Sparks Fly: CPSC Votes To Publish NPR on Safety Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries in Micromobility Products

May 15, 2025 Update:

Following President Trump’s firings last week of all three of the Democratic CPSC Commissioners (Alexander Hoehn-Saric, Richard Trumka, Jr., and Mary Boyle), the now two-member Commission – comprised of Acting Chairman Peter Feldman and Commissioner Douglas Dziak, both Republicans – voted unanimously to withdraw the NPR regarding lithium-ion batteries in micromobility products. As we noted in our May 2 post below, at the April 30 hearing in which the five-member Commission voted 3–2 to issue the rule, Feldman and Dziak had voted no. They argued that that the agency should pause its rulemaking on this topic while Congress considers H.R. 973, a bill that would direct CPSC to adopt a standard on this subject and that has cleared the House and is under consideration in the Senate and that, before CPSC could issue the NPR, the agency should submit the proposed rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review pursuant to Executive Order 14215.  

On April 30, 2025, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted by a 3–2 party-line vote to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR or proposed rule) that, if finalized, would establish a new mandatory safety standard for lithium-ion batteries used in micromobility products such as bicycles, scooters, hoverboards, skateboards, and unicycles. The proposed rule would build off of existing industry consensus standards to address fire incidents associated with micromobility products. The proposed rule would also cover lithium-ion batteries that are sold separately for use with micromobility products.

The preamble to the NPR states that CPSC is aware of 227 incidents of fires, explosions, gas releases, burns, overheating, and smoke inhalation related to lithium-ion batteries in micromobility products that resulted in 39 fatalities and 181 injuries. Additionally, although CPSC staff have not identified any incidents of electric shock, the preamble to the NPR states that there could be the potential for such incidents in the future as micromobility products become more powerful. Therefore, the proposed rule is intended to address the risk of electric shock as well.

The proposed rule adopts the following voluntary standards for products within the scope of one or more of these standards:

• For e-bikes: ANSI/CAN/UL 2849:2020, Standard for Safety for Electrical Systems for eBikes (UL 2849-20)
• For e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-unicycles, and hybrid products: ANSI/CAN/UL 2272:2024, Standard for Safety for Electrical Systems for Personal E-Mobility Devices (UL 2272-24)
• For replaceable battery packs: ANSI/CAN/UL/ULC 2271:2023, Standard for Safety for Batteries for Use in Light Electric Vehicle (LEV) Applications (UL 2271-23)

However, the NPR states that none of these safety standards is adequate on its own to “eliminate or adequately reduce” the risk of injury posed by lithium-ion batteries in micromobility products. Given this, the NPR proposes the following modifications:

• Tamper-resistant battery enclosure requirements for e-bikes and replaceable battery packs
• Post-discharge charge test requirements for e-bikes and replaceable battery packs to ensure battery charging is prohibited if the cell surface temperature exceeds the specified upper limit
• Reverse polarity tests across all standards to reduce the risk of injury due to battery pack damage from use of an incompatible charger

Additionally, the NPR would revise the current labeling requirements in the safety standards to improve “safety messaging addressing electric shock and thermal runaway, and additional identified hazard patterns such as homemade batteries and unsafe battery charging.”¹

The ins and outs of micromobility products and lithium-ion batteries were not the commissioners’ exclusive focus during the hearing. The commissioners agreed the issue of micromobility battery safety was one that needed to be addressed, but they differed on how and when to do so.

A philosophical divide on the rulemaking process and agency independence emerged, with the commissioners debating whether or not the agency needed to submit the proposed rule for Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review pursuant to Executive Order 14215: Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies. Additionally, Acting Chairman Peter Feldman and Commissioner Douglas Dziak (Republicans), pointed to the U.S. House of Representatives’ recent passage of H.R. 973, which directs CPSC to engage in rulemaking to set safety standards for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in micromobility devices, arguing that CPSC should wait until this bill is passed into law to pursue rulemaking on the topic. Commissioners Alexander Hoehn-Saric, Richard Trumka, Jr., and Mary Boyle disagreed, and the Commission voted to publish the NPR by a 3–2 party-line vote. Once the NPR is published in the Federal Register, stakeholders will have 60 days to submit comments to CPSC.

For questions about the NPR or other product safety matters, please reach out to the authors of this post or any of their colleagues on Arnold & Porter’s Consumer Product Safety team.

© Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP 2025 All Rights Reserved. This Blog post is intended to be a general summary of the law and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.