Electric bike safety is creating headlines for all the wrong reasons. When used correctly, the risk of fire when charging an ebike battery is very low to non-existent for ebikes sold by reputable brands – and the same is true of quality conversion kits.
However, all non-folding electric bikes, regardless of their origin, were banned from Transport for London’s network in the Spring of 2025, and the mainstream media has latched onto reports of homes being gutted by fires and videos of explosions when charging electric bikes.
London Fire Brigade has reported 165 ebike and e-scooter fires in 2025, up until the end of September. It says this year is shaping up to be the worst ever, with a fatal fire in Wood Green and 80 firefighters called to another fire at a block of flats in North Kensington, both in June.
Now, home insurers are nervous about the risks associated with electric bike storage and charging at residential premises, and there are calls for a certification scheme to prove battery safety.
“Risks due to illegal and modified bikes”
According to Gemma Gernaubs, chief experience officer at specialist bike insurer Bikmo: “From an insurance standpoint, it’s obvious that home insurers are getting twitchy about ebikes. And while the incidents of fires are comparatively low, they’ve been reported enough to get insurers’ knickers in a twist.
“The irony is, the majority of these incidents are due to unregulated, illegal and modified bikes – the exact same bikes specialist cycle insurers wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.”
London Fire Brigade’s investigations suggest this is true. It points to products bought from online marketplaces as the culprit in many of the ebike fires it attended and plans to work with the government to help strengthen legislation around the sale of ebike components.
Catch-all exclusions
In the absence of any way to identify a safely converted ebike or a complete electric bike sold by a reputable brand, there’s a risk that insurers will just insert a clause in their home insurance policies refusing to cover all electric bikes, regardless of their provenance.
Hannah Davidson, senior underwriting manager, home and lifestyle at Aviva, told us: “Under an Aviva home policy, customers can store an electric bike in their home. We would always advise customers to be aware of the fire risk from lithium-ion batteries and protect themselves and their properties from potentially devastating outcomes.
“Under an Aviva policy, there are no terms or conditions that would restrict cover where an electric bike is stored indoors. However, we would encourage customers to ensure that the bike is used and charged in accordance with manufacturer instructions,” she continued.
Lemonade insurance specifically covers ebike fires, though, stating on its site: “Lemonade’s home insurance policies will cover fire, smoke, or explosion damage caused by an ebike battery – whether you’re a contents-only customer or also have a buildings policy.”
On the other hand, it says: “It’s also important to note that we may not cover a claim if your bike has been modified in a way that does not comply with UK laws, such as modifying your electric bike to go faster than 15.5mph.”
Is certification the solution?
Momentum seems to be gaining for a certification scheme for electric bike components and a ban on non-certified ebike parts (the Bicycle Association recently launched its ebike Safety Register and in April 2025, the UK government launched an inquiry into ‘dangerous’ ebikes). But it’s not clear how projects such as these will develop and over what timescales.
“The insurance industry is a slow-moving ship and building the process to design, roll out and accredit a nationwide certification program will take months, if not years. In the meantime, we’ll probably see more home insurers imposing tighter restrictions and even bans on the indoor storage of e-bikes,” says Bikmo’s Gernaubs.
There’s a risk of a knee-jerk reaction from insurers, with the consequence that electric bikes end up being kept outdoors or in less secure locations.
“At Bikmo, we haven’t had a single damage claim for a fire, but 80% of our claims are for theft. If expensive ebikes suddenly start living outdoors because of home insurance storage and charging bans, we risk seeing a real spike in theft and vandalism claims. It’s a real concern,” concludes Gernaubs.
