We welcome in a scorching UK Bank Holiday weekend with a review of everything e-bike related. This week: Uber Eats tackles hot batteries, survey reveals Dutch fat bike concerns, more e-bike growth, and solid-state batteries become reality…
E-bike schemes take off in Scotland and Bristol
Scotland is fully embracing the public e-bike revolution with a total of one million hires in its largest cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, according to The Scotsman. Voi, the company behind the schemes, launched the hire bikes in Edinburgh in September and Glasgow in November, meaning brave Scots reached the record number over the winter months. Voi is also taking over Aberdeen with a fleet of 350 e-bikes for Scotland’s third most populous city.
Meanwhile, south of the border and then some, Bristol’s e-bike and e-scooter scheme is enjoying a new promotional push from operator Dott, as reported by the Bristol Post. Its micromobility vehicles were refreshed with new models in a blue-and-orange colour scheme in March, and they now operate in satellite towns such as Yate and Thornbury.
However, not everyone’s happy: this Bristol Post article features a fun round-up of predictable anti-cyclist diatribe from its readers. In its defence, West of England Mayor Helen Godwin points out that “over 99 per cent of Dott journeys now end in a proper parking place – a real improvement on previous years – thanks to the Scoot Safe campaign launched by the Police & Crime Commissioner and I, and regional funding for local councils to install more marked bays.”
82% of Dutch people “worried” about fat bikes
New research reveals that the majority of people in the Netherlands can’t stand illegal e-bikes, aka ‘fat bikes’. As the NL Times reports, a survey commissioned by transport association RAI Vereniging suggests that 82 per cent of Dutch people consider fat bikes “a major problem”, and that two-thirds believe riding an e-bike is more dangerous than riding an acoustic bike. RAI Vereniging is calling for a united approach to tackle the fat bike issue.
“A helmet mandate for young people and a minimum age are pieces in a much larger puzzle,” Chairman Frits van Bruggen told the NL Times. “The Cabinet must ensure that customs gets to work, that regulators such as the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority do their jobs, and that checks are carried out on the streets. Only then will other measures have an effect.”
> Dutch seize huge shipment of illegal ‘fatbikes’ that qualify as mopeds
Giant invests in semi-solid state battery tech
Semi-solid state batteries have been in the pipeline for a while, but production of the exciting new tech is hotting up. As Bike Europe reports, Giant has specified an electric bike with a battery from fellow Chinese manufacturer T&D.
As Giant told Bike Europe, “the battery has a 50% capacity increase compared to lithium-ion and has reduced the frame-integrated weight by 21%. The battery’s longevity is also extended to over 1,500 charges.”
The new batteries are also far safer than conventional liquid-based units, with less likelihood of runaway thermal fires and a higher chance of passing international certification. While Giant’s new e-bike will only be available in China for now, Bike Europe says that “a European customer has also expressed interest” in T&D’s batteries.
London Fire Brigade partners with Uber Eats for rider education
Delivery riders are notorious for riding sketchy e-bikes held together with duct tape and congealed Domino’s grease, and these dodgy contraptions carry an inherent fire risk. However, the London Fire Brigade and calorie courier company Uber Eats have hooked up to offer riders guidance on how to use and charge batteries safely.
Throughout 2026, Uber Eats’ riders will find in-app education modules developed by the London Fire Brigade as part of its Charge Safe campaign.
“It is essential that anyone using e-bikes does so in line with the highest safety standards,” said Merve Basci, Uber Eats General Manager for the UK. “This revamped education engages couriers directly, giving them the tools to source and use their e-bikes responsibly as we work together to keep London safe.”
10 thoughts on “London Fire Brigade and Uber Eats tackle flaming e-bike risk, Scotland and Bristol e-bike boom, mystery EU company invests in semi-solid batteries + more”
Absolutely off-the-scale levels of hypocrisy from UberEats there, so concerned about safety that they are going to help educate their riders about it…when the entire business model relies on riders using illegal electric motorcycles and taking high levels of risk, including ignoring most traffic laws, in order to get enough jobs in to make at least close to the minimum wage. Until UE starts insisting that their riders use legal machines (and inspecting to make sure they do) and paying wages that mean they can make a living without risking their lives for it, they can spare us the “I’m so concerned” window dressing, thanks.
@Rendel Harris I’m surprised you overlooked this seemingly deliberate attempt to provoke you:
@Rendel Harris if you feel these companies are getting a free lunch, they are (repeat). Also the providers of non-type-approved electric motorbikes.
Luckily they’ve got venture capitalist pals with tons of money that they have used to hire plentiful counsel with and shovelled into the political lobby, so… as you were!
@mdavidford There’s a line in The Catcher in the Rye when Holden Caulfield sees that someone has written “Fuck you” on a wall in his little sister’s school, so he rubs it off, and then a minute later he comes across another one and he says something like, “It’s hopeless anyway. If you had a million years to do it you couldn’t scrub off half the ‘fuck you’ signs in the world. It’s impossible.” Some days – many days – I feel like that about trying to encourage proper grammar…
Deliveroo and UberEats are complete crooks.
From the rider telemetry data they know exactly which riders are riding illegal vehicles.
If they had any integrity (clue – they don’t) they would set minimum delivery times based on the permissible speed limits for the mapped route – effectively removing the incentive to speed or drive an electric vehicle.
Equally culpable is the patently useless Secretary of State for Transport – Heidi Alexander. Alexander talks a good game about making roads safer yet has done previous little to make it as a reality.
There are 6 x things Alexander could do but has chosen not to – all of which would make the roads a lot safer for vulnerable road users:
1) Automatic ban for all phone use offences.
2) Remove ability of food service “riders” to work on L plates
3) Require food delivery platforms to set minimum journey times and lock out riders from accepting another order until the minimum journey time has passed.
4) Knock some heads together in the Police so that they proactively seize illegal ubereats / deliveroo bikes / vehicles – of which there are hundreds an hour passing most city centre restaurants.
5) Give police the power to seize all suspected illegal vehicles and force owners to prove their compliance with relevant legal requirements
6) Ban the sale of eScooters, illegal (excess speed / power) eBike conversion kids and allow Trading standards to immediately close premises found to be doing so.
It’s a pity the previous pick for transport secretary took herself out with a different kind of phone scandal – she actually seemed to be a radical (for a minister).
Heidi Alexander is a cycling convert as an individual but much more in the usual line in office.
Although whether Louise Haigh would have been able to get anything done in the climate of motornormativity / with the current turn of events / with Keir Starmer as PM is a real question…
The yoof, “Grammar, that’s so yesterday”. [Retire to a safe distance].
To @Rendel Harris
@open_roads Equally culpable is the patently useless Secretary of State for Transport – Heidi Alexander. Alexander talks a good game about making roads safer yet has done previous little to make it as a reality
This may, or may not, be unfair to Alexander. Minister Lilian Greenwood has declared herself to be responsible for implementation of the January 26 Government Road Safety Strategy, which has likely already been binned. Greenwood is also responsible for DVLA, and its astonishingly lax attitude to VED evasion (that’s Road Tax to any Dimwit Drivers who can read). Check BF64 TGE and HY66 ZZB (except you can’t tonight because DVLA is ‘offline for maintenance’), as described to my MP almost a year ago and she wrote to Greenwood, only to receive the standard fob-off reply that we would all get if there was a proper system for reporting untaxed drivers: we don’t discuss individual cases.
@ChrisA Wait until they receive an invitation to help their uncle jack off his horse, they’ll soon appreciate the importance.