Within the newest chapter of New York Metropolis’s crackdown on e-bikes, officers are exploring a plan that might assist scale back the variety of non-certified electrical bicycle batteries used or saved within the metropolis.
The proposal, first developed by the FDNY, would tighten rules additional in an effort to make sure that all electrical bike batteries used within the metropolis are licensed to UL requirements. Since a brand new rule concerning e-bike battery security was handed in 2023, all e-bikes offered within the metropolis should use batteries that meet UL requirements and include certification, however that doesn’t imply present e-bikes haven’t already working with non-certified batteries.
The brand new guidelines would allow the NYPD to confiscate such batteries in the event that they’re discovered to be missing the right security certifications. The batteries would then be transferred to the Sanitation Division for correct disposal.
“Since day one, the Adams administration has made holding New Yorkers protected our high precedence and that features taking important steps to crack down on the uncertified e-bike batteries which have sparked a number of lethal fires,” a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams to the New York Submit.
Electrical bikes have been a contentious subject in NYC for the final a number of years, with the town internet hosting the biggest variety of e-bikes anyplace within the US. They’re extraordinarily common amongst supply employees who use them to ferry meals and different items across the metropolis, in addition to shoppers looking for an alternate type of transportation.
Along with worries concerning highway security, hearth issues have additionally plagued the town. Whereas e-bike fires are exceedingly uncommon contemplating the massive variety of e-bikes in use, they’ve nonetheless confirmed deadly.
Final 12 months, six individuals had been killed in fires attributed to defective e-bike batteries. Up to now in 2025, one fatality has been recorded. The final three years of knowledge indicated a steady downward pattern within the variety of e-bike battery accidents and deaths because the UL-certification requirement was imposed in NYC in 2023.
By comparability, car-related deaths within the metropolis proceed to hover round 10x increased than these associated to e-bikes, together with dozens of site visitors fatalities attributable to vehicles every month. Nonetheless, these numbers are additionally trending downwards, half of a bigger pattern that correlates with the introduction of congestion pricing that has diminished the variety of vehicles navigating components of NYC.
