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In recent years, the popularity of micromobility vehicles has surged as people seek sustainable and efficient alternatives to traditional transportation. In the Netherland’s alone, 56% of all bikes sold in 2023 were electric. This trend is global, and is evidence that micromobility vehicles are becoming a major mode of transportation. Like any other form of transportation though, safety is an important factor to consider.
While e-bikes and other battery powered vehicles have numerous benefits both at an individual and societal level, a valid and growing concern has emerged: their batteries can catch fire. Let’s be clear up front - this is incredibly rare. Still, many have begun to question the safety of these batteries. Deadly fires have occurred in London and New York, and new policy changes are going into place in both the Big Apple and in California that will impact how they are stored.
People rightly want to know - how safe is this new technology? To understand this, it’s important to understand how e-bike batteries work.
Nearly all battery powered devices, from phones to e-bikes and other micromobility vehicles, rely on lithium-ion batteries for power. Odds are you have a few within arm’s reach of you now. These batteries operate on the movement of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes during both charge and discharge cycles. When a battery is in use on your bike, energy is being extracted. When you are charging your battery via its wall charger, you are adding energy to it. It's typically during the second process or following damage where most fires occur.
Damaged lithium-ion cells can undergo a phenomenon known as thermal runaway (we have a full post on this here). This results in a rapid increase in the battery cells’ temperature and pressure. As the cell degrades, flammable gases are also released. It’s easy to see how this is a dangerous equation, and when not initially stored correctly these runaway batteries can do serious damage.
So what can you do to avoid this? We recommend three steps to help limit the chances of battery fires:
Immediately stop using and replace any damaged batteries.
A new battery is expensive, but much cheaper than the alternative! For those that rely on their e-bikes for their livelihood, consider contacting your employer or other researching government schemes.
Use properly rated batteries and chargers.
Whenever possible, buy directly from the original manufacturer. You get what you pay for with aftermarket or copycat batteries and chargers. All products, including batteries and chargers, should have relevant certifications. You can read more about these in another post.
Safely and securely store your batteries when charging.
With major regulatory changes here or coming soon across Europe and the U.S., many businesses or multi-tenant residential buildings will be obliged to provide safe and convenient charging to their visitors. We have a range of lockers designed for any location.
To put all this into perspective, the WHO reports that “approximately 1.19 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes”, with “more than half of all road traffic deaths among vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.” When it comes to safety, we must be willing to have the big challenging conversations, rather than overly scrutinising the newcomers to our roads.
Battery fires are very addressable, and for many locations proactively providing charging infrastructure now could be a competitive advantage to help set them apart. The sooner safe charging becomes the norm, the sooner this conversation will shift to better enabling micromobility ownership as a solution to other societal problems.
You can explore our range of innovative charging solutions to learn more about how we aim to reduce the impact of battery fires.