E-bike delivery workers whose rides are powered with dangerously low quality lithium-ion batteries could now get better and safer batteries at little or no cost.

“We know that there are folks that can’t afford high-priced batteries and bikes,” Councilman Keith Powers, a Manhattan Democrat.

What You Need To Know

  • City Council passed a law making the city create a two-year trade-in program that lets delivery workers exchange unsafe e-bikes and batteries for those that meet safety standards

  • Lawmakers also introduced bills to make apps provide delivery workers safety training and equipment

  • Starting Saturday, a law kicks in that bans the e-bikes and batteries that do not meet safety standards

The City Council on Thursday voted to create a new trade-in program over the next two years for lithium-ion batteries, which have caused hundreds of fires in recent years — some of them deadly.

“I think we all can agree that nobody wants this unsafe equipment in their residential building or in their homes,” Powers said.

Those high-quality batteries can be difficult to find, much less buy for delivery workers who rely on tips.

“It’s really hard to find, there’s not that many,” Gustavo Ajche of Los Deliveristas Unidos said.

According to the FDNY, e-bike batteries sparked 180 fires this year, injuring 101 people, while 14 people died.

Lawmakers also introduced bills to make apps provide delivery workers safety training and equipment, as well as making sure their e-bikes and batteries meet safety standards — and pay for them, if they don’t.

But how that will be enforced is unclear.

“When a worker comes into a restaurant to pick up the food, maybe some of the workers in the restaurant could just verify that it’s a certified e-bike, but nothing set in stone yet, we’re still working out the details, Councilman Oswald Feliz, a Bronx Democrat and one of the bill sponsors, said.

TECH:NYC, a big tech industry trade group, backs the trade-in program.

But Julie Samuels, the group’s director, said delivery apps would have to figure out how to implement the proposed regulations.

“Most delivery workers work on multiple platforms at the same time and so it’s complicated to figure out which delivery company, which platform would potentially provide certain training or certain equipment,” Samuels said. “It can get messy. Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t figure it out.”

Starting Saturday, a law kicks in that bans the e-bikes and batteries that do not meet safety standards.