All of the information stated in this article is based on reliable sources of information and is detailed at the end of the article
"It only takes 100 seconds for an electric bike to catch fire and kill you!"
Recently, according to CCTV financial reports, by the end of 2023, the number of electric bicycles has reached nearly 400 million, but the fire accidents caused by them are also frequent, and there were 137 electric bicycle fires in Beijing in the first four months of this year alone.
In order to deal with this problem, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments recently interpreted in detail the newly released electric bicycle industry specifications and mandatory national standards for lithium batteries, aiming to promote the whole chain to rectify potential safety hazards.
The new national standard "Safety Technical Specifications for Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Bicycles" will be implemented from November 1, covering a number of test items to ensure battery safety.
The market supervision department will intensify the investigation and punishment of illegal production and sales.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen industry management, issue a white list of enterprises, and promote the scrapping and recycling of unqualified batteries to reduce electric bicycle safety accidents from the source.
So under so many regulations, why do electric bicycle fire accidents still occur frequently?
Who is the "culprit" behind it?
This is Hongwen Guanxin, let's continue to understand!
In 23 years, there were 21,000 electric bicycle fires
According to the statistics of the National Fire and Rescue Administration, a total of 21,000 electric bicycle fires will be reported nationwide in 2023, an increase of 17.4% compared with 18,000 in 2022.
At present, there are nearly 400 million electric bicycles in the mainland, which is equivalent to one for every four people.
However, on such a large scale, electric bicycle fire accidents are frequent.
In the face of the frequent occurrence of electric bicycle fire accidents, people began to ask: the occurrence of these accidents, is the design of the electric bicycle itself, or the quality of the lithium battery?
The common electric bicycles on the market now, except for the aging of the circuit after a long period of use, or the behavior of consumers modifying and charging without permission, there is not much problem with the design itself.
Most of the current causes of fires are due to battery problems.
The electric bicycle batteries sold on the market are mainly lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries.
With the release of the new national standard, the market share of lithium batteries has increased.
In addition, the scale of inferior batteries and modified batteries produced by informal manufacturers is also expanding.
Generally, the battery life of newly purchased electric bicycles can reach about 3-5 years.
After that, you will need to go to some e-bike repair shop to have the battery replaced.
But in this process, some stores will say that inferior batteries and modified batteries are regular batteries and sell them to you.
This leads to the quality of the battery of the electric bicycle.
It can't be charged for a while, the power is full for a while, but it can't be ridden for a long time, and even some are spontaneously combusting during the charging process!
If people don't watch, it burns very quickly, and it can easily cause a fire.
Although inferior and informal lithium batteries are the biggest threat and hidden danger to the safety of electric bicycles, regular lithium batteries and lithium electric bicycles, as long as they are produced, assembled and circulated in strict accordance with national standards, their safety performance is relatively reliable.
The real "culprit" behind the accident
Although regular lithium batteries are excluded as the main responsibility, safety accidents still emerge one after another.
There is an urgent need to understand the real "culprits" behind these accidents.
So, who is the real culprit behind the electric bicycle safety accident? Why do these accidents continue to occur?
The main culprits of e-bike safety accidents are illegal modifications and low-quality batteries.
Zhou Ying, deputy director of the National Light Electric Vehicle and Battery Product Quality Inspection Center, found through testing that all the batteries purchased online are substandard products, and there are a large number of small workshops in the industry that illegally assemble lithium batteries, and the product quality is difficult to guarantee.
Wei Haijun, a professor at Beijing University of Technology, and Feng Xiao, a person related to Xingheng Battery, also pointed out that modifying electric bicycles may lead to overloaded batteries, shorten life and increase safety hazards, while there are a large number of inferior and counterfeit batteries on e-commerce platforms.
Yu Huaqiang, deputy director of the National Chemical and Physical Power Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, found that up to 14% of batteries modified through informal channels had catastrophic consequences such as fire, combustion and explosion.
In addition, incorrect e-bike consumption behavior, especially outdoor charging behavior, is also an important factor in inducing accidents.
In order to reduce potential safety hazards, experts recommend strengthening supervision and industry self-discipline, while accelerating the construction of centralized charging and battery swapping facilities.
How to deal with electric bicycle fire
When an e-bike catches fire, the correct way to deal with it includes the following steps:
Cut off the power immediately:
If the e-bike is charging, the power needs to be cut off immediately to prevent electric shock.
Use a dry chemical fire extinguisher or carbon dioxide fire extinguisher:
Water-based fire extinguishers should be avoided before using them, as using water may cause electric shock.
Dry chemical fire extinguishers or carbon dioxide fire extinguishers are more suitable options because they do not produce a lot of moisture, which reduces the production of thick smoke and toxic gases.
Stay away from the fire and evacuate the crowd: In the event of a fire, pull over immediately and stay away from the fire, and evacuate the surrounding crowd at the same time to avoid suffocation or burns due to the rapid spread of the fire.
Call the police for help:
Once you find that the e-bike is on fire, you should immediately call the fire alarm number "119" and contact the relevant departments for processing.
Learn about the effects of different fire suppression methods:
According to the experiment, different fire extinguishing agents have no obvious effect on the fire of electric bicycles, among which water, foam, sand, dry powder and other fire extinguishing agents may play a certain role, while the completely soaked quilt is not effective.
In summary, when an e-bike catches fire, you should immediately cut off the power supply, use a dry chemical fire extinguisher or carbon dioxide fire extinguisher, and keep it away from the fire source, and call the police for help to ensure that the situation is handled safely and effectively.
Sources:
CCTV Finance: Electric bicycle fire accidents are frequent! Multi-department action: from production to recycling, the whole chain remediates →
China Economic Weekly: What is the cause of the fire of 18,000 electric bicycles every year?
The Paper, The Paper, Government Affairs: CCTV Disclosure: 21,000 Fires a Year Caused by It! At least 350 million people use it!