E-scooters to be banned across all public transport due to the risk of battery fires
Internal faults can cause ‘overheating and combustion’
E-scooters are set to be banned on public transport operators later this year, the National Transport Authority (NTA) has announced.
The NTA said the ban is due to a risk of fire posed by batteries inside some poor-quality devices. The guidance is prompted by safety concerns in relation to lithium-ion batteries which are commonplace in such devices.
“These batteries are known to develop internal faults, leading to overheating and combustion. This has resulted in recent fires and thick black smoke on board public transport in Madrid and Barcelona,” the NTA said.
The ban on buses, trains and Luas trams includes e-scooters that can be folded or carried, with the restriction due to come into effect from early October.
It will apply to e-scooters, but not e-bikes or mobility scooters. The NTA said due to the newness of e-scooters, the quality control of their construction is not as mature or well-developed as e-bikes and mobility scooters, which have been regulated for longer.
“The tested batteries of e-bikes and mobility scooters do not pose the same level of risk,” it said.
Jason Cullen, chairperson of the Dublin Commuters Coalition, described the ban as “very frustrating”.
“We only had them legalised on the road in the last few months. As a result, people would have went in to buy them… and now the NTA has come around with no notice and banned them (on public transport),” he said.
Mr Cullen said he understands the issues with the batteries. However, he added that “banning them outright is a step back for transport, in Ireland and Dublin”.
“The good thing about e-scooters is you can have it in your house, you can charge it up, walk out the door with it and bring it to the office or school. You can’t really do it with a bike, unless it is an electric one or a fold-up one, which will cost you thousands.
“It seems very sudden, it seems there isn’t enough of a basis behind it to implement it so suddenly and not really think of any solutions around it,” he said.
E-scooters are a relatively new product and were unregulated in Ireland until earlier this year.
In May, the use of electric scooters by children under the age of 16 in a public place was prohibited under regulations signed by Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.
Similar restrictions are already in place in Berlin, Barcelona and the UK.
In Barcelona two years ago, an e-scooter battery exploded and caught fire on board a train, injuring three people and prompting a ban on bringing e-scooters on public transport.
A major explosion took place in a Madrid subway in October 2022 due to a faulty e-scooter battery, which led to the city banning them on its public transport system.
Transport for London banned all private e-scooters and e-unicycles on public transport, including buses and the subway system, until further research could assess the risk of toxic smoke emitting from defective batteries.
If the lithium-ion batteries on e-scooters are damaged, charged incorrectly, or left unattended, they can overheat, releasing flammable gases and ignite in a process called “thermal runaway”.
Batteries can also be damaged by using the wrong charger, overcharging or undercharging.
Th new guidance applies to all services operated under a contract with the NTA. Rail Users Ireland, established to improve services and conditions for rail passengers, said it welcomed the decision.