e-Bikes - Let's talk

[shipwreckedsailor]

Thank you so much for all of this information. I am going to share the link for the recording on the BikeArlington socials.

If you could create an e-bike incentive program from scratch, what would it look like? Just wondering since you have so much background information. I am loving the emphasis on battery safety in the comments above. I wonder if parking/locking up is an issue for people with e-bike? Would love to hear your thoughts.

[mstone]

Thank you so much for all of this information. I am going to share the link for the recording on the BikeArlington socials.

If you could create an e-bike incentive program from scratch, what would it look like? Just wondering since you have so much background information. I am loving the emphasis on battery safety in the comments above. I wonder if parking/locking up is an issue for people with e-bike? Would love to hear your thoughts.

By law, cars need to be stored in an area that's firewalled from residential space. Large li-ion batteries combust in a similarly catastrophic manner, and probably should be stored in a similar fashion. Scattering what are effectively bottles of gasoline throughout a multi-tenant residence just seems insane to me.

Put another way: there's a heck of a lot of international regulation concerning the shipping of li-ion batteries, but nothing about keeping a stack of them in your bedroom.

[Dewey]

Thank you so much for all of this information. I am going to share the link for the recording on the BikeArlington socials.

If you could create an e-bike incentive program from scratch, what would it look like? Just wondering since you have so much background information. I am loving the emphasis on battery safety in the comments above. I wonder if parking/locking up is an issue for people with e-bike? Would love to hear your thoughts.

I am going to collect my thoughts into a forthcoming blog post for Dr Gregory Maassen’s DC E-Bike Lovers group, and I will post the link here after it is published. Hopefully the testimony offered at Thursday’s DC Council session will lead policy planners to consider how the public safety issues demand more than a simple retail discount, I am very grateful for WABA’s position supporting requiring UL certification. DC will hopefully follow NYC Council lead and mandate eligible e-bikes be UL certified. Hopefully the list of safety standards People-for-Bikes put forward to Council in their written testimony will be more than just the UL2849 standard which I understand is only Bosch powered ebikes currently. For the program to succeed like Denver, while also promoting fire safety, there needs to be a balance drawn to include other UL standards and other international safety standards, so as to make eligible e-bikes from budget-priced brands that are making an effort to certify their products and can be sold and assembled through local bike shops, including Aventon, Radio Flyer, Ecotric, and Velotric. I am grateful CM Allen’s proposal asks DDOT maintain a list of eligible brands and models, hopefully this will provide consumers with more transparency while encouraging manufacturers to do the right thing. Consumer Reports published an article in December 2022 that reported the cost of UL certification is $25,000 per model, which over say a 1,000 unit production run should add just $25 to the retail msrp, this seems very little to ask manufacturers to take some responsibility over certifying their products. While I’m on my soap box, we should collectively lobby Congress to lower the $800 de minimis threshold for tariffs on US e-bike imports, Congress is contributing to the problem by incentivizing Amazon, big box retailers, and direct-to-consumer brands, to bypass CPSC regulations and import the least-safe low-cost e-bike products.

[n18]

General UL testing for product designs(not each unit) costs around $4k to $15k, not specifically for UL 2849(Don't know how much this would cost), so this means small shops can't make them or make custom E-Bikes. They have to buy a UL certified kit from somewhere, even then, I doubt they would compete with big manufacturers. But since this is not on the federal level, non UL E-Bikes would still be sold, even in our area, they just won't tell you that you won't be able to use it if these laws pass.

[n18]

I built my own E-Bike battery(20 Ah) using genuine Samsung Li-Po batteries, cost me around $300. Buying the same capacity battery would have cost me $900, so that's a big difference. 3+ Years now and so far no fires. I have experience and didn't take shortcuts, but another person might burn his or somebody else's house or apartment. I would prefer this to be done either at the federal level(So no buying non-UL listed only to find you can't use it), or not at all. Apartment complexes owners should have a policy whether to require E-Bikes to be UL listed or not.