London Fire Brigade urges crackdown on dodgy e-bike batteries after record number of fires

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has urged the Government to crack down on online sales of dodgy e-bike batteries and “conversion kits”.

Responding to a Government consultation on product safety, the LFB warned that e-bike fires remain the capital’s fastest growing fire risk – and that tougher action was needed at a national level to combat them.

So far in 2023, the LFB has attended a record 128 e-bike fires and 26 e-scooter fires. This compares with 87 e-bike fires and 29 e-scooter fires in the whole of 2022. The fires are caused when the vehicles’ lithium batteries become damaged or fail.

The LFB told the Department for Business and Trade that greater “market surveillance” and testing requirements were needed to stop unsafe e-bike products from being sold online.

Among the most common products are “conversion kits” – devices which enable users to turn their ordinary bike into an e-bike.

Dan Parsons, director of the e-bike retailer Fully Charged, told the London Assembly in June that delivery riders working in the gig economy were particularly tempted to use the kits.

He said: “The reason that these guys and girls are choosing electric bikes, home-made kits, is that it’s inexpensive for them to assemble and to put together, and they can deliver more in less time and generate more income for themselves – but they are putting themselves in danger by doing that.”

Many of the fires happen when an e-bike battery is left charging overnight in a bedroom, often in homes of multiple occupation (HMOs).

The LFB’s deputy commissioner, Dom Ellis, told the June meeting: “With e-bikes and e-scooters, the amount of energy in those battery packs is sufficient to really compromise a good-sized double bedroom in 10-15 seconds and it’s the intimacy of the risk that’s the key concern here.”

Charlie Pugsley, the LFB’s assistant commissioner for fire safety, said: “With a record number of fires involving these vehicles so far in 2023, we fear that product innovation has come ahead of proper safety standards.

“Without much-needed legislation and the right standards, more dangerous and unregulated products bought online are going to end up in people’s homes and on our streets.”

A spokesman at the Department for Business and Trade said in September: “We take all incidents of fires involving lithium batteries seriously.

“The OPSS is working closely with the fire service to review all evidence of fires involving lithium batteries in e-bikes and e-scooters to ensure the product safety issues are properly assessed and action is taken to protect users from harm.”

Pictured top: Remnants of a charred bike in the Shepherd’s Bush flat in June last year (Picture: LFB)