Battery danger: Read this if you have an e-bike or e-scooter

This is insane though? Vauxhall Zafiras are famous for spontaneously catching fire, but you dont see eBay banning the sale of all cars do you?

It's a fairly typical reaction to a problem like this--don't deal with it in any way that could increase costs for the marketplace.

Would it merely drive these sales more underground, e.g. on illicit sites, etc.?

We're still a long way away from solving the problems associated with bad batteries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7jp3e47jeo

“ 235 e-bike fires were reported in the UK, over the past two years”

Is this a big number? How does it compare with other causes of fire? Are these all fires or just in houses? How many e-bikes are there in the uk? How many of these were conversions?

I’m sure there are more questions one could ask. It’s very easy to focus on one tradegy and ignore the wider picture.

Not sure why this seems to need an explanation (reading more of the thread would be recommended), but here goes.

It's a new cause of fire. The Fire Services are issuing strong warnings and very sensible recommendations against it. It's caused by powerful and volatile batteries being stored inside houses, often on charge (explosions outdoors seem to be mainly car batteries, although one bike battery did explode in Shepherd's Bush not long ago).

Fires have cut off escape routes, have occurred in overcrowded flats used by low-paid workers (see the case in Shadwell), and have caused devastating injuries and fatalities. Unsurprisingly, there have also been numerous destroyed buildings.

The problem arises from a near-total lack of regulation and failure to enforce existing regulations (the City Police seizing the odd bike isn't making much of a difference), e.g. about the many illegal e-bikes being ridden on the King's Highway.

All this is happening against the background of these bikes still being relatively rare. It's completely academic whether other causes of danger might be worse or not, and whataboutery won't help. The expert advice is clear, and much work needs to be done to prevent future fires.

I agree that it’s a problem but articles like these feed into anti cycling paranoia for what is, statistically a small problem.

It leads to panic measures like Waverley station in Edinburgh banning the parking of e-bikes in the station, not charging, just parking.

Of course there is an increase in ebike fires.
There were hardly any ebikes until recently.
More ebikes=more fires.

I agree that it’s a problem but articles like these feed into anti cycling paranoia for what is, statistically a small problem.

100%, it's a new front in anti cycling reporting. The things that are catching fire aren't 'ebikes', most of them are home made e-motorcycles. This is Christmas for the Daily Mail, it results in major problems for legitimate and safe normal LBS sold ebikes being not allowed to go anywhere despite being perfectly safe.

Theres plenty of safe regulation, its not that difficult to make a quality and safe battery. The issue is accessibility,- when you have the choice of a proper £500 Bosch battery from your LBS or a £100 Aliexpress version, most people will buy the latter.

The things that are catching fire aren't 'ebikes', most of them are home made e-motorcycles.

Quite, but that's precisely why it's not a 'new front' in 'anti-cycling reporting'. :)

It's a problem that what cycling is is becoming diluted by all sorts of motorised contraption use.

I don't really blame the food couriers--getting an illegal e-moped is just the cheapest way of getting a moped to do the job they have to do. Blaming them is blaming the victims, however illegal what they're doing may be.

We know the difference between legit e-bikes and home made e-motorcycles but most people don’t. Journalists could make more effort to make that distinction but most can’t be bothered.

Some may remember the fire in an overcrowded flat in Shadwell last year. The survivors are now suing the landlords and battery manufacturer:

Twelve survivors of an ebike battery fire that killed a man have launched legal action against their landlords and the battery’s manufacturer.

The 12 managed to escape in the early hours of 5 March 2023, after an overcrowded flat they were living in – in Maddocks House in Shadwell, east London – caught fire due to an explosion found by a coroner to have been caused by a faulty ebike battery. Mizanur Rahman, a 41-year-old father-of-two, died in the fire.

The legal action, thought to be the first of its kind involving ebikes, is being brought against both the manufacturer of the ebike battery, Leon Cycle Ltd, and the landlords who have already pleaded guilty to housing offences in relation to the fire.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/24/12-ebike-fire-survivors-sue-london-landlords-and-battery-manufacturer

Never let facts get in the way of scare mongering. Up there with ev cars cause more vehicle fires.

Sorry, I didn't see this two weeks ago. The upshot of distinguishing between the types of bikes would, quite simply, be that some fires will be caused by legit e-bikes and some (as you say, likely most) by batteries in illegal e-mopeds—and some in e-scooters, of course. It's just that in the first reporting it will probably be unknown what type of vehicle/battery it was exactly, in some cases it may not even be possible to tell what type of bike it was, and there will be contraptions that might satisfy the legal tech specs despite being put together from rubbish components.

I personally think that question is for public regulation and that it's much more important to steer more people towards unmotorised bikes, i.e. people who would be better off riding one of those. Already you encounter people whose assumption is that the default for bicycles is that they should be motorised. This is not a good thing.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/black-friday-sales-ebike-fire-new-malden-b1197171.html

Don Hettiarachchi

Awesome name that