If you own an e-bike, or you're thinking about buying one, there's a regulatory fight happening right now that's worth five minutes of your attention. In late June, the Consumer Product Safety Commission published a formal proposal to create the first-ever federal safety standard for the lithium-ion batteries inside e-bikes, e-scooters, and similar micromobility products. The public comment period on that proposal closes August 24, which means the window to weigh in — or just to understand what's coming — is closing fast.
What the rule would actually do
Strip away the legal language and the proposal is narrower than it sounds. It's not about speed limits, trail access, or where you're allowed to ride. It's about the battery pack itself and the electrical system around it: the things that cause fires, overheating, and the kind of thermal runaway that's made national news more than once when an e-bike battery went up in an apartment building. The CPSC's proposal would set mandatory standards for how those batteries are built, tested, and certified before they can be sold in the U.S., and it would apply broadly — e-bikes, e-scooters, hoverboards, electric skateboards, replacement battery packs, conversion kits, and the chargers that go with all of it.
Right now, a lot of that safety testing happens on a voluntary basis, if it happens at all. Reputable brands already test to UL standards because it's good practice and good liability protection, but nothing requires it. This proposal would close that gap and make a baseline level of testing mandatory across the entire industry, not just for the manufacturers who were already doing it right.
Why this is happening now
The short answer is fires. Lithium-ion battery fires tied to e-bikes and scooters have been a growing problem in dense cities for a few years now, especially involving cheap, uncertified batteries sold online or used in commercial delivery fleets. Those fires burn hot, spread fast, and have caused real property damage and real injuries. Regulators have been under pressure to do something about it, and this proposal is the federal answer. A final rule, if the CPSC moves forward with one, wouldn't take effect until 180 days after it's published, and it would only apply to products made after that date — so nothing changes overnight, but the direction is clear.
What it means if you're just trying to buy or own an e-bike
For most riders, the honest answer is: probably not much changes day to day, at least not right away. If you already buy from an established brand that tests to UL 2849 or similar standards, you're likely already meeting or beating whatever the federal floor ends up being. Where this matters more is at the cheap end of the market — the batteries and conversion kits sold with no real testing behind them, priced low because corners got cut somewhere. A federal standard makes it harder for those products to legally reach U.S. shelves at all, which is a net good for anyone who's ever stored a bike in a garage attached to their house.
Where we sit on this
TerraGnar doesn't build batteries or e-bikes, and we're not part of this rulemaking process — we're not a battery manufacturer and we don't have a seat at that table. But we build gear that a growing number of e-bike owners strap to their trucks, and battery safety and hauling safety come from the same instinct: don't ship something until you've actually tested whether it holds up under real conditions. That's true whether you're building a battery pack or a rack. We don't have a stake in how this rule shakes out beyond the same interest every rider has — fewer garage fires, safer products, and a little more trust in the gear all of us are buying.
Bottom line
The comment period closes August 24. If you want to read the actual proposal or see what industry and safety groups are saying about it, PeopleForBikes has been tracking the rulemaking closely and is a good place to start. Either way, this is one to watch — not because it changes anything about how or where you ride today, but because it's the first real attempt at a federal floor for a technology that's now in millions of American garages.
← Back to the Journal