The city will allow outdoor e-bike battery charging stations in front of almost all multi-unit buildings after widespread interest from property owners concerned about tenants charging uncertified batteries indoors.
On Thursday, the Department of Transportation announced that property owners can apply to use the sidewalk space outside their buildings to install cabinets to safely charge lithium-ion batteries to reduce the risk of possibly deadly fires inside apartments and retail stores.
Landlords and tenants in buildings with ground-floor stores or eateries, community facilities, and residential buildings with five or more apartments will be able to apply, opening up opportunities for businesses to offer battery charging to delivery workers as well as residential landlords to promote outdoor charging for e-bike users.
“The new rules will give New Yorkers another option for storing and charging these devices outside their homes, which we know will keep residents and firefighters safe,” said FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker.
The rise in fires is tied to the growing delivery economy and its workers' reliance on inexpensive, uncertified electric bikes and mopeds. Last year, there were 268 caused by such batteries, up from 30 in 2019, according to City Hall.
Most of those fires happen indoors, where they are most dangerous. Of 209 fires in the first nine months of 2024, 120 were indoors, The City reported.
Organizations that represent landlords throughout the city are happy that the new rules include residential buildings, but worry about some unknowns.
"We appreciate the efforts ... to allow charging stations on the sidewalks of buildings with five or more units," said Kenny Burgos, the CEO of New York Apartment Association. "[But] this action is not enough to address the problem. There are still questions about who will be responsible for installation costs and maintenance for the charging stations. If it is building owners, there are many rent-stabilized buildings that do not have enough revenue to absorb this cost and they will need subsidies."
The DOT says the new rule builds on the city's six-month “charging hub” pilot for delivery workers, which had strong participation and reduced or eliminated home charging for participants, a known fire risk.
But the cabinets and infrastructure involved in the pilot program were organized by the city. The cabinets that come out of this rule change will be the responsibility of the landlords and/or tenants who will have to deal with DOT, ConEd, FDNY, and a third-party charging cabinet company in order to get the infrastructure up and running.
Even so, business owners say they have been fielding requests from residential landlords wanting a way to install charging hubs for their tenants.
“There’s a lot of property owners that have come to us, that have had fires in the last six months and they want to put a battery charging cabinet outside. And we have to say, ‘Well we don’t have official permission,’” said Baruch Hertzfeld, who runs Popwheels, one of the charging cabinet companies that worked with DOT on the pilot. “So in the initial proposal, the city was thinking that cabinets should be in front of a commercial property. But we needed to ask for that expansion [to residential] because of all of the requests from building owners who want to be able to offer a solution to their tenants.”
First steps
Getting the new sidewalk cabinets up and running could take a while.
The initial permit approval could take months, although it won't be clear exactly how long until the first applications start coming in. Then the applicant will have to get approved by the fire department in what is called a “Technology Management” process to ensure the cabinets “utilize appropriate fire safety technology, such as ventilation, temperature control, and automatic shutoff if a battery is overheating," another three to six month process.
The charging cabinets will be operated by private companies, like Popwheels, that usually charge a fee for use of their batteries. This adds an extra layer of safety because the companies that operate the charging stations use lithium-ion batteries with a federal safety certification (known as UL certified), which are considered safe.
“Batteries used in battery-swapping systems are owned, digitally monitored, and inspected by battery-swapping companies, further reducing risks because companies can proactively identify damaged batteries and remove them from circulation,” noted the DOT in a press release.
The swap model is ideal, but there is also a need for outdoor infrastructure to charge existing batteries. Popwheels is working on getting this type of cabinet approved by the fire department, which currently only allows them to operate cabinets with batteries the company itself owns that the users check in and out.
“We never want a [lithium-ion] battery inside of a house. Every single one is a potential problem,” said Hertzfeld. “There’s a transition that has to happen and in that transition people are going to want to rent slots to charge their existing batteries. Currently our cabinet is only permitted for batteries that we have inspected and certified.”
In addition to the sidewalk permits the department is piloting a program where delivery workers can trade in uncertified mopeds and batteries for safer, regulated models.
