UK lithium battery fire statistics 2025–2026

How many battery fires happen in the UK?

That figure comes directly from London Fire Brigade's own published data, released on 28 January 2026. It is a London-specific number. Further down this page we set out, just as clearly, what is and is not yet confirmed at a UK-wide level — because a tracker that invites citation has to be honest about the difference.

Year-by-year: London e-bike and e-scooter fires, 2017–2025

The table below reproduces London Fire Brigade's own published figures. It is the most complete, dated, sourced time series of London e-bike and e-scooter fires we have been able to find anywhere.

Fires roughly doubled between 2021 and 2023, plateaued through 2023–2024, and then rose again to a new record in 2025. Across the full nine-year period, London Fire Brigade has now attended 805 e-bike and e-scooter fires.

London Fire Brigade, "Record number of e-bike and e-scooter fires across London in 2025, as Brigade calls for regulation to be introduced," published 28 January 2026. Read the original release.

Where are fires happening? Borough breakdown

Fires are not spread evenly across the capital. London Fire Brigade's 2025 borough-level data shows a concentration in inner and south-east London:

That pattern most likely reflects housing density, higher rates of e-bike and e-scooter ownership and use (including for delivery work), and the prevalence of flats and shared buildings, rather than any single cause. We publish it as context, not as a ranking to draw conclusions from.

London Fire Brigade, as above.

Injuries and fatalities: what the data shows

This deserves plain, careful language rather than dramatic framing. London Fire Brigade's data records five fatalities in London from e-bike and e-scooter fires since 2023, including two in 2025. A separate investigative analysis published in April 2026 put the toll at six deaths over the same broader period, based on London Fire Brigade incident data covering 556 fires across the preceding three years (see "Recent incidents and recalls" below for that source).

One detail matters more than the headline number: none of the people who died owned the e-bike or e-scooter involved in the fire that killed them. This is not only a rider-safety issue — it is a household and bystander-safety issue, because these fires start in shared buildings, hallways and stairwells that affect everyone living there, not just the device's owner.

London Fire Brigade, as above; The Londoner, "E-bike fires are killing Londoners. Nothing can put them out," published 18 April 2026.

Is this a UK-wide problem, or just London?

London Fire Brigade's own data is London-only. For a genuinely UK-wide picture, the most recent confirmed government figure comes from the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS): at least 10 fatalities and almost 200 fires UK-wide were linked to lithium-ion batteries in e-bikes or e-scooters in 2023, published in OPSS's statutory guidance on 12 December 2024.

Beyond that 2023 government figure, the current UK-wide picture is one we can describe but not yet quantify. Fire and rescue services and fire-sector bodies have reported a continuing rise in lithium-ion battery fires, and the National Fire Chiefs Council's November 2025 warning states that battery use has outpaced UK safety standards. Earlier versions of this page carried specific national fire counts, a national rate, and a percentage rise. We have withdrawn those figures: we could not tie them to a named primary release with a published methodology, and a page that invites citation should not carry numbers it cannot stand behind. We will restate UK-wide figures here only once we can name and date a primary Home Office, NFCC or OPSS release alongside them.

Always check the geography next to any figure on this page: "in London" figures and "UK-wide" figures are not interchangeable, and we keep them clearly separated for exactly that reason. Every figure that remains on this page is attributed, on this page, to a named and dated source.

Why lithium-ion batteries catch fire (thermal runaway, defined)

Thermal runaway is when a battery cell reaches a critical temperature and enters an uncontrolled chain reaction: internal chemical breakdown releases heat faster than it can escape, causing gas build-up, casing rupture, and — in the worst cases — fire or explosion. Once one cell fails this way, the heat can trigger the same reaction in adjacent cells, which is why lithium-ion battery fires escalate so quickly.

Office for Product Safety and Standards, "Statutory guidelines on lithium-ion battery safety for e-bikes," GOV.UK, published 12 December 2024.

London Fire Brigade's own investigations point to a recurring set of triggers: poor build quality, counterfeit components, physical damage, overcharging, and incompatible or mismatched chargers. Products bought online that do not meet UK safety standards — new or second-hand — are particularly prone to failure.

What the government is doing about it

Regulation in this area is moving, but slowly relative to the scale of the problem:

• December 2024: OPSS published statutory guidance under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR), setting out the safety mechanisms — including battery management systems — that lithium-ion batteries for e-bikes must have to be considered safe products. This applies to complete e-bikes and to batteries sold separately or as part of conversion kits.
• Summer 2025: The Product Regulation and Metrology (PRAM) Act received Royal Assent, giving government new powers to overhaul product safety rules for items sold online, including e-bike batteries and chargers.
• Late March 2026: A government product safety consultation was published, explicitly naming unsafe e-bike batteries, conversion kits and chargers sourced from online marketplaces as a growing hazard, and proposing new duties on producers, suppliers and online marketplaces.
• December 2025: London Fire Brigade's Deputy Commissioner wrote to the Minister for Employment Rights and Consumer Protection, Kate Dearden MP, urging government to bring forward the secondary legislation needed to make the PRAM Act's powers operational.
• As of this update, secondary legislation under the PRAM Act specific to lithium-ion batteries has not yet been finalised. The British Standards Institution is reported to be developing a fast-tracked safety specification for batteries used in e-bikes, e-scooters and conversion kits.

Recent incidents and recalls

We track notable developments here between full quarterly data refreshes. Do not act on any single recall without checking the official notice yourself.

• July 2026: A UNU E-Moped/Scooter Classic (model 2606-0200) was recalled by the Office for Product Safety and Standards after a London Fire Brigade investigation found a battery defect that could cause thermal runaway and fire under fault conditions. The investigation was triggered by a fire in an underground car park in Kensal Town in March 2026. Anyone with this model should stop using it and unplug it from any power source immediately, and check the official OPSS recall notice for the latest guidance.
• May 2026: London Fire Brigade and Uber Eats announced a joint safety education partnership for delivery couriers, built around the Brigade's #ChargeSafe campaign, following the Brigade's earlier direct approaches to Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats about rider charging safety.
• November 2025: The National Fire Chiefs Council issued a public warning that lithium-ion battery use is outpacing UK safety standards, calling for enforceable product safety rules, tighter controls on online marketplace sales, better battery disposal systems, and public education.

London Fire Brigade, "E-moped recalled due to fire risk concerns following Brigade investigation," published July 2026; London Fire Brigade, "The Brigade and Uber Eats partner to enhance e-bike battery safety education for delivery couriers," published May 2026; National Fire Chiefs Council, November 2025 statement.

Cite this data

We built this page to be the most current, granular and honestly-sourced public tracker of UK lithium-ion e-bike and e-scooter fire data. Journalists, researchers, policymakers and other websites are welcome to cite it.

Suggested citation: "UK Lithium Battery Fire Statistics Tracker," Battery Fire Claims, last updated 05 July 2026, batteryfireclaims.co.uk/uk-lithium-battery-fire-statistics.

We have not opened a media, data or general enquiry route yet. When we do, we will publish it on our contact page.

Our methodology and sources

• London-specific figures (the year-by-year table, borough breakdown and London fatality count) are drawn entirely from London Fire Brigade's own published release of 28 January 2026, cross-checked against the Brigade's own website.
• UK-wide 2023 figures (10+ fatalities, almost 200 fires) are drawn from OPSS/GOV.UK statutory guidance published 12 December 2024 — the most recent confirmed UK-wide point-in-time figure available.
• We have removed national (UK-wide) trend figures from this page. Earlier versions carried specific national fire counts, a national rate and a three-year percentage rise taken from trade and insurance-industry reporting. We could not trace them to a named primary dataset with a published methodology, so we withdrew them rather than restate them with false precision.
• We do not treat secondary press aggregation as a primary source without independent cross-checking, and we date-stamp every check.
• Refresh cadence: quarterly. Next scheduled refresh: October 2026.

If you have been affected by a battery fire

Everything above is about the scale and pattern of the problem, not any individual case. If you or someone in your household has been affected by a lithium battery, e-bike or e-scooter fire, our eligibility guide explains how we work out who was responsible and what to consider next.

We are not taking enquiries. We have no enquiry form, telephone number or email address in service, and nothing you send can reach us at present.