E-bikes and e-scooters have become a fixture of daily life — commuting, delivery work, weekend errands. I have two e-bikes in my garage right now and have been riding e-mountain bikes since 2018. They’re efficient, fun, and generally safe to ride. But the lithium-ion batteries that power them carry a fire risk that most owners don’t fully understand until something goes horribly wrong.
As these devices have proliferated, so have battery fires, and the numbers are serious enough that every owner, parent, landlord, and building manager should know the basics and take proper precautions to avoid serious burns or fatal…
I have been a plaintiff’s product liability lawyer for over 40 years now, and I have been watching a dangerous trend emerging from the increased popularity of e-bikes and e-scooters. I’ve been riding e-bikes for eight years now, and I currently keep several in rotation. So, when I say I follow the lithium-ion battery fire issue closely, it’s not purely academic or professional— it’s the same battery chemistry sitting in my garage every night.
That dual vantage point, as both a rider and a lawyer, is exactly why this topic keeps pulling my attention: e-bikes and e-scooters have exploded in…
E-bikes have changed how millions of us get around — faster commutes, easier hills, longer rides, more fun on two wheels. But the lithium-ion batteries that power these bikes come with a real risk that doesn’t get talked about enough: battery fires. As both an avid e-bike rider and an attorney who handles product liability cases, I want to walk you through two things: what to do in the moment if your battery catches fire, and what to do afterward to protect yourself — physically and legally.
Part 1: If Your E-Bike Battery Is on Fire Right Now
Lithium-ion battery…
I’ve been riding e-bikes for eight years now, and I’ve got several sitting in my garage as I write this. I love them — for the commute, for errands, for the sheer fun of it — and nothing about what I’m going to say here is meant to talk anyone out of riding. But I’m also a lawyer who handles cases involving lithium-ion battery fires, and that combination has taught me something: the same battery pack that makes these rides so enjoyable can, in rare but devastating cases, turn into the worst night of someone’s life. If that’s happened to…
I ride an e-bike every single week, usually more than once a week. It gets me to beautiful locations in my county as well as into the City of San Francisco, sometimes faster than I’d ever get there in a car — and on the right stretch of road or trail, it’s honestly one of the best parts of my week. So when I saw that San Mateo County’s Board of Supervisors unanimously advanced a new e-bike safety ordinance this week, I read it not just as a San Francisco personal injury attorney who handles bicycle and e-bike crash cases,…
