Another E-Scooter battery fire raises urgent need for regulation

In what is fast becoming an all-too-common headline, another e-scooter battery fire appears to be the explanation for a blaze that tore through seven homes in Hampshire, devastating the properties and lives of the inhabitants. This latest incident has once more shone a spotlight on the need for government to finally grasp the nettle on private e-scooters.

Fire risk

Fire and Rescue services have voiced concern that the lithium batteries powering e-scooters and e-bikes are leading to increasing numbers of fires. In 2020, figures collated from 38 fire and rescue services demonstrated that there were just 77 incidents involving e-scooters or bikes. By 2023, this rose to nearly 350 incidents. To that end, there can be no denying the correlation between micromobility devices like e-scooters becoming ever-more popular, and the incidence of battery-related fires.

These kinds of statistics led to Transport for London banning e-scooters from the London’s transport network in 2021 and the bans remains in place today.

Causes

Whilst the destructive nature of lithium battery fires is such that determining the exact cause can be difficult, the fire services suggest that fires are most common during the charging process. This is where the battery catastrophically fails, causing them to explode and/or catch fire.

Worse still, private e-scooter riders will usually bring them inside to charge overnight in hallways or other communal areas that can block escape routes, amplifying the risk of fire related injury or death.

Battery degradation or damage can precipitate malfunction, but modifications made by e-scooter owners or suppliers, usually to increase speed or power, significantly increases the risk of battery fires. Moreover, the sale of counterfeit, poor quality e-scooter products including batteries are also a common feature in battery-related incidents. Many e-scooter fires involve batteries that do not meet British or European standards which are usually bought online rather than from reputable retailers.

Buyers of second hand, refurbished or converted models are particularly exposed because warranties are often absent, expired or invalid.

Call for action

There are now growing calls to legislate against the danger of lithium-ion batteries in e-scooters and bikes. This has manifested in a new Electric-Powered Micro-Mobility Vehicles and Lithium Batteries Bill, championed by the charity Electrical Safety First.

If enacted, the legislation would mandate a third-party safety assessment for all e-scooter and e-bike batteries before they enter the UK market. Amongst other measures, this would go some way to reducing the number of counterfeit and poor-quality batteries on our roads and in premises and mark a move towards improving standards in a uniform way.

Regulating for the fire risk that e-scooters present will need to be robust yet proportionate; ensuring it doesn’t unduly stifle innovation and use whilst keeping safety front and centre.

Our manifesto

More broadly, our firm has called upon government to enact laws to regulate the manufacture and use of private e-scooters in the UK for several years. For example, in 2022, we chaired a roundtable discussion between major stakeholders including the Metropolitan Police, the Motor Insurers Bureau, the Association of British Insurers, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and solicitors to discuss how the government could approach future regulation of e-scooters in a more standardised, safety focused way.

It seemed as though that might come with the May 2022 Queen’s Speech in which the Transport Bill was announced. This Bill was intended to ideal with various issues including the regulation of e-scooters, but after the political chaos that followed, e-scooters seemingly fell off the Government’s radar. The Future Transport Bill announced in the King’s Speech of November 2023 did not include reference to private e-scooter use.

As it currently stands, unlike e-bikes, e-scooters are treated by the law in the same way as conventional motor vehicles. This means riders require driving licences, a motor insurance policy, an MOT and tax in order to operate their private e-scooter legally on our road network. This creates a contradiction because it is not currently possible for private owners of e-scooters to achieve any of the above requirements. This in turn means that whilst the sale of private e-scooters is entirely legal, the use of them on public land is not and is subject to prosecution. All the while their popularity spirals and the police have little option but to turn a blind eye to their use in public. In the alternative, our police forces would be spending the majority of their time handing out fines to e-scooter riders across the nation.

The public’s confusion is then compounded by the operation of long-running approved e-scooter rental schemes that operate up and down the country.

The current outdated legal framework means e-scooter riders who are injured due to the negligent actions of another road user may be prevented from seeking compensation regardless of how sensibly they may have been riding. This is because the defendant will likely seek to defend their claim on the grounds that the e-scooter was being used on public land.

Conversely, the rider’s inability to obtain an insurance policy for the e-scooter means those injured by them whilst operating their private e-scooter can’t seek compensation from the defendant rider’s insurance company in the normal way. Rather, they would have to rely on the Motor Insurers Bureau to step-in and compensate. This means insurance premium paying motorists effectively foot the bill for uninsured e-scooter riders who aren’t paying “into the system”.

Concluding remarks

Despite threats to do so, the outgoing government failed to grasp the nettle of regulating privately owned e-scooters. That is not to say it shied away from making big decisions on modern transport as can be seen by the impressive strides made towards preparing the UK for automated vehicles.

However, once the dust has settled for the new Labour government, we should strive for action that will promote the ambition for active travel and the decarbonisation of our transport sector, whilst putting an end to the wild west in which private e-scooters are currently manufactured, sold and used. Approved e-scooter rental trials have been operating across the country for around four years and so sufficient data ought now to be available for the government to base its long term strategy upon.