The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) published its 2025 fire figures for e-bikes and e-scooters on 30 September 2026. The report covers 267 fires notified to the regulator that occurred during 2025, and charging status was recorded for 178 of them. Of the full 267, 86 fires, or 32%, were confirmed to have happened while the product was on charge.

What the 2025 figures actually count

Fire and rescue services notify OPSS voluntarily when investigators identify a consumer product as the most probable cause of a fire. OPSS says the data cannot be used to estimate incidents at a national level or to compare the performance of fire and rescue services, so the figure counts notifications rather than a national total. The procedure was relaunched in February 2023 with guidance for investigation teams, and the number of services submitting notifications has risen since.

Most of what arrived came from one service. London Fire Brigade supplied 214 of the 267 notifications.

The report covers consumer products including e-bikes, e-scooters, mobility scooters and e-unicycles. By product, the 267 notifications comprise 217 e-bike fires, 46 e-scooter fires, three mobility scooter fires and one e-unicycle fire. Inside the e-bike group, 98 are recorded as unknown build, 82 as conversions from pedal bikes and 37 as manufactured e-bikes.

Plain incident-report slips with simple geometric marks flow into an unbranded folder; the slips are symbolic and do not represent an exact count.
Concept diagram of voluntary fire-and-rescue notifications, not a national census. The cards and their number are illustrative, not exact.

Why the charging split matters more than the total

OPSS recorded batteries or generators as the source of ignition in 88% of the notified fires, which is 235 incidents. Six were attributed to electrical distribution sources and 26 had an unknown source. Charging status was known for 178 incidents, which leaves 89 with no record either way.

Of all 267 fires, 92 were not charging at the time, slightly more than the 86 that were. A household can control charging, so that group is the one the usual advice speaks to most directly. The larger confirmed group sits outside it, which means unplugging at full charge addresses part of the reported problem rather than the whole of it.

Conversions, unknown builds and what the type split can carry

Charging-related fires were not spread evenly by product type. E-bike conversions had the highest share at 41%, meaning 34 of 82 fires. Manufactured e-bikes followed at 30%, or 11 of 37 fires. E-bikes of unknown build sat at 29%, or 28 of 98. E-scooters came in at 26%, or 12 of 46. OPSS cautions that these figures should be read in light of the missing charging data, which may affect comparability between categories.

The type split also carries less than the totals suggest. E-bikes of unknown build are the single largest category at 98 fires, more than the 82 conversions and far more than the 37 manufactured e-bikes. Where the build was never recorded, the row cannot support a conclusion about conversion quality or factory quality.

The consumer guidance addresses that gap from the other side. It asks buyers to use trusted sellers, to check whether the seller explains how the product complies with UK safety law, and to look for the UKCA or CE mark that UK product safety regulations require. On conversions, it says a pedal bike should be converted only by a competent professional, that replacement parts, chargers and batteries should be the ones the manufacturer recommends, and that the battery should never be modified or tampered with.

Where the fires started indoors

By property type, 147 of the 267 fires, or 55%, occurred in indoor or residential environments. Outdoor spaces accounted for 66, transport settings for five, and 49 were classified as unknown.

The starting location points the same way. 119 fires, or 45%, were recorded as starting indoors, including bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, corridors and indoor storage spaces. Another 100, or 37%, started outdoors, three began in transport settings and 45 were unknown.

Roads or streets account for 47 fires, gardens or courtyards for 31, sleeping areas for 26, living areas for 24 and corridors or hallways for 23. Garages or sheds account for 15, parks or open land for 14 and kitchens for 13.

Sleeping areas, living areas and corridors or hallways add up to 73 notified fires between them. That is where storage guidance earns its place beside charging guidance, and it explains why a charging battery blocking an escape route is treated as a hazard in its own right.

What these numbers cannot tell you

The voluntary procedure sets the first limit. Not every service notifies OPSS of every consumer-product fire, so the data cannot be used for national estimates or for comparing services. Because the procedure was relaunched only in February 2023, recent years are likely to be more complete than earlier ones, and OPSS asks for caution when comparing one year with another.

Figures are revised as well. Since the 2024 publication, 8% of data points, or 58 of 768, have been revised, affecting the years 2021 to 2024. Three revisions changed more than three incidents and the largest change was seven incidents.

The harm figures have their own ceiling. Two notified fires resulted in fatalities, with two deaths in total. Another 47 fires involved non-fatal casualties, with 98 casualties across them. OPSS includes fatalities and casualties only where that information was specifically reported, so the true numbers may be higher.

Read together, the release is a floor on what was reported and a description of the scenarios investigators saw most often, not a measure of total harm.

For owners, the OPSS consumer guidance covers the steps the statistics cannot. It says these fires can start without warning, spread rapidly and are very hard to extinguish, so nobody should try to put one out. Leave the area or building as quickly as possible and call 999 instead. Charge when you are awake and present rather than asleep or away, keep the charger and battery uncovered, and unplug once the battery is full. Stop using a battery or charger that is overheating, deforming, hissing, cracking, smelling, smoking or performing poorly.