How Riders Are Unknowingly Raising the Battery Fire Risks of E-Mobility

By: Sayon Deb

It took the New York City Fire Department only three minutes to arrive at a home in Queens last April, but with the speed and ferocity of a lithium-ion battery fire, they were too late. An e-bike battery that went into thermal runaway had burst into flames, blocking the only exit, and trapping a seven-year-old boy and his 19-year-old sister, costing them their lives.

FDNY Chief John Hodges said, “If this was not an e-bike fire, we would have been able to put this fire out without incident, but the way that these e-bike fires occur, it’s like an explosion of fire and these occupants had very little chance of escaping.”