Electric scooters / bikes

[Richlist]

Given the number of electric scooters and the odd electric bike fitted with lithium batteries that have caught fire.......has anyone yet decided to make it clear that they are not to be stored or even parked inside their property ? I can imagine in some inner city dwellings that parking these in the hallway would be considered the norm.

Lithium battery fires are not easy to extinguish. They make their own oxygen so normal extinguishers are unlikely to work and the fire service often let them burn out first.

[Melboy]

I was watching an interesting article about Chinese EV's bursting into flames for no good reason well, apparently the poor construction of battery packs leaves a lot to be desired.  It happens quite a lot in China especially with the newest cars that they produce. Your right RL lithium battery fires are virtually impossible to put out and conventional methods of extinguishing car fires just don't work.

             This has also led to Chinese people avoiding parking next to EV's especially at charging points ( good video of a Chinese delivery van going up in flames having parked next to an EV on charge and was well on fire )

             I don't think I will be rushing out to buy an EV anytime soon as the more I hear about them the more they don't make any sense starting with exaggerated manufacturer mileage claims so I will stick with my petrol job for as long as I can. I won't be driving in 10 years time and that may not necessarily be down to age related problems but down to our overcrowded roads on our overcrowded island.

[kerbut]

I was watching the Breakfast news yesterday and they said to charge an EV from a home supply costs10p per mile and from a fast supermarket charger 20 p per mile, think I will stick with petrol thanks.

[Grampa]

So many household electrical items have lithium batteries now so trying to ban tenants storing solely e-scooters and e-bikes and then enforcing it seems like a fools errand.

We have been hearing for years about mobile phone batteries catching fire and havent banned them tenanted properties. I acknowledge the size of bike/scooter batteries are bigger but think about how many battery items are likely charged in a house. I guess a big part of the problem is cheap badly made replacement batteries from China. I bought a cheap replacement charger from china for my daughters old laptop which didnt work so used the trade-in scheme with currys to buy another laptop. Apparently it killed all the electrics in the whole store when they plugged it in.

To name just a few battery items within a household.

• Mobile phones
• cordless phones
• DIY power tools
• Cordless garden tools
• Cordless vacuum cleaners
• laptops
• kids toys
• cctv cameras  

[kanrent]

On 4/14/2023 at 3:35 PM, Grampa said:

So many household electrical items have lithium batteries now so trying to ban tenants storing solely e-scooters and e-bikes and then enforcing it seems like a fools errand.

We have been hearing for years about mobile phone batteries catching fire and havent banned them tenanted properties. I acknowledge the size of bike/scooter batteries are bigger but think about how many battery items are likely charged in a house. I guess a big part of the problem is cheap badly made replacement batteries from China. I bought a cheap replacement charger from china for my daughters old laptop which didnt work so used the trade-in scheme with currys to buy another laptop. Apparently it killed all the electrics in the whole store when they plugged it in.

To name just a few battery items within a household.

• Mobile phones
• cordless phones
• DIY power tools
• Cordless garden tools
• Cordless vacuum cleaners
• laptops
• kids toys
• cctv cameras  

Smoke alarms

[Richlist]

There are, in my opinion, significant differences with scooter batteries vs other 'household' lithium batteries :

* they are much larger.

* they will operate at higher temperatures.

* their usage profile means they are subjected to much rougher use.

* they can be exposed to temperature extremes and water.

* overseas equipment may not conform to UK standards.