What the New Lithium-ion Battery Safety Standards Bill Means for E-bikes

This week (ending 11th March) Congressman Ritchie Torres announced that he is proposing a new bill (a law change) to prevent e-bike battery fires. This law isn’t aimed at e-bikes specifically, but more at the issues with all the lithium-ion battery fires that have happened all over New York which is now thought to be home to almost 200,000+ e-bikes! In 2021 there were 219 fires caused by lithium-ion batteries which resulted in 147 injuries and six deaths.

This new legislation would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to establish a product safety standard for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are specifically designed to be used in personal mobility devices like e-scooters and of course e-bikes. He did do on to say

As an e-bike enthusiast with years of knowledge in this industry, I can only but agree with this proposed bill and the stats sure back up what he is saying. The problem is that it might scare people away from using an e-bike or other mobility vehicles which could indeed change their lives. Is there an issue with poor-quality batteries? Yes, but as long as you get your e-bike from an established dealer you really don’t have much to worry about.

When it comes to this issue I feel a little bit of knowledge about why these fires happen in the first place is far better than proposing tighter quality standards. But that is just my opinion, if you have a different one do let me know in the comments below.