In a complicated announcement, eBay has unveiled new plans to ban the sale of electrical bicycles by sure customers on its platform within the UK. Nevertheless, the standards for eligibility and plan specifics each stay unclear.
The ban will go into impact on the finish of this month.
In accordance with the BBC, the brand new plan by eBay is designed to forestall the sale of electrical bicycles by non-public sellers versus companies and industrial customers. Sure “eligible enterprise sellers” would nonetheless be permitted to supply electrical bicycles on the platform, although the corporate didn’t share particulars relating to who how firms can meet that standards.
The motivation for the ban appears to come back from issues round hearth security, although it’s unclear how the brand new guidelines would impression hearth issues.
There have been 155 reported e-bike fires within the UK final yr. Estimates put the entire variety of electrical bicycles within the UK at between 500,000 to 1,000,000. In the identical yr, there have been a reported 19,256 automobile fires out of a complete 33.5 million vehicles within the nation, leading to a number of occasions increased probability of a automobile hearth (0.05%) in comparison with an electrical bicycle hearth (0.01-0.02%).
The transfer by eBay seems to be voluntary, with no present regulation within the UK associated to firms internet hosting non-public gross sales of electrical bicycles on their platforms.
EBay has not introduced any related bans in its different markets, together with the US.
Electrical bike fires have change into a rising concern during the last a number of years, usually snagging headlines regardless of the comparatively low variety of fires in comparison with the huge variety of e-bikes on the highway.
Even so, the e-bike trade has largely been pushing for elevated voluntary measures to enhance the standard of battery manufacturing strategies and to extend the follow of acquiring internationally acknowledged security certifications. Most e-bike battery fires might be traced again to extraordinarily low-cost fashions that reduce corners in manufacturing to cut back costs. It’s exceedingly uncommon for well-made e-bike batteries to catch on hearth, and nowadays many e-bikes include batteries that security licensed and even able to being utterly submerged in water.
US cities like NYC and plenty of faculty campuses and different organizations have created their very own native laws relating to e-bike battery security. Nationwide laws have been proposed however have been held up by political jockeying.
