New South Wales is cracking down on the sale of some ebikes and e-scooters in a nationwide first aimed at reducing the scourge of battery-related fires, while pushing for a nationally coordinated approach to the growing problem.
Low quality ebikes and e-scooters have contributed to a spate of fires across the country, with lithium-ion batteries now the fastest growing cause of fires in the state.
Since January, NSW Fire and Rescue has attended 54 fires related to e-scooters, ebikes, e-skateboards or hoverboards. That figure is a fraction of the total 185 lithium-ion battery fires the service has attended this year – about four fires every five days.
Demand for the products is booming as the number of e-mobility devices sold in NSW more than tripled between 2020 and 2022, the government said.
Under the new rules announced on Thursday, ebikes, e-scooters, hoverboards and e-skateboards will become “declared electric devices”. The battery-powered devices will need to meet a set of internationally accepted product standards, including appropriate tests and certification. Vendors of non-compliant devices will face fines of up to $825,000 from February 2025.
The minister for better regulation and fair trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the state was “acting ahead of other jurisdictions because unregulated products are posing a huge risk to property and, in some cases, lives”.
The deaths of two people in a house fire in Lake Macquarie in February were believed to be the first fatalities caused by a lithium battery fire. In March, the state recorded four lithium battery fires in a single day.
Chanthivong said a national approach was needed and the NSW government would formally request the matter be put on the national agenda for the next Consumer Ministers Network meeting.
In response, a spokesperson from the Queensland electrical safety regulator said new laws introduced to parliament in May would, if passed, bring e-scooters and ebikes into the state’s electrical safety regulatory framework.
Queensland supports national harmonisation of electrical equipment safety through its participation in the national Electrical Equipment Safety System, they said.
In October, the ACCC published its report on lithium-ion batteries and consumer product safety, stating that incidents involving the batteries could have “catastrophic consequences”.
The consumer watchdog called for a nationally consistent regulatory framework for electrical products and found there had been 23 recalls of lithium-ion battery-powered products between January 2017 and December 2022, affecting an estimated 89,000 products.
The new standards will clamp down on a loophole that has allowed many poor quality ebike and e-scooter lithium batteries to enter Australia, CSIRO principal research scientist Adam Best said.
“Ebikes and e-scooters are considered transportation devices, so the primary standard they need to meet are as transport,” he said.
“It’s assumed the battery on the bike or scooter is compliant but there’s no actual way to check that compliance in Australia.
“It’s a case of technology leapfrogging regulations, so you end up with these gaps.”
While the risk of fire is low, when the batteries catch fire, they can be extremely dangerous, he said.
“The fires are so intense, it’s frightening. You can’t suffocate the fire, it is self-fuelled and they take so much effort to put out.”
Despite this, the vast majority of products on the market were safe and used similar battery cells to laptops and phones, the general manager of Bicycle Industries Australia, Peter Bourke, said.
Victoria’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action was contacted for comment.
