Should the carrying of e-scooters be generally prohibited in public transport?

The operational managers of numerous transportation companies, who regularly exchange ideas in the operations committee of the industry association VDV, recommend excluding e-scooters from carriage on buses and trains. The reason for this is the low safety standard of the built-in lithium-ion batteries and the associated increased risk of fire and explosion, as well as the release of harmful smoke gases.

The impetus for the VDV committee to engage intensively with the topic was fires and explosions in public transport vehicles, including in London, Barcelona, and Madrid. In some cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, the carriage in buses and trains has already been recently banned or prohibitions have been decided upon, for example in Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Velbert, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Herne, and Witten.

Insufficient Specific Standards and Safety Regulations

Essential foundations for the recently issued recommendation are two fire protection assessments conducted by the independent expert STUVAtec (Study Society for Tunnel and Transport Facilities mbH). The expert concludes that there are currently no sufficiently specific standards and safety regulations on either a national or European level for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric scooters.

Ronald Juhrs, Managing Director of Technology and Operations at Leipzig Transport Company and Chairman of the VDV Operating Committee, explains: "What has happened in vehicles in Madrid, Barcelona, or London can also happen in Germany at any time. Therefore, we currently feel compelled to no longer recommend the transportation of such vehicles on buses and trains - at least until the batteries installed in them meet sufficient safety standards. E-bikes, e-wheelchairs, and e-senior mobiles are not affected according to the assessments, as they already meet significantly higher normative safety requirements for batteries."

Fire in Subways

Regarding a potential fire in subway vehicles, the expert comes to the following assessment:

“The passenger protection, which is given the highest priority in safety-related considerations, and the necessary possibility for self-rescue are not practically feasible in the event of a fire involving a small electric vehicle – in accordance with the Small Electric Vehicles Ordinance (eKFV) – on a fully occupied train running in a tunnel. For the passengers, there is no escape option within the vehicle, as, unlike in long-distance travel, switching to an adjacent unaffected car is not possible due to the design. The very rapid smoke development within an enclosed space can therefore lead to health impairments of the passengers even within a possibly only short remaining travel time to the next station.”

Considering the current data and facts, the expert's final assessment is that the carriage of small electric vehicles in subways cannot be recommended.