Delivery workers who live in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field Apartments can now swap their dead e-bike batteries for charged ones without leaving their sprawling apartment complex.
The apartment complex will host seven PopWheels battery swap cabinets, funded in part by Con Edison, to encourage delivery workers who live in the building to stop charging their lithium-ion batteries inside. Lithium-ion battery fires at residential buildings have led to several dozen deaths in the city in recent years.
PopWheels — a Brooklyn-based start-up — hosted Monday's grand opening featuring Assembly Member Phara Souffrant Forrest, Council Member Crystal Hudson and Ebbets Field Tenants Organization President Beverly Newsome.
The complex has seen at least two e-bike battery fires in recent years, according to Souffrant Forrest and Newsome. Souffrant Forrest, a longtime Ebbets Field resident, said she has her own fears about lithium-ion battery charging in residential buildings.
“I am proud to be here as a resident,” she said. “We had a fire that blew out an apartment and brought a lot of fear to the building. For far too long families have lived in fear because they’re not charging safely."
Hundreds of delivery workers live at Ebbets Field and store their bikes and mopeds outside, according to PopWheels. Management has put up signs warning residents not to charge batteries inside, but struggled to enforce that rule in the 1,300-unit complex.
Newsome, the tenants association president, said she is inundated with complaints about lithium-ion battery fires..
“People tell me ‘Beverly, we have to get the batteries out of the elevator.’ We’ve had two fires here," she said. "And when the fire department came, people were concerned."
Each PopWheels cabinets holds 16 batteries. The company's goal is to reduce the risk of fires by charging batteries outside of apartment buildings in fire-safe charging cabinets.
The company's business works as a subscription service. For just $75 per month, customers can swap out drained batteries for charged, certified-safe batteries at any PopWheels location. In May, the company opened its first hub in Lower Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood with funding from Uber.
The Ebbets Field hub is the first of its kind in Brooklyn, and the first ever funded in part by Con Edison’s PowerReady Micromobility program, which covers infrastructure costs for safe charging facilities in low-income neighborhoods.
Through the partnership, ConEd covers the cost of the fire suppressant materials as well as all of the electrical infrastructure, while the cabinets themselves are provided by PopWheels.
Lithium-ion batteries charging in the city’s apartments has increased dramatically since 2020, when delivery workers turned to e-bikes during the pandemic.
As e-bike use increased, so did fires caused by e-bike batteries – a deadly consequence of a previously unregulated and unsafe market. Although legislation has been passed at the city, state and federal levels to curb the use of uncertified batteries, fires persist — albeit with fewer casualties over time.
In 2022, there were 219 fires caused by such batteries resulting in 147 injuries and six deaths, according to FDNY figures. In 2023, there were 268 fires, 150 injuries and 18 deaths. Last year there were 177 fires, 99 injuries and six deaths, FDNY said.
Injuries and deaths have declined between 2023 and 2024, but Fire Department stats show the number of incidents continues to rise. The city experienced a 53 percent increase in structural fires caused by lithium-ion batteries through the first three months of 2025 compared to 2024.
It is now illegal under city law for retailers to sell unsafe batteries, instead all batteries and e-bikes sold must be certified by UL Solutions, the gold-standard in lithium-ion battery certification.
PopWheels is part of a patchwork of private and public initiatives to push workers to use safer infrastructure.
Last month the city’s Department of Transportation launched its own own e-bike and battery trade-in program where delivery workers with illegal mopeds, uncertified e-bikes, or uncertified batteries can trade in for a brand new and certified-safe Whizz e-bike.
