12 Dead This Year in New York E-Bike Battery Fires, Fear Grows among Residents

Fires from lithium-ion batteries have become regular occurrences in New York. The batteries, which power e-bikes and scooters, are causing deaths and spreading fear among residents. But the city has failed to build infrastructure that could reduce the threat, the report says.

According to the New York Fire Department (FDNY), in 2025 there were 292 such fires, 51 injuries and one death. This year, there have already been more than 400 fires, 83 injuries and 12 deaths.

In late October, four members of a family, including an 11-year-old boy, died in a fire in an 11th-floor apartment in a public housing building in the Bronx. The fire was caused by a battery in an e-bike that was in the pathway to an exit.

Then recently, in a fire at a home in Brooklyn, six people died and nine were injured, including three firefighters and two police officers. Investigators discovered lithium-ion batteries at the scene but have not determined whether they caused the fire, City Council Speaker Julie Menin said in a statement.

Menin said in the statement that the presence of lithium-ion batteries at the scene is a serious concern, and more must be done to encourage and mandate safe storage practices. 'Enough is enough,' she stated.

London and Toronto have also recently seen a dramatic increase in lithium-ion battery fires. Many of these fires are caused by overcharging and defective or damaged batteries. Part of the trend is simply that e-bikes have become more popular among food delivery workers and commuters.

According to the Light Electric Vehicle Association, 2.2 million e-bikes were imported into the United States in 2025, double the number from just three years earlier.

In response to increased usage, the New York City Department of Transportation conducted a 2024 pilot in which it hired companies to offer battery-swapping cabinets where delivery workers could exchange exhausted batteries for charged ones. The riders did more than 12,000 swaps over six months, and among participants there was a 35% reduction in charging batteries at home, according to the city.

Following the pilot's success, the city announced it would install 25 charging sites, but not until 2027. The city first needed to gather feedback on site selection, design and implementation. In April, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked residents to provide feedback on where they would like the 25 cabinets. The city planned to make them available in 2028, the announcement stated.

In 2023, the city also announced it had received a $25m federal grant to build 173 electric-micromobility charging and storage stations at 53 public housing developments. Then Mayor Eric Adams said at the time that this meant residents would no longer need to charge their e-bikes in their apartments, which is extremely dangerous. Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi said residents would start seeing evidence of the stations in early 2024. But according to the New York Department of Transportation, although the Biden administration allocated the $25m, the federal government has not actually provided the funds.

Asked why the process has moved slowly, a transportation department spokesperson stated in an email that the city's strategy to reduce the risk of e-bike battery fires focuses on getting unsafe devices off the streets and providing safe and convenient e-bike charging options. The outdoor battery-swapping cabinets will make charging safer, the spokesperson said, adding that with public feedback gathered this summer they are finalising locations and remain on pace to launch the service in 2028.

Meanwhile, Popwheels, one of the companies in the successful pilot, has installed about 45 cabinets around the city, according to its CEO Baruch Herzfeld. He wants to install hundreds more but has been stymied by a permitting process he describes as 'ludicrous'. He said it often takes six months for the city to approve one cabinet. In his words, this permitting process is why kids are dying.

Former FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said there is a ton of red tape around this sort of new technology. In her view, if a battery failed in an outdoor cabinet it would almost certainly do no more than property damage, whereas 10 New Yorkers have died in fires in the last three weeks. She said the issue needs to be framed that way.

The latest fire may spur the city to expedite its approval process. On Friday, Menin announced that the city council would hold an emergency meeting on 20 November to conduct oversight to ensure the city is properly enforcing existing laws and that the public is educated on best fire safety practices and lithium-ion battery storage. After the Brooklyn fire, Mamdani said on MS Now that e-bike fires are something that can cause people to lose their lives as well as their livelihoods, and that they are looking at every avenue to keep residents safe.