Lithium-ion batteries that don’t meet state safety standards will soon be illegal to sell in New York, after Gov. Hochul signed a slew of e-bike safety bills into law Thursday.
“Shoddy lithium-ion batteries have quickly become one of the most dangerous objects in our city,” she said at a Manhattan press conference. “They’re often uncertified, poorly made and sold with no clear safety instructions or recommended precautions.
“In New York City alone, lithium-ion battery sparked 268 fires that injured 150 people and claimed 18 lives,” she added.
The legislation signed Thursday allow the state government to set quality standards for batteries and forbids the sale of batteries that fail to meet those standards.
“We’re going to create one consistent quality standard for all lithium-ion batteries that they must meet — and batteries that don’t meet those standards are banned,” Hochul said. “And if companies try to cut corners and sell substandard batteries, we’ll slap them with costly penalties.”
The legislation will also require clear instructions on how to safely charge a battery, warning consumers against leaving a charged battery plugged in.
Lithium-ion battery fires are “self-oxidizing,” meaning they can burn even if deprived of oxygen and making the flames difficult to fight. The new laws will also establish a statewide training curriculum for firefighters to learn the best way to tackle such blazes.
Other laws added to the books addressed e-bike safety more generally.
One of them requires municipalities statewide to begin reporting e-bike crashes that result in injuries or deaths to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles — something the NYC Department of Transportation already does.
More than three times as many people died while riding e-bikes in New York City last year than died on traditional, pedal-powered bicycles, according to city data, with 23 people killed on e-bikes and seven on traditional cycles.
E-bikes have accounted for roughly three quarters of cycling deaths since 2021.
The new legislation considers e-bikes to be any pedal-driven device with an electric motorized assist.
By contrast, the many electric — and gas-powered — mopeds on city streets are legally defined as motorcycles and required to be registered with the DMV and carry license plates like a larger motor vehicle.
Another law signed Thursday by Hochul requires all such mopeds to be registered at the point of sale, rather than later on at the DMV.
“Even though mopeds are already required to be registered in New York State, they almost never are — less than 5,000 were registered [last year] in the city of New York,” said Assemblyman Alex Bores (D-Manhattan).
“I don’t know how many mopeds actually exist on the street, but I know that NYPD seized over 12,000 unregistered ones last year alone,” he added.
