Electrical bikes are shortly rising into one of the crucial in style options to vehicles for private transportation, particularly in dense cities like New York Metropolis. So why does NYC need them stopped on the border?

The problem is that not all e-bikes are created equal.

Increased-quality e-bikes are produced to satisfy a spread of security rules, together with those who cowl the security of their high-energy lithium-ion battery packs.

However cheaper e-bikes, which are sometimes imported from no-name or white-labeled manufacturers, can reduce corners in relation to security. That has resulted in poorly made battery packs that may catch fireplace, typically with lethal outcomes.

There have been 13 deaths in New York Metropolis alone this yr, a metropolis with an estimated 65,000 e-bikes on the streets. In NYC, meals supply by e-bike is in style as a result of congestion attributable to vehicles. E-bikes usually navigate town far more shortly than vehicles. However the supply riders, who work lengthy hours for low wages, are sometimes pressured to decide on the most affordable electrical bikes. These low cost e-bikes are generally those that may pose security issues. Their recognition in NYC thus additional compounds the issue.

Earlier this yr, NYC issued a city-wide ban on promoting e-bikes that don’t conform to UL certifications. With out that security certification, they’ll’t be offered within the metropolis. In line with Fortune, the brand new guidelines additionally outlaw tampering with batteries or promoting refurbished batteries made with lithium-ion cells scavenged from used models.

The town additionally enacted a plan to put in secure charging stations for e-bikes, in the end receiving $25 million to fund the initiative.

The problem of e-bike fires could have an effect on solely a small share of electrical bikes, however with tens of 1000’s of e-bikes on the highway in NYC, the numbers have nonetheless begun to stack up.

We just lately mentioned the problem of fires with battery professional Luke Workman on Electrek‘s Wheel-E podcast, the place he defined how cities like NYC can have notably troublesome circumstances for e-bikes. The excessive quantity of salt on the roads in winter signifies that improperly sealed batteries can find yourself with salt bridging electrical contacts contained in the battery circumstances, doubtlessly shorting cells and resulting in fires. The shortly heating cells could cause thermal runaway the place neighboring battery cells overheat and catch fireplace, a harmful situation that may result in home fires if not instantly contained.

Workman defined that almost all chemistries of lithium-based batteries might be liable to this thermal runaway downside if the cells are shorted. The one kind of batteries he has but to see succumb to this difficulty are “potted” batteries, these which might be fully enclosed in resin and thus don’t permit one overheating cell to unfold to others.