As electric bicycles continue to grow in numbers in the US, so too have concerns over the safety of their lithium-ion battery packs. A new safety standard just passed in China may soon have a considerable impact on e-bike fire safety.
E-bike battery fires, while exceedingly rare, have become a major concern in the US with significant news coverage. NYC is often seen as the epicenter of e-bike battery fires due largely to the large population of e-bike delivery riders and the low-quality Chinese batteries used on such bikes. Delivery riders’ e-bikes usually feature inferior-quality batteries in order to reduce costs to their owners, who use them to perform low-wage delivery jobs.
Keeping the issue in perspective, more deaths in NYC are attributed to space heater fires each year than e-bike battery fires, but the rapid growth of e-bike use in the US means that fire safety will continue to be a growing concern.
With the vast majority of battery fires originating from poorly produced Chinese batteries designed for ultra-cheap e-bikes and e-scooters, it appears the Chinese government is attempting to address the issue head-on. The country just passed new technical standards for the production of lithium-ion batteries like those used in micromobility devices.
Known as the “Safety Technical Specification for Lithium-ion Batteries Used in Electric Bicycles,” the standards regulate the design, production, and sale of lithium-ion batteries for e-bikes.
The regulations specifically address technical concerns relating to production quality and fire risk, and cover 22 specific aspects of the batteries’ design and manufacturing. Issues addressed include battery over-charging and over-discharging, external short circuits, thermal abuse, battery punctures, and several more key areas.
Enforcement of the new standard is expected to begin on November 1, 2024. After that date, no lithium-ion batteries for electric bicycles will be permitted for sale in the country without conforming to the new standard.
The standard currently only addresses the domestic market, which is much larger than China’s e-bike battery export market. There are an estimated 350 million e-bikes on the roads in China, with tens of millions produced each year. In fact, some major Chinese manufacturers alone produce tens of millions of e-bikes and e-scooters each year.