VP at Bosch eBike Systems Americas, overseeing all operational activities within North and South America.
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The growth of battery-powered personal mobility products, including scooters, skateboards and e-bikes, brings increased safety responsibilities for manufacturers. This means incorporating features that protect riders while the products are in use as well as while they are being charged, serviced, transported and stored. Specific areas of concern must include not only the products’ mechanical and electrical safety but the crucial "human factor" when it comes to measuring how safely people can engage with them.
For manufacturers, these responsibilities are real. After dozens of lithium-ion battery fires in the New York City area, in June 2022, the public housing authority announced a proposed ban on e-bikes and their batteries from its buildings and grounds. If enacted, this would have severely restricted the storage, charging and easy use of e-bikes for nearly a half-million public housing residents. Even though the proposal was withdrawn in October 2022 due to public objection, the fact remains that e-bike battery fires have steadily increased since 2019. But why? Cheap, second-hand or rebuilt batteries are now under the microscope from the NYC Council as a potential source of e-bike fires.
What exactly is an e-bike?
From consumer and business as well as legal standpoints, understanding how e-bikes are legally defined in the retail space is essential. Fortunately, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which has jurisdiction over the bicycle trade in America, clearly defines e-bikes in its official regulations.
Per the federal government, the e-bike is defined as: “a two- or three-wheeled cycle with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of not more than 750 watts," and that falls under one of three classes distinguished by whether the assistive motor is only utilized in combination with pedaling and what the maximum speed capacity is of the vehicle.
It is important to note that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates e-bikes for the purpose of product safety at the point of first sale, but individual states decide how e-bikes can be used.
In 2014 People for Bikes, a national bicycle association, created a model legislation now adopted by the U.S. CPSC, which defines three common categories of e-bikes and allows states to decide which types of bicycle infrastructure each class can use.
Here are the specifics.
• Class 1 describes a bicycle equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of 20 miles per hour.
• Class 2 describes a bicycle equipped with a motor that may be used exclusively to propel the bicycle and that is not capable of providing assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of 20 miles per hour.
• Class 3 describes a bicycle equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and that ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of 28 miles per hour and is equipped with a speedometer.
What is the UL 2849 safety standard, and why is it essential?
Contemporary e-bikes use sophisticated and complex drive systems consisting of a battery pack, charger, motor, motor controller, operator display, switches and interconnecting wiring. The entire system must work efficiently and reliably to ensure top performance and safety.
The voluntary UL 2849 Standard certification covers safety requirements for the electrical system of e-bikes powered by a lithium-based, rechargeable battery. E-bikes include both electrically power-assisted cycles (EPAC or pedal assist) as well as non-pedal assist e-bikes.
Primarily, UL 2849 sets the design standard and offers electrical and fire safety certification of the drivetrain, battery and charger systems, wiring and wireless interfaces, mechanical components and even critical vehicle dynamics. The process includes assessing the risk of electric shock and fire while the battery is charging and discharging.
What challenges and solutions exist to lithium-ion battery regulation in the U.S.?
Interestingly, the fires due to battery packs on e-bikes or electrified “out of class vehicles” (e.g., scooters or vehicles that are not Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes) are generally considered to be a uniquely U.S. issue. This is due to a lack of mandatory certification to accredited safety standards.
A viable remedy is for manufacturers to adopt the voluntary UL 2849 Standard when designing products and then to subject them to testing and certification by nationally recognized testing laboratories such as Intertek, SGS, UL and similar.
Here are a few parting insights from an industry leader.
Leaders in this industry must take measures to ensure e-bike batteries incorporate state-of-the-art engineering safety as a key asset. This includes not only the energy-storing batteries themselves but their individual components and construction, their built-in protection features and the battery management systems that are dedicated to ensuring safety and energy optimization.
Critical safety features must be built into all e-bike batteries. Starting inside the battery, an integrated cell-to-cell fuse can will interrupt the flow of electricity in the event of an increased current flow within any cell. This allows for the protection of all the other cells electrically while also containing heat and reducing the chances that any heat spread can occur.
Further, the battery’s individual cells should be encased in flame-retardant plastic. In the rare case of a short circuit within any cell, this encapsulation ensures that the affected cell will provide the best possible thermal protection for the other cells. Additionally, the housings should be waterproof, with features such as multi-lip seals at both ends and an all-around sealed housing.
Using highly automated manufacturing processes also improves the precision assembly of the battery cell holders, the electrical connections between individual cell blocks and the creation of battery seals. This further reduces the risk of potential assembly errors.
In concert with such design features and manufacturing processes, rigorous testing will advance e-bike safety, which is crucially important for users and essential for the vitality and growth of the segment. Further, it is prototypical of how corporate initiative can positively and productively shape e-bike design and manufacturing to benefit the industry and society as a whole.
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