Ebike and e-scooter fires within the UK reached a document excessive final yr, an investigation has discovered, renewing issues over using lithium batteries and unregulated marketplaces.
Hearth brigade figures obtained by the Press Affiliation present there have been a minimum of 432 ebike fires recorded throughout the UK in 2025, up 38% from 313 the earlier yr and greater than 5 instances larger than the 84 recorded in 2021.
There have been a minimum of 147 e-scooter fires in 2025, a 20% bounce on the 123 in 2024. The figures come from freedom of data requests despatched to the UK’s 49 hearth brigades, of which 37 responded.
London hearth brigade (LFB) recorded by far probably the most ebike and e-scooter fires final yr, with 171 and 35 respectively. Nottinghamshire had the following highest variety of ebike fires, 30, adopted by Larger Manchester (13) and Avon (10).
Larger Manchester had the very best variety of e-scooter blazes (13) outdoors London, forward of Avon (10).
Ebike and e-scooter fires are sometimes attributable to the failure of batteries, conversion kits or chargers. Merchandise purchased from on-line marketplaces have been discovered to be at better danger of malfunctioning than these bought by established retailers as a result of they aren’t subjected to the identical stage of regulation.
Nick Bailey, of BatteryIQ, which supplies a system to watch the security of ebike batteries, mentioned the ebikes and e-scooters concerned in fires had been “at all times cut-price merchandise bought by way of on-line marketplaces with lax high quality management”.
He mentioned: “There’s additionally a rising black market in DIY and counterfeit batteries, notably for supply riders, constructed utilizing battery cells reclaimed from used disposable vapes.
“I wouldn’t preserve a battery in my dwelling with out steady monitoring – no matter what the producer’s sticker says.”
Fires involving lithium batteries used for ebikes and e-scooters can unfold quickly and produce a poisonous vapour.
Final yr, 30-year-old Eden Abera Siem died in hospital after a blaze at her north London dwelling that investigators discovered was prone to have been attributable to the failure of a charging ebike battery.
Lesley Rudd, the chief government of the charity Electrical Security First, mentioned: “Poorly made batteries and equipment, typically bought through under-regulated on-line marketplaces, are of giant concern and are a serious route by way of which harmful gadgets are coming into folks’s properties.
“With out robust and enforceable adjustments, lives are at severe danger and additional lack of life is unfortunately inevitable.”
Spencer Sutcliff, an LFB deputy commissioner, mentioned the brigade was “extraordinarily involved across the difficulty of ebike and e-scooter fires and the devastating affect these fires can have on lives and livelihoods”. He mentioned the brigade’s firefighters “proceed to be known as out to a worrying quantity” of the incidents.
Privately owned e-scooters have been banned from the Transport for London (TfL) community since December 2021 due to their hearth danger. This was prolonged to non-foldable ebikes for almost all of TfL providers in March final yr after an ebike caught hearth on a platform at Rayners Lane tube station.
Personal e-scooters are banned from being utilized in public areas throughout the UK, though they’re typically ridden illegally in lots of city areas. Authorized trials of rental e-scooters on roads have been ongoing in cities and cities throughout England since July 2020.
Underneath UK regulation, ebike motors should reduce out when a velocity of 15.5mph is reached. However police are more and more discovering many have been modified to achieve a lot sooner speeds.
Sue Davies, Which?’s head of client rights coverage, mentioned: “On-line marketplaces are more and more saturated with unsafe merchandise.
“Ebikes and e-scooters are just a few examples of things that may pose severe dangers to customers whereas additionally undercutting accountable companies that adjust to the regulation.
“The federal government has launched a much-needed session on updating the product security framework, together with duties for on-line marketplaces to stop unsafe merchandise from being bought by third-party sellers.
“These duties have to be robust and enforceable, with clear measures in place to guard customers and cut back the chance of fires and different hurt.”
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