News 1+1丨How to solve the safety problem of electric bicycles? Many places are taking measures→

In recent years, electric bicycles have played an indispensable role in residents' daily travel due to their convenience and environmental friendliness. But this has been accompanied by fire safety hazards caused by violations such as taking electric bicycles upstairs, charging them inside homes, and charging them with flying wires. To prevent fires caused by illegal charging of electric bicycles, many cities have recently further introduced and strengthened the implementation and supervision of relevant regulations on the basis of existing rules. In addition, how can the safety problems of electric bicycles' own hardware be solved? "News 1+1" connected with Ma Liang, professor at the School of Public Administration and researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University of China, and He Penglin, deputy director of the Safety Technology Research Center of the China Electronics Standardization Institute, to focus together on: How can electric bicycles be made safer?

Many places are taking measures to address the chaos of illegal parking and charging of electric bicycles!

Data show that China's current stock of electric bicycles has reached 350 million, with an average annual output of about 35 million. Behind such huge figures, safety management is the top priority, and among it, the first issue to be solved is parking management. Recently, on top of existing relevant regulations, many places have further strengthened the parking management of electric bicycles. What are the practices? How should scientific management be carried out? Click the video to learn more.

In governing illegal parking of electric bicycles, a "one-size-fits-all" ban on entering residential communities also needs "a cut"

Ma Liang, professor at the School of Public Administration and researcher at the National Academy of Development and Strategy of Renmin University of China: Crude and simplistic management measures often amount to giving up eating for fear of choking and simply banning everything, which is more a psychology of avoiding responsibility. By completely prohibiting entry into residential communities, no risk will arise and no responsibility will need to be borne, but it will undoubtedly bring many new problems. When relevant localities or communities simply impose a ban, there is no legal basis, and it is unjustifiable in terms of emotion and reason. I think the "one-size-fits-all" policy also needs "a cut," and arbitrary action and inaction are unacceptable. Therefore, we should strengthen the rule-of-law mindset: when prohibiting certain behaviors, there must be a basis in law and regulations, and arbitrary action is not allowed. Also very important is enhancing the capacity of grassroots governance and the competence of grassroots officials. When faced with such problems, they do not know what to do, so policy guidance from higher-level departments is very important at this time. If provincial and municipal departments have clear policies that lower levels can implement, these problems can also be better solved.

For electric bicycle safety, how can efforts start with batteries?

Recently, many places have introduced measures to address the chaos of illegal parking and charging of electric bicycles. In addition to parking management, the hardware facilities of electric bicycles themselves, especially batteries, are probably also an important part of electric bicycle safety management. Battery aging and replacement, illegal battery modification, and quality problems of batteries produced by small workshops are all risks currently facing electric bicycle batteries. How can the hardware safety problems of electric bicycles themselves be solved? Click the video to learn more.

Illegal battery modification has become a major safety hazard for electric bicycles. What should be done?

He Penglin, deputy director of the Safety Technology Research Center of the China Electronics Standardization Institute: Even qualified batteries, if used improperly by users, will bring certain safety hazards. Regarding the phenomenon of illegal battery modification, I suggest strengthening supervision in three aspects: ① Strengthen supervision over users. According to statistics, there are currently more than 10 million food delivery riders nationwide. In order to deliver food to consumers on time, they basically each have at least one spare battery, and most of these spare batteries are modified batteries. Therefore, food delivery riders are the largest users of modified batteries. It is therefore recommended to strengthen supervision over food delivery platforms, so that platforms formulate corresponding management systems to constrain riders from using illegally modified batteries. ② Strengthen supervision over providers of modification services, that is, increase management of stores, repair shops, and especially manual workshops, and adopt corresponding penalty measures to prohibit modification services and prohibit the sale of modified batteries. ③ Strengthen channel supervision, that is, supervision over e-commerce platforms. At present, most battery modification is carried out through e-commerce platforms. It is recommended that e-commerce platforms establish strict review systems, remove relevant modified battery products, and close shops that provide modification services. In addition, it is necessary to combine blocking with guidance. While strengthening supervision and law enforcement, full consideration should also be given to the actual usage needs of food delivery riders, and sufficient and reasonable solutions should be provided for them, such as improving shared battery swapping facilities and services, so that food delivery riders themselves have no need to modify batteries. Only in this way can the demand for battery modification be fundamentally eliminated.

The Safety Technical Specification for Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Bicycles will be published this year. What changes will it bring?

He Penglin, deputy director of the Safety Technology Research Center of the China Electronics Standardization Institute: According to the provisions of China's Standardization Law, products and services that do not comply with mandatory standards shall not be produced, sold, imported, or provided. That is to say, lithium batteries for electric bicycles sold within China must meet this standard; otherwise, they are not allowed to be produced, imported, sold, or provided to consumers. In the future, when electric bicycle companies purchase batteries, this standard will become the default standard that must be met. Whether in commercial disputes between enterprises, consumer rights protection claims, or recalls of defective products, this standard is an indispensable technical basis. After the implementation of this standard, it will bring an overall improvement in the safety of lithium batteries for electric bicycles sold on the market, prompt enterprises to pay more attention to improving product safety and quality, place enterprises with good product quality in a more favorable position in market competition, and also bring about an industry reshuffle. For enterprises with poor product quality, especially small workshops whose product quality does not meet the requirements of this standard, they may face elimination.