New Yorkers place hundreds of thousands of orders on food delivery apps every day — and the majority of the workers who cart those meals around the city rely on speedy electric bikes powered by lithium-ion batteries.
Those batteries are a cause for concern among FDNY officials and delivery workers alike.
The devices are essential for workers trying to meet growing demand for food delivery, but the e-bikes and batteries are expensive. And, according to the FDNY, secondhand or damaged batteries and faulty chargers are to blame for a growing number of fires.
“We don’t feel safe because we don’t know which battery is going to explode,” said Sergio Ajche, a delivery worker who co-founded Los Deliveristas Unidos. “We have to get better-quality batteries because we use it every day. It’s not just a hobby or something to commute from the house to the office.”
The FDNY reported that lithium-ion batteries sparked 104 fires in 2021, causing four deaths and 79 injuries. Those numbers spiked in 2022, with the FDNY reporting the batteries caused 220 fires that caused 147 injuries and six deaths.
And so far this year, the FDNY reports the batteries have already caused 80 fires that killed nine people and injured 60 more. The recent deaths include a 7-year-old and a 19-year-old killed by a fire in Astoria, Queens last month that FDNY officials said was caused by an e-bike charger near the entrance of their home.
During a City Council hearing last month, FDNY Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito said many of the battery fires are caused by “low-quality batteries,” or those purchased secondhand or on a website that doesn’t meet safety standards. Esposito also blamed incompatible chargers and damaged batteries as a source of the fires.
The city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection estimates there are more than 60,000 food delivery workers in New York, most of whom ride e-bikes or scooters. In a report published last year, the agency estimated the city would see 132 million app-based food deliveries over the course of 2022 — a figure officials expect will grow to 178 million by 2025.
Five delivery workers told Gothamist they need e-bikes to keep up with demand and deliver enough orders to make a living wage. But they also say the electric batteries that power their bikes can be expensive and often cost more than $600. The workers said they typically own two, so they can continue to make deliveries while the other is charging.
Juan Ramirez, a delivery worker who emigrated from Guatemala to New York four years ago, said he makes anywhere from $100 to $180 a day. He said a new battery costs him five or six days of work.
Some delivery workers said shops across the city have charging stations and sell used or repaired batteries. They pointed to storefronts in Chinatown and Downtown Brooklyn, where charging stations are made available to delivery workers for a couple hours a day for a monthly rate of roughly $50.
Charging stations for electric bike batteries at a shop in lower Manhattan.
The FDNY has cracked down on some of these operations in recent months, according to several delivery workers – leaving more workers to charge e-bikes inside their apartments.
An FDNY spokesperson said the department has issued vacate orders at two e-bike shops on the Lower East Side and in Hell’s Kitchen.
Delivery worker Jose Lima, who works in Manhattan and is from Ecuador, said some shops crack open the batteries to work on them.
“When the battery starts to fail, they open it and repair it,” Lima said in Spanish. “That’s when they have problems. They explode, I think.”
During last month's council hearing, Esposito, the FDNY chief of fire operations, said that damaged batteries can cause “thermal runaway” that causes them to catch fire.
Proposed Council legislation would establish a city-run program that provides free or low-cost lithium-ion batteries to delivery workers.
But absent any new programs from the city, Ajche said he fears faulty batteries will continue to spark fires throughout the five boroughs.
“I have heard from some workers that they had fires in their apartment,” said Ajche. “They went to Amazon to buy a battery with the certification, and still after using the battery for a couple days the apartment caught on fire.”
Ajche and other delivery workers want the city and app companies to build more locations across New York City where they can safely charge their batteries. Mayor Eric Adams and Sen. Chuck Schumer announced plans last year to convert vacant newsstands into charging stations.
An Upper West Side community board has already launched a fight against converting a vacant newsstand at West 72nd Street and Broadway into a charging station. The group shot down the plan last month in a largely symbolic vote.
“We want to move forward with the charging stations,” Ajche said. “We want to make everybody safe, not just the delivery workers.”
