Council OKs ban on uncertified e-bike batteries

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 Councilwoman Alexa Aviles (D-Brooklyn) to be the sole “no” vote on Feliz’s bill.

“Blanket bans simply drive items underground,” Aviles 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.