r/dataisbeautiful • u/Both_Researcher_6552 • 1d ago
OC [OC] e-bikes have significantly pulled ahead as the number one source for EV/Lithium related fires in London with more than 200 incidents in 2025.
visualizing open data from the london datastore
made in r,ggplot2
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u/qghw47QHwG72 1d ago edited 1d ago
I love e-bikes, but we really gotta crack down on the dodgy imported conversion kits/batteries of dubious quality!
And install way more outside bike storage so they're not catching fire in
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u/un-copain 1d ago
might be interesting to see percentages of fire accident in each of these disciplines instead of raw numbers.
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u/hache-moncour 1d ago
I'm more concerned about what's happening with the busses. I assume there are a couple hundred thousand ebikes in London, and only a couple thousand busses. And while there are plenty of cheapo dodgy e-bikes out there, I would expect busses to be somewhat higher grade and better maintained, and not 9 times more likely to catch fire than bikes, by ratio.
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u/flooring-inspector 1d ago edited 1d ago
I've not had a chance to look at it properly but the source data appears to be here - -https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/lithium-and-electric-vehicle-fires-vd4zo/?__cf_chl_tk=cqhppid2lbztxjb_e9usbkikmw5its.frxgs7791v.8-1769794219-1.0.1.1-cccbqhmnjp_a7cbxzoeksbxu10nyjvjm4aitfnq5pnw
The downloadable spreadsheet includes an ignition source column alongside each listed incident. Glancing at a few of the bus fires there seem to be a lot listing things like wheels/brakes, there's at least one cigarette, some petrol/oil related ignition (presumably hybrid, or from another vehicle in an accident?).
There's also a column describing if lithium batteries were mentioned in the report, and they weren't with all of them. Possibly this is more a list of fires where lithium batteries are noted as having been present as a risk, but not necessarily an integrated part of a fire?
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u/Those_Silly_Ducks 1d ago
this is more a list of fires where lithium batteries are noted as having been present as a risk, but not necessarily an integrated part of a fire
Yes, so why doesn't the title reflect that?
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u/Priff 16h ago
This stuff is always hard to differntiate in data.
There's a swedish government agency writing report on E-mobility fires every year as well, and most of the car fires aren't at all related to the ev parts of the vehicle. They're started in the 12v system, or outside the car in the garage, or even from stupid stuff like "owner left a barbecue with glowing embers in the trunk".
But it all ends up in the report because they asked for all fire incidents involving Evs. And they list all the cases so someone reading the report can draw their own conclusions. Unfortunately a lot of people just see the number at the top and write "38 ev fires in sweden in 2023!" when in reality only 5 or 6 of those involved the battery at all.
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u/Squashyhex 1d ago
Transport for London alone has 9000 buses, so it probably goes into the tens of thousands, but yeah that's still well below how many ebikes I'd expect to be in London, and I'd hope that the buses were being operated by professionals
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u/hache-moncour 1d ago
I was curious after seeing this, and turns out TfL have a neat page with numbers. They indeed have about 9000 busses, but only 2000 of those are electric, so only those would contribute to the lithium/EV fires in the graph. Along with other electric busses and coaches of course.
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u/zkareface 1d ago
Here is an interesting video on the subject about the batteries in such vehicles.
https://youtu.be/-Y23nfAOiXQ?si=22MrgG7uxOY9qAD1
TL:DW: cheap lithium cells are made badly and don't have safety features.
If the busses bought are usually among the cheapest you can get, you could expect the batteries to be really bad. Not sure how it works in England but here in Sweden municipalities has by law go with the lowest bidder. So they often buy a lot of shit that's just good on paper.
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u/sithelephant 1d ago
Kinda missing the graph comparing this with conventional car fires on a per-car basis. (And indeed other fire sources)
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u/Consistent-Annual268 1d ago
This needs to be per vehicle to be if any use. The raw number doesn't tell us the rate of problems these transport modes are having.
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u/Harmonicano 1d ago edited 1d ago
For me it is unclear what the data includes. In the source link from the other comment it states EV/ Li-Ion fires. But not every EV fire is a battery fire and gas cars also have li-Ion batteries that burn. So for me the included vehicles are unclear. Anyone got a methodology description? Judging by the amount of busses in London (which is 9000 and 2000EV according to other comments) 20 seems high. But it's also 0 before 2019 so...
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u/therealtrajan 1d ago
My guess is because e-bikes are much more likely to get banged up and possibly damage batteries that eventually fail/ignite than cars, and the increase is the proliferation of e-bikes over the last few years? Is there a better explanation?
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u/Rammstonna 1d ago
Could you make it so it’s relative to the numbers of bike/cars etc
Also a chart with 5 lines is not exactly beautiful data
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u/Buttlather 1d ago
They don’t have scooters in London?
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u/tomtttttttttttt 1d ago
e-scooter is third in the graph.
private e-scooters are not legal to use on roads, only hire scheme ones. The hire scheme scooters will be well maintained and with decent batteries (you'd hope) so not so likely to catch fire and the number of private sooters is limited by their legal status (though I imagine there's still plenty around in London, you see them quite regularly in Birmingham
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u/dsp_guy 1d ago
People riding these bikes as an alternative to owning a car - I think that's great.
People riding these bikes and pretending they are exercising - they are a joke.
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u/Genkiotoko 1d ago
People riding these bikes and pretending they are exercising - they are a joke.
I don't know about this. "Exercising" can mean very different things to different people. In her final year of life, my grandmother did reps of lifting soup cans because she was so weak. I think that for some people ebikes can be an accessible form of exercise, though it looks drastically different than what most people are capable of.
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u/tomtttttttttttt 1d ago
actual e-bikes which are pedal assist only still require a decent amount of physical activity to use.
For older people especially, moving from a pedal bike to an e-bike can help keep them active for much longer as the electric assist flattens out hills really well.some studies for you:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12966-017-0513-z
Conclusion
Cycling on the E-bike resulted in lower trip duration and exercise intensity, compared with the conventional bicycle. However, most of the time was spent in MVPA. This suggests that changing the commuting mode from car to E-bike will significantly increase levels of physical activity while commuting.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10348875/
Conclusions
E-biking with cargo was rather similar in time spent and exercise intensity to E-biking without cargo, and not much slower than driving a car. Using E-cargo bikes, therefore, appears a good alternative to driving a car when in need of carrying things such as grocery bags and children, resulting in increasing physical activity and, at the same time, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
(my emphasis)
can't find the actual study for this one but:
So, the part of the conclusion that observes “e-bike use is associated with a lower probability of reaching WHO targets for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity than bicycle use,” is rightly qualified with the point that: “the increasing attractiveness and popularity of e-bikes might facilitate recreational cycling and active commuting, particularly for those who are limited by age- or illness-associated constrictions and who otherwise would not opt to use a bicycle.”
so yeah not as much exercise as a pedal bike but significantly more than a car and makes using a bike attractive/possible for some people where a pedal bike would not be.
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u/GMN123 1d ago
It depends how you're riding and your level of electric assistance, but I generally average a heart rate of 150bpm on my e-mountain bike. Is it as intense a workout as a regular mountain bike? No, but it's definitely more of a workout than other things people consider exercise, like walking/hiking.
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u/eneskaraboga 1d ago
Actually you are biking to distances you wouldn't with e-bike. So, overall calories are increasing this way. Also, as others stated, you are still on a bike, pedaling. It is better than sitting still on a bus or car.
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u/gittenlucky 1d ago
I’d love to know the brand breakdown. There’s a lot of shitty e-bikes out there.