Bumpy Rd: Delivery Workers Voice Concerns on First E-Bike Battery Charging Pilot Program

The Department of Transportation (DOT) held its first battery charging pilot program for 100 delivery workers on March 7 at Cooper Square in the East Village, which is the first biker charging station to be unveiled anywhere in the city.

The six-month pilot program is to test safe, public charging of UL certified lithium-ion batteries. It is part of the city’s “Charge Safe, Ride Safe: New York City’s Electric Micromobility Action Plan” which aims to support safe e-bike use and prevent deadly lithium-ion battery fires such as the one that killed a 27 year old journalist in Harlem last month. Eight people died in Manhattan last year as a result of fires started by lithium ion batteries.

“This pilot program we’re kicking off today will give delivery workers the ability to access safe, accessible, outdoor battery charging that will undoubtedly save lives,” Mayor Eric Adams said.

The three companies that are providing the infrastructure for the e-battery charging pilot is Swiftmile, Swobbee and Popwheels.

One of the advantages of the new charging station is the charge time, according to Swiftmile. The charge time is brought down from six to seven hours, that it would take delivery workers charge each battery in a residential apartment and cut it to three to four hours.

Some delivery workers that Straus News spoke with recently were less than thrilled by the new charging stations “We have to wait here until it finishes charging. We can’t just leave it there and come back the next day,” Vecente Carrasco, a delivery worker said to Straus News, translated from Spanish to English. “That seems like some time wasted in the day waiting for it to finish charging, instead of bringing my battery back home and letting it charge overnight.”

Nevertheless, Carrasco is hopeful the program works out. “We will see how it goes,” he said. Carrasco has been working with as a deliverista for 8 years.

Swobbee, a Berlin-based company that provides swappable batteries, prides itself on its AES lithium-ion batteries. “We are the largest e-bike fleet operator in the world, and we haven’t had a single fire,” Stephan Von Wolff, CEO of Swobbee, said.

Delivery workers are well aware of the danger of fires that can erupt from faulty lithium ion batteries. “We talked to the DOT about this fire problem before this program even came into being. We wanted a solution,” Sergio Solano, a delivery worker from Mexico, translated from Spanish to English said.

In addition to the safety of the batteries Swobbee provides, the versatility of bikes they accommodate for could be part of that solution.

“This upgrade kit puts it on any 48-volt bike,” Wolff said. “The customer comes here with their bike, we upgrade it within 10 to 15 minutes, and onboard it to our system. You can then start swapping at any of our stations. We have different modules, which means we can incorporate different battery types. In the long run, that means we are also compatible with motor bike batteries or scooter batteries, if we want to.”

However, Swiftmile, the company that provides an outdoor charging port, doesn’t accommodate all bikes. They allow charging for all the Aero Road bikes including Aero 9, 10 and 11, which are “the majority of bikes delivery workers use,” according to a Swiftmile Operations Manager. But, what about the rest?

Solano wonders about the rest of the delivery workers that were not at the pilot program on March 7, and if the city will also accommodate for them. There are 65,000 more delivery workers running their bikes on lithium-ion batteries and there is no way to estimate how many are non-UL approved batteries that could explode. “There are a lot of batteries and battery types and bike types we hope that it will eventually help the rest of them,” Solano said.

A benefit to the new infrastructures is the cost, Solano says. “Before this existed, we paid $60 in taxes a month for the batteries,” Solano said. “Now, the charging station is free.”

Solano mentions that the bikes are getting stolen, which is another problem neither the city nor the DOT addressed. “It’s not just this, they are stealing our batteries and our seats on the street,” Solano said. “They take anywhere from 4 or 5 bikes to up to 10 at once. We have no security.”

To deal with the lithium-ion fire issues in the past, some were handling the battery swapping on their own with their own materials, which they couldn’t count on. “There were people doing battery repairs in their basement,” Peter Meitzler, Co-founder of a non-profit cycle mobile company, called the New York Cycle Association, said. “You can buy battery cells, and the circuit boards and do stuff on your own, but it’s not reliable. So, this pilot program is getting it all reliable and safe.”

Meitzler believes in the future of these new installations. “These new e-bike charging ports are potentially going to be a large market,” Meitzler said. “All old equipment delivery drivers use is going to get outdated.”

The city is committing resources to subsidize the cost of these new charging ports. Most recently, Senator Schumer announced $25 million in federal funds to build e-bike charging stations at dozens of New York City Housing Authority Developments. Additionally, the New York City Council passed a new e-bike safety rules mandate to make the batteries sustainable on Feb. 28.

The other stations will be installed in the coming weeks with one scheduled at the Essex Market in the Lower East Side.