my office building is instituting a ban on lithium-ion cell e-bikes. what options do i have?

[bela89]

see above. i thought i could get a lithium battery bike but found out that apparently lithium = lithium-ion=li-on (3rd one is what they mention in email) ???
does that mean conversion kit is my only option?
many thanks!
regards

 

[Woosh]

there isn't any other battery option for bikes and kits outside Lithium batteries.
I can understand their motivation to ban all the e-scooters but it is rather a silly blanket ban on all things with Lithium batteries because it excludes all street legal bikes which should not impact on their building insurance.
Can you park your bike outside the office?

 

[kwpe]

there isn't any other battery option for bikes and kits outside Lithium batteries.
I can understand their motivation to ban all the e-scooters but it is rather a silly blanket ban on all things with Lithium batteries because it excludes all street legal bikes which should not impact on their building insurance.
Can you park your bike outside the office?

Tell them to stop being silly and to read this

UK eBike biz coordinates to address businesses' fire safety bans

A number of eBike industry stakeholders are seeking to calm the nerves of big businesses spooked by media headlines relating to battery fire

cyclingindustry.news

which says, inter alia,
“eBikes and eBike components from reputable suppliers undergo rigorous testing to stringent quality and safety testing standards – and we aren’t aware of a single incident in the UK involving an eBike or battery from a reputable brand.”
So get something brand-named and properly tested - not an anonymous kit found online.

 

[matthewslack]

Campaign for an outdoor bike shed with charging facilities.

 

[guerney]

Is there a cheap 24-hour gym nearby you could join, in order to store your battery discreetly in a locker?

 

[matthewslack]

If you work for a large company, they will probably have an environment officer, and certainly an environmental policy, and even the top level mission and quality statement is likely to mention environmental issues.

The company's own policies are a powerful tool to argue for change, and if the common sense is on your side, i.e. quality battery from reputable source, they should listen. Go higher up the management chain until they do.

 

[guerney]

I can understand their motivation to ban all the e-scooters but it is rather a silly blanket ban on all things with Lithium batteries because it excludes all street legal bikes which should not impact on their building insurance.

It wouldn't surprise me, if insurance companies capitalised on increasing use of lithium battery powered transport devices of all types.

 

[guerney]

 

[Stanebike]

Do they ban all mobile phones as well? They use lithium batteries and have been known to catch fire in the past, or is it just ebike prejudice?

 

[soundwave]

and lap tops and tablets my mouse shaver and tooth brush has them as well as new tv remotes that only charge via usb and any ups back up for servers.

just tell them your bike runs on a anti matter reactor

 

[guerney]

BYD May Begin Sodium-Ion Battery Production In 2023

Reports from China suggest BYD may be the first manufacturer to bring electric cars with sodium-ion batteries to market.

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/11/24/byd-may-begin-sodium-ion-battery-production-in-2023/

"lithium-ion batteries have an energy density of up to 300Wh/kg, while lead acid batteries have an energy density of around 50Wh/kg. Sodium-ion batteries are somewhere in between the two. CATL is also pursuing sodium-ion batteries for production vehicles and claims its sodium battery cells have an energy density of 160 Wh/kg"

 

[StuartsProjects]

Do they ban all mobile phones as well?

I doubt they do, but then its highly likely that stuff like mobile phones, has had carefull control in manufacture and or repair, and its only a single cell.

With eBike batteries, that have a great many cells, who knows what controls went into their build ?

 

[soundwave]

dual batts tho pouch cells like that are banned from battle bots tho they do explode better than a 18650 if on fire

i replaced my s7 samsung batt after 7 years and as soon as i tried to remove it went nuclear and tried to explode.

 

[kwpe]

there isn't any other battery option for bikes and kits outside Lithium batteries.
I can understand their motivation to ban all the e-scooters but it is rather a silly blanket ban on all things with Lithium batteries because it excludes all street legal bikes which should not impact on their building insurance.
Can you park your bike outside the office?

There is scope here for an enterprising vendor to commission the development of a properly tested and certified battery using LiFePO4 cells, which do NOT have the same unstoppable-fire risk. It'll be a bit bigger (12 cells for true 36volt) and heavier for a given Wh capacity, and it may need a different charger - but it would not be "Lithium Ion" and *should* sail past any nervous-landlord blockades.

 

[Bonzo Banana]

Any ebike sold from within the UK officially must be fully certified. I guess perhaps you have Chinese sellers who set up a despatch warehouse in the UK might get around it somehow. I.e. the payment goes directly to China and they despatch from within the UK. Generally though the way to bypass cert tests is to buy from Chinese sellers on Amazon or ebay or buy from Aliexpress for goods directly shipped from China. In India and China there are a huge amount of ebikes many not properly certified and still ebike fires are very rare overall compared to how many are in use and in those countries ebikes get huge use, for some its their only means of transport. Admittedly in india they have a lot of ebikes using lead acid batteries and even brushed motors as that is what is available at the lowest pricing.

It's definitely of concern but lets face it you have a much higher ratio of car fires, Quite a few Ferrari's and Lamborghini's have caught fire and they sell in small numbers so the amount that catch fire must be quite high.

When New York did that image of the ebikes that had gone on fire. It looked more like one big e-motor bike, lots of small wheeled proprietary chinese ebikes but mostly hoverboard and scooter type devices. Not many regular size ebikes. Maybe with their thinner frames normally ebikes just turned to dust. I think aluminium burns at half the temperature of steel so I guess its more likely there would be nothing left of aluminium framed ebikes if the fire was really intense.

Also I noticed two of the ebikes shown first when I googled 'ebike fires' clearly show mid-drive motors. Which I thought was significant as mid-drives only make up a smaller amount of ebike motors sold and of that niche I would of thought store bought pre-built mid-drive motor ebikes were more common. Typically mid-drive requires more peak power from the battery to create their higher torque figures. I wonder if this could be partly responsible or maybe its just an indicator of the type of people that are power obsessed and go for the most powerful motors and don't use a battery to match. In my experience hub motors don't have the range of current requirements of mid-drive motors which have a greater current draw range.

 

[PaulM]

Kudos have 3 models with the safer LiFePO4 battey. This is the only derailleur fitted one: http://www.kudoscycles.com/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=218