2025: E-bike fires continue steep rise as London faces record year

Over 500 incidents by end of year

E-bike battery fires are now one of the fastest-growing fire risks in London and across the country. With 65 incidents already recorded by the end of May, the London Fire Brigade data points to the city’s worst year yet. When e-scooter figures are included, the figures are on track to exceed 500 lithium battery fire incidents in 2025, a rate that is outpacing response systems and placing growing pressure on housing providers and fire safety teams. How did we get here?

E-Mobility Device Fire Data, 2025

As of the end of April 2025, London Fire Brigade (LFB) recorded 167 incidents involving fires linked to e-bikes and e-scooters. That is more fires in five months than in any previous full year before 2021 and already nearly halfway to last year’s record-breaking total of 407.

You can view the data in its entirety here.

A year-on-year breakdown

These figures show just how steep the trajectory has become:

• 2025 (to end of May): 167 incidents
• 2024: 407 incidents
• 2023: 379 incidents
• 2022: 262 incidents
• 2021: 171 incidents
• 2020: 101 incidents
• 2019: 80 incidents
• 2018: 79 incidents
• 2017: 93 incidents

These numbers reflect a sustained and dangerous rise in lithium battery fires from e-mobility devices over the past five years. The cumulative total recorded by May 2025 has already surpassed the full-year totals for every year up to and including 2021. With 47 incidents in March and another 47 in April, 2025 has seen the two highest consecutive monthly figures ever reported.

Visualising the trend

For much of the previous decade, annual fire totals from e-bikes and e-scooters remained under 100. From 2020 onward, the trend shifted dramatically. Each year has brought a substantial increase, with the combined annual figure quadrupling between 2020 and 2024. If current patterns continue, 2025 will likely see over 500 incidents, placing increasing strain on emergency services and reinforcing the urgent need for safer charging, storage and policy responses.

What’s more, these incidents are not isolated. Fires often break out in communal areas, hallways, or flats themselves and many have resulted in injury, displacement, serious structural damage and fatalities.

When looking beyond London, the nationwide statistics echo the same troubling trend. Data was collected covering incidents from January to December 2024, sourced from fire and rescue services across the UK, via voluntary notifications submitted to the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS). This data shows the number of casualties and fatalities of those harmed in fires, steadily rising as well as the fires themselves.

What is driving the rise?

According to the LFB, the majority of fires are caused while batteries are charging, often with incompatible or low-quality chargers, or in devices that have been retrofitted or modified using online conversion kits. 

In January 2024, the OPSS issued warnings about substandard e-bike batteries and chargers being sold on major online marketplaces, many of which do not meet safety standards.

A government campaign, ‘Buy Safe, Be Safe’, was launched, urging the public to avoid modifying e-bikes with faulty or unregulated kits, following the sharp rise in battery fires in recent years. The initiative highlights the dangers of purchasing conversion kits and replacement parts from rogue online sellers, with many recent fires linked to incompatible or poor-quality components. 

Multiple UK fire services have reported that of the rising number of e-battery fires they attend, many of the batteries are “homemade or modified in some way”. In our cities, the problem is intensified due to the widespread use of modified e-bikes in the app-based food delivery sector. Many riders, working as independent contractors and paid per job, are turning to low-cost online conversion kits to boost speed and cut costs. In 2024 alone, City of London Police seized nearly 300 illegally modified e-bikes, most linked to delivery riders. 

There is also increasing concern about how and where these devices are being stored and charged. In dense housing settings, storing a battery-powered bike in a stairwell or hallway can block vital and limited escape routes, turning a fire into a life-threatening event. With fire risks rising, stronger education, regulation and enforcement around e-bike safety is urgently needed.

What Next?

With summer approaching, incident rates are expected to rise further, echoing seasonal surges seen in previous years. Warmer weather typically means higher usage of e-mobility devices and elevated temperatures in storage areas—both factors known to contribute to battery overheating and failure. Based on last year’s data, July and August may bring the sharpest increases yet.

As the London Fire Brigade’s #ChargeSafe campaign continues to raise public awareness, a growing number of organisations are stepping up efforts to address the risks posed by lithium battery fires. Nationally, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has highlighted e-mobility fire risks in social housing while campaigns and guidance from groups such as EV FireSafe, the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) and Firechief Global are helping to inform best practice on safe charging, storage and emergency response.

In the UK, metroSTOR continues to support the sector through fire-safe infrastructure solutions as well as by creating and sharing an educational knowledge base among the housing industry. In social housing settings, where charging and storage often occurs in stairwells, hallways or flats, the risk is especially acute and raising awareness of this is essential. Housing providers and property managers are being urged to review current practices, improve resident education and prioritise investment in infrastructure that mitigates fire risk.

At metroSTOR, we are seeing rising demand for secure, designated charging and storage units that help isolate risk, preserve means of escape and offer landlords compliance clarity under evolving fire safety regulations. With e-mobility devices set to become an enduring feature of urban life, the need for proper infrastructure has never been more urgent.