for.

because they’re all bought online and there’s no restrictions on what’s coming in to the country.

Bingo, and highly likely self-build as (I hope) bicycle shops won't touch them.

Our rule is no conversion kits, nothing with a throttle or trigger and definitely nothing de-restricted. We’ve had a few pissy people when we’ve refused to fix a puncture or whatever but it’s not worth the hassle.

That’s our rules too, also servicing ebikes we have training on too.

Thanks for the details! What's the safe lifespan of a quality battery, then?

A couple years really, it depend on how often it been recharged, we do have customer who managed to drain their in 6 months because of this.

If you just ride around, charge maybe once a week, or once every two weeks, it might last long enough says, 4 or 5 years with careful maintenance.

If you completely drain your battery and recharge it, this will result in a much shorter lifespan.

What Ed says below, basically. Looking after it is the key. I had a Trek ebike with a Shimano motor, and the battery lasted a year before it failed on me, so it was replaced under warranty. The replacement lasted two years and was still fine when I sold the bike. But generally if used sensibly then I’d expect several years of use.