Battery Fires

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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Isn't battery building and repair about to become illegal without a licence?
We don't know that, but even if it happens it will have no effect on private users. They'll just carry on breaking the law, using cells which will still be freely and legally on sale.
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Nealh

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Aug 7, 2014
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I shall still procure my own high spec cells and build my own battery packs.
 

Az.

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 27, 2022
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There is no such thing as an illegal scooter. The general rule in UK law is that if anything has a possible legal use, it can be sold.
And this is the problem. E-scooters are illegal to use practically EVERYWHERE, but some guys who were in the room when legislation was written made sure there is a loophole allowing them to sell. Great, more money to make. Now lets make new rules about battery safety to make even more money.

Problem is there are so many silly rules, nobody cares about law anymore. Not even police.
 
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jamesporritt

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Peaceful protest at the Sevenoaks Bike Festival?

 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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And this is the problem. E-scooters are illegal to use practically EVERYWHERE
No they aren't, it's really mainly Great Britain where their legal use is so restricted.

Like the Segways that are also banned here, e-scooters are widely used legally around the world. Europe has widely legalized e-scooter usage whereas places like Jakarta, Singapore, and Shanghai, still ban scooter usage on roads and pavements entirely. Paris, for instance, has banned riding and parking e-scooters on pavements whereas other cities, like those in Sweden, Italy, Switzerland allow it.

Unlike here where we even require a driving licence to use one, most US states do not require riders to have a license to operate electric scooters. However, there are a handful of states that do require you to have a valid driver's license (of any class) or at least an instruction permit before you can legally operate an electric scooter.
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
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I meant everywhere in UK
I guessed that, but thought is worth pointing out how uncommon our position is. And its really just Great Britain rather than UK, since Northern Ireland has devolved transport law and largely complies with EU transport law, having an open border to the EU in Southern Ireland.
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StuartsProjects

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2021
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So the abuse of statistics again.

"This is pretty much a NONE ISSUE. In the whole of the UK there were 183 ebike /scooter battery fires"

Assume that 1 in 10 households have an eBike\Scooter for which they charge batteries.

Also assume that most all households have a washing machine.

So with 624 washing machine fires a year a 'battery' is about 3 times more likely to catch fire than a washing machine.

So if 'battery' fires are a non-issue should all safety and electrical standards for washing machines be cancelled. Would purchasers of washing machine be happy with that ?

Additional info;

Ring, hob or hot plate around 1,580 domestic fires per year
Grill or toaster More than 1,300 fires per year are started by a grill or toaster
Microwave oven more than 900 fires per year are caused by microwave ovens in the UK.
Tumble dryer The tumble dryer is fifth on the list of appliances likely to start a fire, causing 668 blazes per year in the UK.

Seems to me that quite a few domestic appliances have a greater fire occurrence rate than a 'battery'
 
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Woosh

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May 19, 2012
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So the abuse of statistics again.

"This is pretty much a NONE ISSUE. In the whole of the UK there were 183 ebike /scooter battery fires"

Assume that 1 in 10 households have an eBike\Scooter for which they charge batteries.

Also assume that most all households have a washing machine.

So with 624 washing machine fires a year a 'battery' is about 3 times more likely to catch fire than a washing machine.

So if 'battery' fires are a non-issue should all safety and electrical standards for washing machines be cancelled. Would purchasers of washing machine be happy with that ?
The number of fires per annum should be set against the number of ebikes sold per annum to work out the fire risks.
I have seen a sharp decline in the number of bikes I sold in the last 12 months. Conversations with retailers and fellow importers have painted a similar trend. All because of fire risk. We should really tackle these risks as soon as possible.
 

StuartsProjects

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We should really tackle these risks as soon as possible.
Absolutely agree.

The public really do need reassurance that the issues are being dealt with in a practical manner and not simply ignored.

The approach that some are taking as in 'no problem here' is reminiscent of Maggies approach to fire risks, in that Government should trust businesses to do the right thing and sweep away burdensome regulations, is in the next couple of days going to become very public, as in the Grenfell fire report that is imminent.

An approach that you can trust (all) business to to the right thing is fundamentally flawed in my view, for sure there are some good businesses that do things well, but for a great many its a race to the bottom.
 

saneagle

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Oct 10, 2010
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Absolutely agree.

The public really do need reassurance that the issues are being dealt with in a practical manner and not simply ignored.

The approach that some are taking as in 'no problem here' is reminiscent of Maggies approach to fire risks, in that Government should trust businesses to do the right thing and sweep away burdensome regulations, is in the next couple of days going to become very public, as in the Grenfell fire report that is imminent.

An approach that you can trust (all) business to to the right thing is fundamentally flawed in my view, for sure there are some good businesses that do things well, but for a great many its a race to the bottom.
There is already legislation that protects consumers from faulty goods. The Consumer Protection Act gives compensation and the Health and Safety at Work Act makes the directors of a company criminally responsible for faulty goods that harm people.
 

Woosh

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May 19, 2012
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There is already legislation that protects consumers from faulty goods. The Consumer Protection Act gives compensation and the Health and Safety at Work Act makes the directors of a company criminally responsible for faulty goods that harm people.
Try to catch those in their hundreds who operate from china and register for uk and eu VAT at the same address. You can only protect people by setting high standards for products.
 

Ghost1951

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Try to catch those in their hundreds who operate from china and register for uk and eu VAT at the same address. You can only protect people by setting high standards for products.
I have no time for protecting people who are not either simple minded or children.

People should protect themselves.

It is people like you that caused the death of Jordan Lyon in Wigan when two PCSOs failed to enter a pond to save him and his sister who were in the pond struggling. They stood by and watched him drown; watched while two OAPs entered the water and saved his sister and tried to save him. They were so steeped in the Precautionary Principle and Health and Safety garbage that they were unable to act.


The same thing killed children at the Ariana Grande bombing when no one from the emergency services would enter the building while people - mostly little girls bled to death and could have been saved.

The obsession with health and safety is a total blight on our society and any sense that people have agency and responsibility for what they do.
 

Peter.Bridge

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Apr 19, 2023
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I have no time for protecting people who are not either simple minded or children.
But it doesn't work like that - an ebike battery fire doesn't just affect the person that made the decision to purchase a dangerous battery, the resulting fire can result in multiple deaths and injuries, the costs of the fire brigade, the NHS costs, reputable suppliers of ebikes and batteries will be affected by the reputational damage, to name a few.
 

Wisper Bikes

Trade Member
Apr 11, 2007
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Why not ask her to join this forum? She could hear from us DIYers directly.
It's really quite simple. She, like most other professionals in the eBike industry do not want to be in the firing line if they dare to disagree with an individuals comments.

There are currently only two companies from the industry with a wealth of experience that are willing to put a point of view here. There is even a suggestion in this thread that it would be a good idea to disrupt an event I am hosting, free of charge to everyone, because I have an opinion that is not the same as everyone else's on the forum.

If you do not find my comments interesting, thought provoking or informative, and would prefer that I stop posting and advertising here, I am very happy to oblige. Before I go though, please consider that advertisers help to fund a forum that gives everyone the ability to discuss. I dont expect or indeed want people to agree with everything I say but can we be a little less vindictive?

All the best, David
 
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Ghost1951

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Jun 2, 2024
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But it doesn't work like that - an ebike battery fire doesn't just affect the person that made the decision to purchase a dangerous battery, the resulting fire can result in multiple deaths and injuries, the costs of the fire brigade, the NHS costs, reputable suppliers of ebikes and batteries will be affected by the reputational damage, to name a few.
There were three deaths in 2023 caused in every case by people who left batteries charging overnight in their homes.

There are an average of 350 fire deaths per year in the UK.

It is certainly the case that people need good advice on what is safe to do around batteries.

There were 121 deaths caused by cycling in 2020. If you want to save lives, ban cycling

Ghost1951 said:
Oh and by the way, many of the ebike fires I have seen, were delivery bikes, blowing up in the street - maybe something to do with running two kilowatt motors from home made 56 volt batteries dangling about, unprotected from wear and tear and being bashed, in fabric triangle bags. These are often being fast charged and worked to the limit. If these monstrosities were out of the equation I think we might have a very much smaller number of fires than we have.

EDIT:

Peter Bridges later supplied data showing that the number of deaths quoted by me above is wrong. It should be 11. I got the information from a google search. There were in fact 3 deaths in 2023 in London.
 
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saneagle

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Oct 10, 2010
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There were three deaths in 2023 caused in every case by people who left batteries charging overnight in their homes.

There are an average of 350 fire deaths per year in the UK.

It is certainly the case that people need good advice on what is safe to do around batteries.

There were 121 deaths caused by cycling in 2020. If you want to save lives, ban cycling
In UK 2023, there were 244 deaths caused by stabbing. It used to be mainly gang violence, so nobody cared, but recently there has been a spate of random knife attacks on innocent people. I can't see anybody panicking about that, or it even getting coverage in the mainstream media. You probably wouldn't even know about it unless you read Twitter and/or Telegram.
 

Woosh

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I have a post graduate qualification in research methods and statistics. One thing that was taught to me while I was studying for that, was the importance of NOT being misled by small numbers.
To calculate absolute risk, you take the number of e-bike fires and divide it by the number of e-bike population. Let's assume for simplification, there are 1 million e-bikes in use and 100,000 new e-bikes are sold each year for the last 10 years. You can see that if it were a steady state, the number of fires over the accumulation period of 10 years is 10 x 183. The absolute risk is thus 183/100,000.
 

Ghost1951

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Jun 2, 2024
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In UK 2023, there were 244 deaths caused by stabbing. It used to be mainly gang violence, so nobody cared, but recently there has been a spate of random knife attacks on innocent people. I can't see anybody panicking about that, or it even getting coverage in the mainstream media. You probably wouldn't even know about it unless you read Twitter and/or Telegram.
Bang on. BIG risks that are unfashionable, get no attention, because they don't go with the vibe being propagated by government and the chaterarti. Other risks which are tiny, get bigged up all the time.

Anybody know how many people were stabbed at that big carnival in London the other day, and by whom? WEll I can tell you that eight people were stabbed and that 334 people were arrested. As to the more detailed profile of the offenders - like ethnicity..... Don't hold your breath. You won't be told because the secret must not be spoken of.

Anybody have any idea why that most popular programme Crime Watch went off the air?
I have a theory. They had a section showing the most wanted people in the country with wanted posters. Most of them did not look that white British though of course there were some. I don't think this could be tolerated anymore by the chaterarti who run things.
 
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Ghost1951

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 2, 2024
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To calculate absolute risk, you take the number of e-bike fires and divide it by the number of e-bike population. Let's assume for simplification, there are 1 million e-bikes in use and 100,000 new e-bikes are sold each year for the last 10 years. You can see that if it were a steady state, the number of fires over the accumulation period of 10 years is 10 x 183. The absolute risk is thus 183/100,000.
You don't need to make up the figures. The number of ebikes is estimated by the Bicycle Association to be to be 550,000 and the fires caused by ebikes in 2023 were 181.

The absolute risk is thus actually five times less than your equation, 1:3038.

Of course if you drilled down into which ebikes are catching fire I think you will find most of them are overpowered, fast charged, illegal, delivery bikes and grotesque contraptions made by idiots.


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EDIT:

Peter Bridges later supplied data showing that the number of deaths quoted by me above is wrong. It should be 11. I got the information from a google search. There were in fact 3 deaths in 2023 in London.
 
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