Only purchase safe and legal e-bikes: new Government safety campaign urges public

A new safety campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of buying faulty and unsafe e-bikes, e-scooters and components such as batteries has been launched.

The Department for Business & Trade’s new “Buy Safe, Be Safe” campaign has been designed to urge the public to buy safe e-bikes and e-scooters and avoid rogue online sellers.

E-bikes can be a cheap, healthy and modern method of travel throughout our towns and cities. However, unsafe e-bikes have resulted in hundreds of deadly fires and injured dozens of people across the UK. In 2023, the London Fire Brigade a fire every two days as a result of e-bike and e-scooter-related fires.

Many of these fires are caused by parts incompatible with e-bikes and scooters, as well as the purchase of defective or poorly manufactured parts sold by rogue online sellers.

The campaign focuses on three key areas encouraging consumers to only buy safe products from reputable sellers, only replace items with products recommended by the manufacturer and finally to seek professional help when converting or repairing e-bikes and e-scooters.

The Department is partnering with retailers, manufacturers as well as online marketplaces, trade associations, consumer groups and businesses to promote the campaign. Find out more about the campaign here.

Product Safety Minister Justin Madders said:

“E-bikes can be a great way to travel around the city, but we’ve all seen the tragic stories of unsafe e-bikes and e-scooters causing dangerous fires and taking lives. That’s why we’re urging everyone to check what you’re buying, check where you’re buying it from and ensure it’s safe to use.”

Local Transport Minister Simon Lightwood said:

“E-bikes have transformed our urban areas by giving people an accessible and healthy way to travel, but this is being ruined by a handful of untrustworthy online retailers. These rogue sellers not only risk bringing defective and dangerous batteries into people’s homes, but undermine confidence in active travel as a whole. That’s why I’m delighted that we are launching this campaign to make sure that people have peace of mind buying e-bikes and e-scooters from reliable sources.”

Under current laws, e-scooters are banned on public land from use except in Government rental trial areas, while e-bikes are legal to use across the country but must not exceed an output of 250 watts or travel faster than 15.5 mph.

The public can expect to see an ongoing social media campaign including how-to video guides, as well as information materials being made available for retailers to use in stores and online to support consumers.

The campaign comes off the back of wider efforts to tackle dangerous goods being sold in online marketplaces. In September, the Government unveiled the new Product Regulation and Metrology Bill aimed at allowing the UK to take charge of its product regulations, boosting consumer safety and helping to further grow the economy.

The Bill will also address the sharp rise in safety concerns around e-bikes and lithium-ion batteries and how they are sold via online marketplaces. The Bill will enable Government to better protect consumers who have for too long been at the mercy of unscrupulous suppliers, holding sellers and the online marketplaces to account if they fail to meet their responsibilities.

And it will ensure products sold online or placed on the UK market are safe, while enabling market enforcement officials to clamp down on the sale of the product or the sellers where they are not.

Find full details about the ‘Buy Safe, Be Safe’ campaign here

For our information on buying safely, how to store your product safely and best practice for charging, you can also find more information from the London Fire Brigade’s #ChargeSafe campaign.