A new plan will allow NYPD to confiscate electric bike batteries

In the latest chapter of New York City’s crackdown on e-bikes, officials are exploring a plan that would help reduce the number of non-certified electric bicycle batteries used or stored in the city.

The proposal, first developed by the FDNY, would tighten regulations further in an effort to ensure that all electric bike batteries used in the city are certified to UL standards. Since a new rule regarding e-bike battery safety was passed in 2023, all e-bikes sold in the city must use batteries that meet UL standards and come with certification, but that doesn’t mean existing e-bikes haven’t already operating with non-certified batteries.

The new rules would enable the NYPD to confiscate such batteries if they’re found to be lacking the proper safety certifications. The batteries would then be transferred to the Sanitation Department for proper disposal.

“Since day one, the Adams administration has made keeping New Yorkers safe our top priority and that includes taking significant steps to crack down on the uncertified e-bike batteries that have sparked multiple deadly fires,” a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams to the New York Post.

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Electric bikes have been a contentious topic in NYC for the last several years, with the city hosting the largest number of e-bikes anywhere in the US. They’re extremely popular among delivery workers who use them to ferry food and other goods around the city, as well as consumers seeking an alternative form of transportation.

In addition to worries regarding road safety, fire concerns have also plagued the city. While e-bike fires are exceedingly rare considering the large number of e-bikes in use, they have still proven fatal.

Last year, six people were killed in fires attributed to faulty e-bike batteries. So far in 2025, one fatality has been recorded. The last three years of data indicated a continuous downward trend in the number of e-bike battery injuries and deaths since the UL-certification requirement was imposed in NYC in 2023.

By comparison, car-related deaths in the city continue to hover around 10x higher than those related to e-bikes, including dozens of traffic fatalities caused by cars each month. However, those numbers are also trending downwards, part of a larger trend that correlates with the introduction of congestion pricing that has reduced the number of cars navigating parts of NYC.