Explosive e-Bikes Need Stricter Regulation Before They Inflict More Hurt and Damage

Make room for the biggest baddie of the moment. While at it, you might as well grab some popcorn or a pitchfork, you choose which. One of the leading safety non-profits in the UK has issued this week a call for stricter regulation of e-bikes due to the rising number of e-bike-caused fires, all of which resulted in considerable property damages, injuries, and even fatalities.

e-Bikes, praised no more than three years ago as the all-in-one solution for our very modern problems related to the daily commute, pollution, obesity, living costs, and as of 2020, the need to social-distance, are now being turned into the bad guy. It's not without a good reason, as we noted in a previous story: e-bike batteries have been causing catastrophic fires in large cities, and the number of incidents has seen a startling spike.

Electric bicycles are everywhere these days. The regular Joe or Jane rides one to and from work or keeps one in the garage for weekend getaways. Food delivery people use them to beat traffic and get to their destination before the food gets cold. Rental services offer them to people in need of a last-minute mode of transport for peanuts.

The e-bike bubble has burst: VanMoof recently filed for bankruptcy, Rad Power Bikes shuttered all European locations, and prices are going down. But even in this context, e-bikes are still riding the wave and are still being sold as that perfect solution for urban mobility.

They are just that, but they're also dangerous, British non-profit Electrical Safety First (ESF) warns. They're deadly, actually, considering the amount of energy stored within a single battery pack is the equivalent of six hand grenades. When e-bike batteries catch fire, they do so without notice but with extreme violence and in an uncontrollable and irreversible manner.

An e-bike fire is the worst. It burns longer and with more ferocity than any other type of fire and can't be extinguished even by professionals, so forget about throwing water or blankets at it. If an e-bike battery catches fire, the only thing you should do is get out of there immediately, and once in a safe place, call emergency services.

That sounds like buying an e-bike is comparable to rope-skipping across a landmine field, with the same level of danger and unpredictability. It's not, as ESF is the first to point out: the problem is that, like with the recent spat of bike-related incidents in New York City, there are too many unsafe components and full bikes making their way into the UK.

So-called "universal" batteries and chargers that are neither up to standards nor regulated in any way, online marketplaces, and people's desire to cut costs and/or get the most out of a product that should only do so much are the leading causes for the battery fires. It's only very rare that such a fire starts because of a factory defect.

"This unique type of fire requires special measures to tackle the increasing problem. We need to get on top of this issue now to prevent more lives being lost," Lesley Rudd, ESF chief executive, says. "There are too many reckless operators in this space, such as third-party sellers on online marketplaces, who are risking the lives of the public and giving responsible manufacturers of these products a bad name."

It's not e-bikes in general that are explosive and deadly dangerous, and all these bad things mentioned above; it's sub-standard, knockoff, modified, improvised, or otherwise dubious e-bikes that are. It's off-market chargers and batteries that are not built by the original manufacturer. It's e-bikes "hacked" to go faster than they should, or charge quicker, or offer extended range.

The ESF is asking for third-party approval for e-bike batteries that come into the UK, which would put these products in the same category as pyrotechnics and heavy machinery. It's not asking for a ban on e-bikes or saying that e-bikes are death on (two) wheels.

That clarification is necessary because it's how the ESF recommendation is being presented in the media. Public figures with huge platforms, like former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, a longtime opposer of electric vehicles, are saying that this is proof that all electric vehicles are bloody dangerous and should be, as such, banned. Get your pitchforks because it's time to go after the monster that is the EV industry, which has been spreading uncontrollably through false sustainable promises at the expense of fossil fuel alternatives. And not-so-secretly killing its customers.

If you don't agree, you must be a "weak-brained, bleeding-heart liberal," Clarkson says. Always count on the Brits to take delivery of unpardonable offenses to the level of fine prose.

Jokes aside, the facts are undeniable, and the number of incidents worldwide is among these facts. e-Bikes can and do start fatal fires, and new standards and procedures for electric battery fires are necessary.

In London alone, police are reporting six e-bike fires a week, an unexpected and most unpleasant uptick from a few years ago. Earlier this week, a cargo ship carrying only 25 EVs with more than 2,800 ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles was engulfed in flames and had to be abandoned because of the way lithium-ion batteries burn.

But from this to proclaiming that all electric vehicles are an evil that must be banished is a huge leap. Are we not more experienced, more mature, and overall just a tad wiser from decades centuries of this type of knee-jerk reaction to fall for such radicalism?

If you answered with a mental "yes," ESF has a set of extremely reasonable guidelines to ensure your and your family's safety if you own or plan to own an e-bike.