Analysis | Does anyone really want ebike motor power to increase?
Current UK law dictates the maximum consistent power of an electric bike motor should be 250W and you must pedal for the motor to kick in. But the Department for Transport has begun a consultation that could double ebike motor power to 500W and see ebikes powered by a throttle, similar to a motorbike. The plans are believed to keep the maximum speed of ebikes to the current 15mph limit, but news of the consultation has led to confusion in the cycling industry and beyond.
The Bicycle Association has expressed serious concerns about the consultation, saying there is a possible fire risk and a detrimental impact on public health. Others wonder why the government is considering increased power over potentially more beneficial measures.
Increased fire risk
London Fire Brigade are called out to an ebike or e-scooter fire every two days on average. - London Fire Brigade
The Bicycle Association says the changes could drive people to purchase poorly regulated ebike conversion kits from overseas, which carry a higher fire risk[1], due to larger batteries and poor regulations. In its response to the consultation, the trade association said "evidence increasingly confirms" imported ebike conversion kits[2] are "responsible for very many of the recent tragic battery fire incidents".
Speaking to BikeRadar, London Fire Brigade's assistant commissioner for fire safety, Charlie Pugsley, said ebike and e-scooter fires killed three people and hurt around 60 in 2023. "Ebikes, e-scooters, and the lithium batteries which power them, are currently London's fastest growing fire trend. "Our crews are currently called out to one of these types of fires, on average, every two days," said Pugsley.
A Freedom of Information request by the Guardian found fires sparked by e-scooters and ebikes had injured at least 190 people and killed eight[3] as of May 2023. Sam Lawson, product manager at Ridgeback, says the proposed power increase could go "hand-in-hand" with the government reviewing anti-dumping measures on ebikes. A company is said to be 'dumping' when it exports products for cheaper than it would sell them in its home country.
Anti-dumping measures, including tariffs, such as those placed on bikes and ebike imports from China, are used if dumping is deemed to damage an industry in the importing country. Lawson speculates the combination of these proposals could exacerbate the issue of low-quality conversion kits entering the UK market and increasing the risk of fire. He says it would be harder to deal with battery safety "if you open the floodgates for certain kinds of products".
Fast-tracked standard
An ebike conversion standard could be with us within 18 months. - Russell Burton / Immediate Media
Increased regulation of ebikes[4] and conversion kits could mitigate the increased fire risk that may come with more powerful ebike motors[5].
"We need to just make sure that everybody's on the same page so that when a consumer is buying the products they can buy it in confidence," says Lawson. The UK currently doesn't have a product safety standard for ebike conversion kits, but ensuring everyone's on the same page could happen fairly soon. In a letter addressed to the coroner who investigated the death of Bobby Lee, a pensioner who died in a fire caused by an overcharged battery on a converted ebike in July 2023, the Office for Product Safety & Standards revealed it is fast-tracking a standard for conversion kits.
The letter says the new standard will not change existing legal requirements, but "it will function to create and communicate expectations in this important market area and assist businesses in meeting the existing legal safety requirements for conversion kits". The letter[6], published in February, says the standard could be in place for businesses to use in the next 12 to 18 months.
Blurred categories and more important issues
Adding a throttle to an ebike may risk greater regulations. - Simon Bromley / Our Media
Safety standard or no safety standard, some are concerned exactly what constitutes an ebike could be called into question. This could result in greater regulation for riders, potentially impacting uptake despite the potential benefits of electric bikes[7].
Jim Denshaw, Cycling UK's policy manager, says the proposal for throttle-activated motors poses a particular issue. "The twist-and-go mechanism really blurs the lines between what's an ebike and an e-motorbike. "So with that, you have the risk of ebikes becoming more regulated rather than less regulated, because then you have to distinguish between ebikes and e-motorbikes."
At its most extreme, the twist-and-go proposal may lead to riders requiring licenses, according to Denshaw. Throttles and tighter regulations impeding access to ebikes is also a concern of Swytch CEO Oliver Montague. "Part of the beauty of pedal-assist ebikes is they are not much different to ride [from] regular bikes.
"Any change that might lead to stricter regulation of ebikes similar to mopeds/motorbikes would be a big downside and lead to the loss of accessibility to a useful form of electric transport for the general public," says Montague.
Oliver Montague posing with Swytch's Go conversion kit fitted to a bike. - Stan Portus / Our Media
Pursuing proposals that deter people from cycling on ebikes is the wrong approach, according to Denshaw. "It would be much better if the government put effort into helping people to buy ebikes through loan schemes and putting more money into that," he says. "More projects to help people realise the benefits of riding a bike would be a better use of government time, I think.
And also of course investing in quality infrastructure that makes people feel safe." According to Denshaw, pedestrians may feel intimidated by more powerful and consequently heavier ebikes.
A question of speed?
Increasing the speed limit of ebikes could be "more beneficial" than more power, according to Sam Lawson. - Russell Burton / Immediate Media
Continuing to cap the speed limit of ebikes to 15mph[8] has confused the industry. Lawson says increasing the speed limit of ebikes rather than the consistent power of motors would be "more beneficial".
Increasing the speed limit to 20mph, which is the same as in the US, would make it easy for brands to adapt to new legislation. "There are products out there from Shimano and Bosch that would meet that criteria already," says Lawson. It could also avoid exposing the market to an influx of poorly regulated conversion kits, especially if the proposal came into effect before a safety standard was introduced.
An increased speed could also, and maybe counterintuitively, make riding an ebike safer in cities. "If you're doing 20mph in an urban environment on your pedalec, cars can't overtake you because they'd have to break the speed limit," says Lawson. Montague has a different take. "[G]iven that safety should always be the primary concern of regulators, we support the 15mph limit on the basis that some riders might be enabled to ride faster than they normally would, with electric assistance.
"On the same basis, we feel that increasing the power limit above 250W, whilst not inherently unsafe, and perfectly manageable for responsible and experienced ebike riders, could lead to some riders getting access to significantly more power than they are able to handle when riding." The Swytch CEO compares the buyers of its ebike kits in the UK and the USA. "In the USA, where the power limit is between 350W and 500W, we still only sell a 250W kit version.
Of our 35,000 customers in the USA, the feedback has been very positive that 250W is sufficient power, and that any higher power would just lead to them using up the battery faster and getting less range," he says.
So, who would benefit from these proposals?
A more powerful motor could be beneficial for e-cargo bikes. - Bosch eBike Systems
If 250W is sufficient for most ebike riders and more powerful ebike motors could pose greater fire and road safety risks, while potentially leading to greater regulation, who exactly would benefit from these proposals? Lawson says if Ridgeback were to make an ebike with a 500W motor "it would need to be some sort of cargo product" with three or four wheels. However, he says that is a very different territory from what Ridgeback currently produces, and that an e-cargo bike[9] like that would likely be for logistics fleets.
Arguably, that would be a good thing. Researchers at Just Economics found the hidden social and environmental costs associated with diesel vans total GBP2.46 billion in London[10]. That figure could be reduced by switching to sustainable transport and research by the Department of Transport[11] says "33 per cent of all urban deliveries could be done by cargo or e-cargo bikes".
But is this putting the cargo bike before the courier? Developing and producing any product takes time and it's questionable whether bicycle manufacturers would bother pursuing this avenue. Lawson says: "The UK is still a fairly small market globally, so there would be a lot of time and investment for a product that would be unique to this territory as well, so you could argue, how many brands would look at [developing new products] as worthwhile when it comes to that investment?"
For an industry that's struggling on many fronts, it's hard to see how much uptake there would be for developing these products.
And opening the market up to poor conversion kits that cause ebike fires may lead to reputational damage.
"I think it could be detrimental to the UK cycling industry and to brands that are doing all the right things," says Lawson.
References
- ^ fire risk (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ ebike conversion kits (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ injured at least 190 people and killed eight (www.theguardian.com)
- ^ ebikes (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ ebike motors (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ letter (www.judiciary.uk)
- ^ benefits of electric bikes (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ speed limit of ebikes to 15mph (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ e-cargo bike (www.bikeradar.com)
- ^ GBP2.46 billion in London (www.justeconomics.co.uk)
- ^ research by the Department of Transport (energysavingtrust.org.uk)