When will this pointless piece of junk be banned, or are some local authorities too far into being "green" and making money from their hire? I wonder how many e-scooter miles will be required to balance the pollution which has resulted from this one fire.
Paris had the right idea last year:
If it was an e-scooter being charged at home then it was obviously not part of an approved hire scheme, it was an illegal one if used on public roads. So it's banned already.
The official ones are charged by the scheme, insured by the scheme, speed limited and and probably also geofenced.
nib
People ae still taking them in the house, looks as though this one was in a bedroom.
That's all good/well, but what was the cause of the fire? We had a council email recently, warning there'd been 15 ebike/scooter battery fires in the past year, but no guidance, beyond keep an eye on it, about prevention.
Could usefully be some research on the whole thing.
Same thing happened with hoverboards as well. And E-bikes. But the lady says it's nobody's fault. <shrug>
If my kids had one of those things it would be taken away for recycling before I'd even replied to this thread.
Things that can go wrong:
Roughly it's the quality of tat you buy on Aliexpress - they can be good, they can be bad, but the emphasis is to be cheap. With poor standards it's only a matter of time before some of them are bad.
Which is not to say these are intrinsically hard to get right, but this kind of bottom-of-the-barrel product doesn't bother.
Theo
The worrying thing is that e.g. a tatty badly manufactured chinese lawnmower or car with an IC engine wont go up in flames like an E scooter. With lipo batteries any mistake is lethal
But mostly products legally sold by reputable names one would expect to care about quality.
But then didn't Samsung have a load of badly-made phones go up in flames? And was it hp laptops?
The illegal e-scooters and the like are already dodgy products not coming through established channels. Or so I thought, but eg Halfords have dozens of them for sale, with a flash at the top saying:
"LEGAL WARNING: eScooter law - not to be used on public roads, cycle paths or pavements. Only on private land with the landowner's consent."
What hope have we if a major UK retailer is selling product which will obviously be used illegally.
nib
It's been one model of phone (the Galaxy Note 7) over the billions of phones that have been made over the last few decades. Which says something about how it's possible to prevent them catching fire if you do the design and QC right.
It is not strictly wrong of them to sell something that isn't for use in public - other kind of 'sports' or 'recreational' equipment isn't either (eg drones).
I can't say whether Halfords' scooters have a better design than an Aliexpress/Amazon special, but maybe they do. Often you get better product safety from UK brands because they check these things and shout at the factory if they cut corners, as they'll have to carry the liability and product support if things go wrong.
Meanwhile Ali/Amazon will just wash their hands saying 'not our product, take it up with the manufacturer'. A lot of the comments from the Fire Services about fires say things like 'don't buy on online marketplaces' so I think we can guess who they're referring to.
(see also the tiresomely often reports of people buying toys made of lead or whatever)
Theo
Yes, quite - so why isn't there a standard that people who make and buy these things can work to?
Fire brigade scale fires are happening in Sheffield at the rate of over 1 a month, London over 10 a month, with 3 deaths in 2023.
That much we know.
Yes, I'd seen that. I'd hope at least that the Halfords (etc.) scooters use decent chargers and batteries . . .
I'd guess that the fires are from poorly manufactured or designed batteries chargers. And maybe some user abuse. Until such time as there is some sort of regulation, why is the cause of fires not publicised?
It wasn't badly made phones. It was replacement batteries from a cheap source. Samsung, having discovered this, made it impossible for the abatteries to be replaced.
With the Samsung Galaxy Note7, it was the original battery, from two different suppliers, that had problems ...
They're legal to buy and use - just not on public roads. So there's no way they are banned.
It's still a solution looking for a problem. Public transport and/or pedal bikes are all that's required for short distances (i.e. the range of a battery-powered scooter). The bikes could be hired in the same way that scooters are hired.
And there's another reason they should all go:
Here in MK you can hire scooters, ebikes (both pick up wherever left by the previous user) and pushbikes (pick up from fixed stands). The scooters seem to be the most popular.
But MK is mostly quite suited for that sort of transport. We have a city-wide network of decently-designed cycle/pedestrian routes separate from the main roads so you can make reasonably long journeys safely.
There are some complaints, but there are also a lot of happy users. I've not tried one myself but I know some who do, pensioners even!
The main hazard here is illegal bikes/scooters that go much faster than the EPAC assistance limit and the hire-scheme scooter limits.
nib
You can expect what you like.
The number of 'reputable brand' LIPO powered EVs that are now dust and ashes is the subject of hundreds of you tube videos.
Precisely. These batteries are made in millions and the rejects end up somewhere.
Twas ever thus
But its not 'dodgy e-scooters', it's *all* EVS. Any LIPO battery will explode and burn if it gets hot enough. In a way that a *sealed* tank of petrol or diesel will not. Because fuel needs oxygen.
LIPOS have their own already.
Because people with deep pockets don't want the public scared of lithium batteries and EVS in general.
But it seems that in Germany at least EVS if not dead are beginning to smell, anyway...
Most individual fire and rescue services have their own advice pages
Not to mention the people with deep pockets who don't want the world to move away from oil!
nib
You seem to be conflating unrelated things. This incident has nothing to do with council e-scooter rental schemes.
It sounds more like privately owned battery powered device started the fire.
The bigger issue here is the flood of poorly constructed and designed Li-ion batteries and chargers that make it to market.
They dont care one way or another. Gas powers the electricity world and will continue to do so.
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