E-scooters banned on public transport from October
Public transport operators are to ban e-scooters for safety reasons over concerns about the risk of fires on board buses, trams and trains.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) has published a guidance document following safety concerns over the lithium-ion batteries which are often used in e-scooters.
“These batteries are known to develop internal faults, leading to overheating and combustion,” it said in a statement.
The ban includes e-scooters that can be folded or carried, but not e-bikes or mobility scooters. It will take effect in early October.
The NTA pointed to lithium-ion batteries causing “recent fires and thick black smoke on board public transport in Madrid and Barcelona.
“Similar restrictions are already in place in Berlin, Barcelona, and the UK.”
E-scooters are a relatively new product and, until earlier this year, were unregulated in Ireland.
“The quality control of their construction is therefore not as mature or well developed as e-bikes and mobility scooters, which have been regulated for longer,” the statement said.
“The tested batteries of e-bikes and mobility scooters do not pose the same level of risk.”
The ban will be periodically reviewed by the NTA and transport operators, including Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Go-Ahead Ireland, Iarnród Éireann and Luas.
See more here Rte.ei
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Howdy
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“These batteries are known to develop internal faults, leading to overheating and combustion,”
Rubbish. If that’s the base problem, all lithium powered devices must be banned.
“The ban includes e-scooters that can be folded or carried, but not e-bikes or mobility scooters”
All e-bikes I’ve seen are Lithium chemistry, so the ban is pointless for one category with the exact same risk as any other.
I see there’s no ‘hover boards’ mentioned either.
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Carmel
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Lithium Ion batteries are common to e-scooters, e-bikes, mobility scooters, electric vehicles (buses, trains etc.), multiple electronic devices and domestic and industrial Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS’s). The only difference is scale. The greater the capacity factor of the lithium ion battery the more lithium ion battery cells it contains.
Arguably the lithium ion battery would be bigger in an e-bike or mobility scooter than in an e-scooter therefore the potential risk of and scale of fire/explosion would be greater.
So only banning e-scooters on public transport fails to make any sense however it is a small step in the right direction towards common sense.
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Len Winokur
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e-bikes and e-scooters ought be banned from sidewalks (‘pavements’ in the UK) where too many are driven at breakneck speed by those too lazy or feeble use a push-bike.
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Dave
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ALL EVs, Unsafe at any Speed! 🔥🔥🔥
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Ken Hughes
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Well, I hope they’re going to ban EVs on the cross channel ferries to France and Spain. I don’t sleep well on them since EV’s came along. I shudder to think what an EV fire would do under these circumstance.
And you know why we are all having to pay higher insurance premiums from this year don’t you.
In my book they should all be banned.
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