US battery safety grouping Soteria Battery Innovation Group announced interim findings of its E-bike Battery Safety Project. It showed counterfeit battery cells and modern battery safety technology not being utilised effectively in e-bike battery packs.
The project disassembled eight e-bike battery packs and polled over 1,000 e-bike riders. It found:
- Of 1,018 e-bike riders polled, some 15% of them had experienced an e-bike battery fire
- Third-party battery packs cost about 40% of the OEM equivalent, often with lower quality components and safety features
- The probability of experiencing an e-bike fire increased if riders used the e-bike for deliveries, did their own maintenance, used refurbished batteries or rode mountain bikes.
Brian Morin, CEO of Soteria, said disassembly of the first eight e-bike battery packs revealed two appeared to contain counterfeit Samsung cells. “Companies that make their own cells and relabel them as Samsung cells are almost certainly cutting corners to achieve low cost and improved profit margins,” he said.
“Likely, they do not have the economies of scale that Samsung does, and so are using second grade materials and poorly designed and refined processes. At the end of the day, if a company is willing to lie about the product on the outside, how much can you trust what is on the inside?”
Most of the battery packs had no spacing at all between the cells or protective materials (a cheap option to slow thermal runaway), he said. In some cases, the cells were glued together. If one cell goes off, it is almost certain that the rest of the battery pack will also go into thermal runaway, he said. This makes the fire 50–100 times bigger.
Four of the battery packs had a battery management system which stated it could not handle cell balancing. Only one had verified cell balancing.
One of the battery packs was certified to the UL 2271 standard. This is for light electric vehicle battery packs, including e-bikes. Two were certified to UL 2849, which is for e-bikes but has a component for the battery packs.
In the next phase of the testing project, the researchers will take apart 10–12 new battery packs, as well as a number of used battery packs. They will also install measurement devices on e-bikes in use to measure actual temperature, vibration, shock etc.
Full results will be presented in October.
Last year in New York City over 200 fires were caused by e-bike batteries, resulting in six deaths. This year, there have been over 100 fires and 13 deaths.
The New York City Fire Department said on Thursday it has stepped up inspections and enforcement of e-bike shops and e-bike repair shops in response to the increasing number of lithium-ion battery fires. It said it averted potential disaster at 91 Canal Street.
They found over 100 batteries (some damaged) charging in the location, using overloaded extension cords, and less than three feet apart. Some of the batteries caught fire as they were being removed. Residents were living above the shop.
See the briefing from New York Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
Photo: New York fire fighter disposing of burning battery
