Warmists have been super-hyped on getting Everyone Else to ride Ebikes in big cities (and not so big cities). They have all sorts of deals going with companies to rent them and sell them in places like NYC. How’s that going?
How E-Bike Battery Fires Became a Deadly Crisis in New York City
His girlfriend told him not to buy the electric scooter.
But Alfonso Villa Muñoz was intrigued. He was working in a Brooklyn bodega last August when a delivery man said he knew someone selling one for $700. Mr. Muñoz said yes.
The scooter was cherry red with the number 7 on the front. Under the seat was an extra-large lithium ion battery. When it needed charging, Mr. Muñoz would remove the battery from the scooter and use both hands to lug it up to the couple’s third-floor apartment in College Point, Queens.
A month later, the battery exploded in the living room, unleashing flames that engulfed the apartment. Mr. Muñoz screamed for their 8-year-old daughter, Stephanie, who was asleep. He could not breach the wall of black smoke to get to her. Stephanie died from smoke inhalation.
“It’s like you bring in death and destruction to your house, and not only to you, to everybody around you,” said Mr. Muñoz, 36, pulling off his glasses to wipe away tears. “You could lose everything.”
Now, I think bikes would be much better in big cities like NYC than all those vehicles, regardless of fossil fuels or EV. You could take the subway when raining or bad weather. But, there are consequences of rolling out products that aren’t particularly safe.
E-bikes and e-scooters have flooded New York City’s streets in recent years, embraced by delivery workers and commuters alike as an economical and efficient new way to get around. But even as the devices have grown in popularity to become nearly ubiquitous, the batteries inside them have made New York City an epicenter for a new kind of ferocious and fast-moving fire.
These fires are “uniquely dangerous,” warned Laura Kavanagh, the city’s fire commissioner. With little or no warning, the batteries can ignite, leaving seconds for people to escape. In just three years, lithium battery fires have tied electrical fires and have surpassed blazes started by cooking and smoking for major causes of fatal fires in the city.
This couldn’t possibly happen with EVs, right?
Reasons for the uptick of these fires are myriad. They include a lack of regulation and safety testing for individually owned devices, hazardous charging practices (like using mismatched equipment or overcharging) and a lack of secure charging areas in a population-dense city with numerous residential buildings, where most fires start.
But for New Yorkers who rely on e-bikes and other battery-powered devices to make deliveries or otherwise earn a living, the fires have forced a choice between financial stability and personal safety.
Unlike with cars, cell phones, and many other products, the Ebikes are not necessarily from big name producers, and the standards are not always there. Fortunately, NYC wouldn’t do something like ban private cars or make them so expensive people couldn’t drive them in the city, right?
There are some interesting videos on YouTube regarding the rise and fall of those bikes as well as most of the bike-share networks in China. It seems they set up just to siphon all the investment money, then close up and disappear, leaving millions of rusty bikes for the cities to manage.
Lithium-ion batteries have a veery dense electricity storage capacity, much more so that the earlier nickel-cadmium batteries. So, if the lithium-ion batteries are more dangerous, will government try to ban them, like some have proposed with gas ranges?
If lithium ion gets deemed unsafe, then all of those plug-in electric vehicles Uncle Sam wants us to buy will have their ranged halved if a lower energy storage system is all that is available.
Sounds suspiciously like the ultra leftist policy against AR-style rifles.
Lithium-ion batteries are basically hand grenades. They don’t take kindly to abuse, be it due to purposeful misuse, poor design/construction, overly aggressive charging profiles, or improper charge termination. Any or all of these can cause that “hand grenade” pin to be pulled since Li-Ion batteries aren’t nearly as robust as other battery chemistries. When Li-Ion batteries fail they usually do so spectacularly, usually by burning intensely. (Li-Ion cells will outgas oxygen when they get too hot which is one reason they burn so intensely and are difficult to extinguish.)
On the heels of the historic purchase and submission of the American President Crime Boss and Big Man Biden (laugh here) Glorious CCP Leader Xi Ping Pong has awarded his son Hunter Biden the Ping Pong Medal of Honor. American Diplomats have been slapped in public and our military forces are prepared to advance on many fronts including in the American Homeland much of which we already own. The CCP owned and operated American Media is applauding the Diplomatic efforts and calling Biden a great Foreign Policy President (laugh here). The American politicians, media and judges we have on our payroll, ironically bought with American dollars from the manufacturing base the American Capitalists and Politicians have willingly provided us, have cleared Hunter Biden and continue to protect our chosen Big Man (laugh here) who will pursue and complete the Trans-formation (laugh again here) of the despicable Free American Society into the perfect and controlled Totalitarian Socialist Nation it is destined to be. Many of our elite agents have and are crossing the southern borders at will. I myself, am honored and happy to report that My Trusty Saw Rusty and I have been called back to the Woohoo Labs where Rusty will be infected with the next Gain of Function Virus that will be spread when I return to the US and begin once again to remove limbs as part of the Parties Free Health Care System for the poor. This next mandated virus and subsequent shutdown of the US economy may be the final step in the Ping Pong Strategy. We look forward to the removal of the useless idiots and the comedic relief they provided and can’t wait to see the surprised looks on the faces of Hunter, the Big Man (laugh here) and the rest of the pathetic American Democrat Socialists who actually believe we will let them stay in power.
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The Peoples Cube
L.G. Brandon and Teach deem to have differing views on Biden’s relationship with China
Teach seems to think Biden may be provoking China into war, possibly even nuclear war.
A nuclear war with China is lose-lose, but if China decides it’s time to retake Taiwan conventionally, we really can’t stop them.
Trouble is, just as Secretary of State Blinken is in Beijing, negotiating with Xi Jinping, the dummkopf from Delaware has been publicly insulting him. Even if what Mr Biden said is true — and it is — saying it while negotiations are ongoing isn’t going to help.
Keep sharp objects away from electric boy….