New York City Targets E-Bike Users With Safety Plan and Lithium Battery Regulations
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has signed several bills into law to further regulate lithium-ion batteries sold in the city and strengthen fire safety related to the batteries used in e-scooters and e-bikes.
Adams also announced a “Charge Safe, Ride Safe: New York City’s Electric Micromobility Action Plan” to promote safe battery use, provide more education for micromobility device users, and identify high-risk situations for safety enforcement.
The new laws provide for enhanced fire safety education and outreach as well as a ban on the sale, lease, or rental of powered mobility devices, such as e-bikes and electric scooters, and storage batteries for these devices that fail to meet recognized safety standards. Also, they include a prohibition on the assembly and sale of reconditioned lithium-ion batteries using cells removed from used storage batteries.
“Today, we are supercharging safety for all of our e-bikes and e-scooter users,” said Adams. “These are convenient transportation options for New Yorkers, but faulty and illegal devices are making their way into our homes and streets, causing fires and putting lives at risk.”
He said he will push for more regulation, including at the federal level, to ensure that the batteries and mobility devices are safe.
City officials said the devices can make moving around the city easier and they are used by thousands of delivery workers to support the economy. However, these new transportation options have also brought serious challenges regarding fire risks.
Officials said fires caused by batteries that power e-micromobility devices have gone from 44 in 2020 to 220 in 2022. These fires are particularly severe and difficult to extinguish, spreading quickly and producing noxious fumes. From 2021 to 2022, these fires resulted in 10 deaths and 226 injuries. In the first two months of 2023 alone, they resulted in two deaths and 40 injuries, according to the city.
“Fires caused by e-bikes and the lithium-ion batteries they rely on have increased dramatically in our city, with deadly consequences for citizens and first responders,” said Fire Department Commissioner Laura Kavanagh. “It is a problem we are tackling aggressively with our partners in city, state, and federal government.”
The “Charge Safe, Ride Safe” plan promises pilot programs and testing of new technologies to store and charge lithium-ion batteries; incentives for the purchase of safe and legal electric micromobility devices; creation of “deliverista hubs” to provide delivery workers with safe places to rest and charge their devices throughout the city; and efforts to obtain federal grant funding to support this work.
The city also plans to create a fire marshal task force to use data to identify potential violators and high-risk situations or “hot spots,” which will be targeted for both outreach and inspection for compliance with existing fire codes.
Photo: A delivery worker rides his electric bicycle past the New York Stock Exchange, March 16, 2020, in New York.Lithium ion batteries used to power electric bicycles and scooters have already sparked 22 fires that caused 36 injuries and two deaths in New York City this year, four times the number of fires linked to the batteries by this time last year, city officials said Friday, Feb. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)