NYC will get $25M for e-bike charging stations, in search of to forestall lethal battery fires

NEW YORK — After a sequence of fires involving defective e-bike batteries together with a latest blaze that claimed 4 lives, New York City officers introduced Sunday that they’re receiving a $25 million emergency grant from the federal authorities to fund scores of charging stations citywide.

Mayor Eric Adams hopes the stations will present a safer approach for supply staff, who depend on e-bikes to effectively do their jobs, to recharge lithium batteries used to energy their bicycles.

“This means that residents will no longer need to charge the e-bikes in their apartments – what we find to be extremely dangerous, particularly when you charge them overnight,” Adams stated at a information convention Sunday. He was flanked by the state’s two U.S. senators who helped safe the funding from the US. Department of Transportation.

The announcement comes after a lithium ion battery caught fireplace and engulfed an e-bike store in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The fireplace and thick smoke unfold to flats above the store, killing 4 individuals and injuring three others, together with a responding firefighter.

In the times since, New York City officers sought the general public’s assist in cracking down on unsafe e-bike outlets and fireplace officers issued not less than 10 citations to outlets for improper dealing with of the batteries.

City officers stated they’d beforehand fined the store for its e-bike charging practices, although inspectors reportedly didn’t examine to see if the shop was promoting reconditioned batteries on a latest go to.

Under new tips, fireplace officers can be directed to answer complaints about e-bike batteries inside 12 hours, quite than the earlier coverage of three days.

New York City has seen over 100 fires and 13 deaths this 12 months linked to e-bikes, greater than double the entire variety of fatalities from final 12 months, officers stated.

The metropolis has issued practically 500 summonses associated to e-bikes, which can lead to fines between $1,000 and $5,000.

The batteries can overheat if faulty or improperly charged.

Adams had introduced in March that town was working to ascertain charging stations. The grant would fund an preliminary 170 charging items in about 50 places.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, stated the charging stations proved “new hope” to forestall “these fires that start from shoddy China-made lithium ion batteries and chargers,” he stated through the press convention.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand stated she and Schumer had been engaged on laws to ascertain security requirements for batteries.