Buying and selling uncertified and second-hand e-bike batteries would be banned under a package of bills passed by the City Council on Thursday in a response to hundreds of battery fires across the city in recent years.
The bills would also require the Fire Department and the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection run educational campaigns about e-bike safety risks and mandates the FDNY to submit yearly reports tracking the fire risks of e-bikes and electric scooters.
The package also includes a measure barring the reassembly or reconditioning of lithium batteries.
E-bike batteries are blamed in 216 fires in 2022 that resulted in 147 injuries and six deaths. Firefighters are also worried about the potentially dangerous toxins released in the blazes.
“These fires are a problem, these fires are powerful, and they are also destructive,” said Bronx Councilman Oswald Feliz (D-Bronx), who pushed other fire safety bills after the January 2022 Twin Parks fire in the Bronx that killed 17 people.
Feliz introduced the bill to ban the sale of batteries not certified by Underwriters Laboratories or other testing labs.
“They destroy our homes, they displace our families, and they put our lives at risk,” Feliz said. “We cannot wait for another tragedy to happen.”
But the idea of banning the sale, lease or rental of batteries that don’t meet safety standards prompted concern of financially burdening delivery workers. That issue prompted Council Member Alexa Avilés (D-Brooklyn) to be the sole “no” vote on Feliz’s bill.
“Blanket bans simply drive items underground,” Avilés said. She added: “To drive them underground and raise false expectations that banning these batteries will somehow mitigate the risk of their existence in communities is terribly unfortunate.”
The bills now go to Mayor Adams for his signature. If Adams does not sign them, they’ll automatically become law after 30 days.
Though she supported the legislation, Upper West Side Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) acknowledged the issue is “very complicated” and suggested the Council must do more work to ensure delivery workers aren’t saddled with too large of a financial burden.
“The deliveristas use three batteries a day,” Brewer said, adding that there must be a focus on “making sure it’s still affordable” for workers to ride their e-bikes.
Brewer sponsored a bill banning the sale of second-hand bike batteries, as well as their reconditioning. “This is the beginning,” she said. “We have much more work to be done.”
Council Member Shahana Hanif (D-Brooklyn) warned against the criminalization of delivery workers in the rollout of the new bills.
“Workers cannot be on the sidelines of policy conversations that directly impact them,” Hanif said. “The implementation of this package and f
The legislation comes as the city struggles to tamp down the spate of devastating fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries.
The 220 fires caused by e-bike batteries in the city last year were sharp uptick compared to 44 in 2020, according to data compiled by the Council.
Most of the fires start from bikes owned by delivery workers who carry multiple batteries to power their wheels through long work days.
An e-bike fire in February claimed the life of a 67-year-old Brooklyn woman. So far this year, the FDNY has responded to around three battery fires a week.
Council members expect further legislation on the issue — including a bill sponsored by Majority Leader Keith Powers (D-Manhattan) to create a battery swap program to buy back cheap, refurbished batteries and replace them with batteries up to current safety standards.
At a press conference before the vote, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens) and several of her colleagues said tightening regulation around the batteries is a matter of life and death.
“The toll that these fires are increasingly having on families and communities across the city is devastating, and requires the urgent attention of the city, state and federal governments,” Adams said.