LITHIUM RV BATTERIES CRACK

Use of motorized bicycles grew dramatically in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic as homebound people turned more to food delivery workers for meals and groceries. Last summer, the New York City Housing Authority sought to prohibit tenants in all of its 335 developments from keeping or charging e-vehicles in their units, only to back down a few months later after protests from delivery workers. Such was the case in April when two siblings, a 7-year-old boy and his 19-year-old sister, died when a scooter battery ignited a fire in Queens.īecause of the fire hazard, some residential buildings have banned e-bikes. “Once one of these ignites, there is a huge volume of fire, often so much so that the person in their home can’t get out and the firefighters can’t get in to get them.” “When they fail, they fail quite spectacularly,” Kavanagh said in interview last week. Meanwhile, New York City officials also announced they had received a $25 million federal grant for e-bike charging stations across the city, which fire marshals hope will reduce the risk of fires.

The new rules also outlaw tampering with batteries or selling refurbished batteries made with lithium-ion cells scavenged from used units.

LITHIUM RV BATTERIES CRACK

In many cases, authorities have been challenged to track the source of batteries manufactured overseas, many of them bought online or from aftermarket dealers.Įarlier this year, New York City urgently enacted a sweeping package of local laws intended to crack down on defective batteries, including a ban on the sale or rental of e-bikes and batteries that aren’t certified as meeting safety standards by an independent product testing lab. Ritchie Torres.īecause mandatory standards don’t exist, Schumer said, poorly made batteries have flooded the U.S., increasing the risk of fires. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as U.S. The task is being spearheaded by Democratic members in New York’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Hoehn-Saric called on Congress to strengthen the commission’s authority so it can “move rapidly toward establishing mandatory standards” that could reduce destructive and deadly fires caused by malfunctioning lithium-ion batteries. Nationally, there were more than 200 battery-related fires reported to the commission - an obvious undercount - from 39 states over the past two years, including 19 deaths blamed on micromobility devices. There have been 100 such blazes so far this year, resulting in 13 deaths, already more than double the six fatalities last year. New York City is the epicenter of battery-related fires.

With some 65,000 e-bikes zipping through its streets - more than any other place in the U.S.

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