OPINION
Perceptions of e-bikes are an existential crisis for the industry
By Laura Laker A
few years ago my sister bought me a surge protector plug for charging my e-bike. She’d read news stories about e-bikes
catching fire while charging, and was worried my home might go up in flames overnight. You can understand her concern: when an e-bike battery catches fire it can quickly become devastating. What she, like much of the public, didn’t know was the fires weren’t caused by the e-bikes you’d buy in a shop or from a legitimate seller - the kind I have. They were coming from products that circumvent the rules and are sold, often online, as safe, legal products for use on UK roads - when they are far from either. To the layperson, the two things can be indistinguishable – and last year was a record year for fires from these substandard products. Many insurers will no longer cover buildings where e-bikes are stored, while transport providers are wary of allowing a potentially explosive device on their premises. This misunderstanding presents an existential crisis for the bike industry, one that is unequivocally holding back sales and uptake of e-bikes. As Julian Scriven, of Brompton Bicycles, put it, if people can’t store bikes at home or at work, they aren’t going to buy them. Just over a year ago I wrote the ‘fake e-bikes’ report for
the All Party Parliamentary Group on Walking and Cycling. Bearing the title ‘Unregulated and Unsafe’, it highlighted the growing problem of poorly-constructed conversion kits and dangerous high-powered e-motorbikes being sold as ‘e-bikes’ almost entirely online from overseas suppliers who did not comply with UK safety standards. Too many of these kits’ batteries lacked the multiple fail-safes of regulated e-bike batteries that prevent fires, should the wrong charger be plugged in. The report inquiry heard from insurers and Transport for
London, who said they would lift e-bike bans only if there were a kitemark, with a sticker telling them which models were safe and which weren’t. The industry has finally responded with a revamp of its E-bike
Positive scheme. The Bicycle Association’s and Association of Cycle Traders’ new “trust mark” is “an exercise in putting clear blue water between ourselves with reputable products and the dodgy stuff”, says the BA’s Peter Eland. It’s about time.
44 | August 2026
Where E-bike Positive’s first iteration was a voluntary pledge, brands and retailers must now be audited and meet certain standards, before they can be verified. Anyone signed up to the old scheme – the last one had more than 400 retailers, plus major brands - will need to reapply. An auditor will visit brands and ask for evidence the manufacturer tests the entire bicycle, not just the electrics, and that it complies with standards around the cycle itself, as well as storage practices and procedures.
Signed-up retailers will need to only stock road-legal
EAPCs, at least one of which is on the E-Bike Positive register. They will be visited by mystery shoppers to ensure they are complying. Retailers will also no longer be able to service or repair the electrics of non-EAPCs. The scheme is designed to help the public, government and
insurers distinguish between compliant and non-compliant e-bikes, in the same way the latter distinguishes between types of door lock or smoke alarm in a home. Signs are positive: the Association of British Insurers will support the public launch, says Eland. But there are no promises it will materially change the many e-bike bans in place in workplaces and homes, which are driven by insurers. Whether the insurance industry will feel confident of the condition of a five- or ten-year-old machine and any replacement chargers is another matter. Battery I-Q devices can monitor in real-time a battery’s condition, sending data to an app that can alert users and building managers if something goes wrong, but it requires an insert at the factory or post-market installation, and uptake is still in its infancy. As a shorthand, the new trust mark could be used on
fire services’ press releases, to remind people only to buy E-Bike Positive products. It could help police to tackle non- compliant products being used on the street. Going forward, Eland says, “fully external oversight of this auditing scheme will be put in place as soon as possible after the start-up phase” an “audit of the audit” will be conducted by an officially recognised certification body. Both retailers and brands contribute financially to this
project, which has been a big undertaking for both the ACT and the BA – and it’s only open to BA members. Each brand
www.bikebiz.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
