Chinese E-Bikes are Exploding like Crazy - Self Destructing Spectacularly 

The damage done to the environment in the name of China's lust for being a "Green Technology" leader is astounding! Thank you so much to all of you for watching my videos, we're actually making a change! Stay Awesome and a massive thank you to Ekster for sponsoring this video, grabb the most badass wallet in the world: shop.ekster.com/serpentza

The Chinese manufacturer's motto is, "As long as it looks good."

When I was a kid all we had to worry about on our bikes was falling off. How times have changed

The saying : “This thing breaks down like a Chinese motorcycle” Has a new meaning now 😂

Cheers from Uruguay, please go on showing this to the world!!!!!

I work at an institute that is one of the UK's leading Li battery research departments. There is an isolated Battery Abuse lab and twice in the past three months I've been glad for its thick walls and fume-venting baffles and hoods when the batteries explode.

Chinese E-Bikes aren't exploding, they are rocket powered.

I love this segment. And true in fact. I almost bought an ebike for my kid for his school transport but I noticed little videos of ebikes on fire including escooters. Watched more during the days and finally decided to just buy my kid a foldable bicycle. And then I ended up on this video. Great work. The honest hidden truth. They are keeping it a secret. Lithium-ion batteries are very dangerous. Fantastic episode.

I am surprised 2 guys found working extinguishers in one of those clips. Main problem with battery fires is you can't turn off a battery and it has a ton of energy stored in it. Imagine a fuel fire and fuel keeps pouring in, you can't stop the fuel source... same with a battery, you can't stop the fuel source of that energy

My landlord added a clause to the lease recently banning electric bikes from his apartments. When I see the footage of them going on fire, I understand why. Those are some crazy battery fires. I fly remote helicopters. I've always stored the lithium batteries in a metal container, just to be safe.

I've been an electrical engineer for 30+ years and have worked in the design of Li-ion chargers and battery packs. There is significant cost and effort required to make Li-ion batteries safer, but they are still a tank of gas in a battery pack. The safety advice at the end of this video is excellent. Thanks Winston, you're awesome.

I watched this video and then an ad for E-bikes played. Just fantastic timing.

This is a great video. As an ebike rider I can see where this could become a problem in the U.S.. Fortunately there are very reputable manufacturers here. Powerful Lithium comes to mind.

I was in Myanmar during covid in 2020, and went to a shop to rent a motorbike for a day. The vendor had lots of bikes to offer, since there was virtually no business. He led me directly to a gas powered Honda, expressing that he had made a huge mistake by buying "Chinese shyte" that were downright dangerous to drive in reference to the chinese ebikes. No regrets, that honda was a terrific little bike.

I work for a company in China that sell and produce e-bikes worldwide. However we only use high quality battery cells, either branded Samsung or LG. Our customers often complain about the price of the batteries. Which then leads some of them to seek out cheaper alternatives. We try to tell people of the dangers, but saving £200 or more on a battery seems to be their priority. Thankfully I've not heard of a single fire from our batteries, but if the user somehow damages the battery, then it has a much greater risk of catching fire. To be honest I find that around 80% of people that buy E-Bikes have no idea about how to care for their bike, let alone want to learn of have an understanding of the electrics, and I feel this is the greater problem.

As a swede, my father used to repair cars and tought me alot about everything about how cars worked, including their batteries. It's only thanks to him that I learned how to switch battery myself and switch wheels. Obviously car batteries are not as explosive as lithium batteries, but they can still be explosive and very dangerous if not handeled properly. Car batteries are especially sensitive to short circuit. If you accidentally mistaken plus for minus or there is a malconfiguration in the cars circuit, these batteries can very much blow up right in your face. Instead of catching fire, expect to be sprayed with battery acid, which in car batteries are some of the strongest acids. The range of such a battery explosion can reach up to 10 meters and within that range you may expect to get corrosion damage from raining acid. Lithium batteries are obviously way more dangerous. Tbh I would probably rather build my own electric bike where I mount the battery as far away from the saddle as possible and mount a shield in between, so that if the battery would ever explode, I at least have some protection against fire damage. It's more likely to catch fire probably, but with that extra protection I am also less likely to take damage from it.

I recognized that shop right away. They were found to be "refurbishing" batteries. It's a thing here now. The city passed a law against tampering with them last March. Some appear to be sold as new. There have been other fatal e-bike fires here in the past couple of years.The FDNY is "cracking down" on shops like this, but crackdowns have a way of failing. I won't hold my breath

I lived in China in 2017. My favourite student bought a little electronic car. It was little more than a glorified golf cart. It cost her 7000 rmb, about a months salary. She loved that little car. It had twice the range of the old ebike she had and could drive from Huishan to Binhu and back in a single charge. She drove it like a tank, even though it was just fibreglass and plastic. One day the local government showed up and loaded her car on a flatbed, with all the other similar cars and just stole it. The police decided they were illegal, confiscated it and left. No paperwork, no process just I have a badge and I’m taking your stuff. She went back to riding her old ebike which was unsafe. For her birthday I bought her a brand new ebike, about 4000rmb IIRC the only condition I had was that she could not use her old bike, as in “don’t give it to your son to use”. I don’t think people understand China. There is no regulations, that you can’t buy your way around. There is no due process, the law is whatever the police decide to enforce. The only saving grace is they generally are only concerned with harmony. Not safety, not legality.. just harmony and face.

The problem is "lithium creep". Improperly built lithium batteries short themselves out over time. It was a brief issue in the US, but we started building carbon blocks in lithium batteries to prevent this. Makes the batteries slightly more expensive though, which is probably why cheap ones go boom.

This brings 'planned obsolescence' to a whole new level.

I’m glad you’re doing so well with your channel. Great job 😁

I worked at a family entertainment business that used Li battery for the laser power. The owner put that display up for sale. A real estate agent showed a customer the place and left the battery charger circuit on, where the owner shut off power every night. Later that night, the shop caught fire. Totally wiped out, few stuff left salvageable. 22 years of his family's life wiped out due to a faulty Ever ready Li battery.

A word of advice: NEVER get into the lift with someone else holding an ebike. Zero chance to escape.

Your news are always an eye-opener and interesting. Thank you

I've been to China several times since 1986, but I don't speak Mandarin and I have not been back for 20 years. But I have enough knowledge to know your reporting is spot-on. I subscribed with a bell and I look forward to all your stories. And you know, he really does have an amazing and uncanny resemblance to Winnie the Poo. Twins separated at birth.

"If those batteries are not properly controlled...if they're not properly maintained and looked after..." That quote perfectly describes what China is abysmal at. Anything to do with professional documentation or maintenance is hopeless in China.

“I’m not trying to be a fearmonger, but you might burst into flames at any second.” This is definitely my new favorite channel. 😂

When you address the problem of countries especially a country like China everybody starts to hate you. But at least it’s great that your channel is helping to improve people’s daily life in China!

I am impressed and very pleased that you personally made a significant contribution to our environment. Someone should give an award because considering the potential impact? Wow!

Chinese ebikes are bursting onto the scene.

This proves that constructive criticism isn't synonymous with hate speech. Good job, Winston! 👍

That smoke does wonders for the climate

Thank you for all your honest video reports on China. I have always been fascinated with the inner workings of Chinese business, culture, and people. Your in depth reporting has shed a new light on China. Please keep up the excellent work and stay awesome.

All it takes is a speck of conductive dust to pierce the micron-thin separator in these batteries. Once that happens, the positive and negative electrodes weld themselves together, and the cell shorts. Current from other cells in the pack also rushes into the failed cell. It's like having a bottle of oxygen inside your gas tank.

Im actually an Industrial Quality Analyst by trade, I love these videos and studying what's going on in China. I cannot find one single example of an authoritarian state that doesn't have a problem with quality. It's ultimately more like a religious problem than an economic or political problem. What I mean is when the state is treated like some kind of god on earth, people stop caring and do the bare minimum, serving others is not a priority in the slightest. They define quality as conformance to specifications, and they cheat and take shortcuts to achieve those specifications, which get warped and altered as well. While in Japan for example, quality is defined as how well something serves and increases the well-being of the customer or recipient.

I have a 3 wheeled electric bicycle and I have it in my garage. Thanks for the heads up I think I'll move it.

Really impressed on what you're doing

In my U.K. town, an old building (solid stone) caught fire and damaged the two attacked flats because someone’s E-bike battery exploded while charging 🔥

I loved my e-bikes in Chengdu - favorite mode of transportation in my whole life. One of the biggest disappointments for me toward the end of China’s foreigner tolerance period (I left China in 2019) was the arbitrary crackdown on e-bikes and basically being interviewed by gate guards at the apartment complexes of the students I was tutoring. Whatever independent charm that life once had was gone.

I was told the ebike was made obligatory because of the polution of the small scooters and bikes. They told me that in Shanghai in 2017 when i asked why all the bikes were electric.

As a remote UAV pilot I know these batteries are very dangerous. I had an incident where a small 3.7v 2000 mA battery spontaneously ignited while charging. It burst into flames on the tailgate of my Tahoe. Burned the carpet and was hard to put out. If I'd have been in the house, asleep or not home it could have been catastrophic.

Nothing beats an ACTUAL wallet. Cash is king.

I remember once buying a rechargeable cheap toy helicopter from a company over the internet, it was apparently made in China. Everything was fine the first hours, then I plugged it into a wall socket to recharge it. One hour later I heard a big BANG 💥 from the other room, ran over to see the thing had EXPLODED and started a fire next to the socket + into the wall. I ran back to grab a fire-extinguisher, and put out the fire with only minor burn damage and a bruised ego as a result. Lesson to the learned; do NOT trust anything from China that uses recharge/power. It's not worth it. Now imagine if this had been a larger thing like an E-Bike or whatever... or if I had not been at home at the time, or asleep. 😲

The problem with current lithium-based batteries is that of thermal runaway especially if poorly designed. Thermal runaway means the burning batteries produce their own oxygen meaning you can't put them out with water. You basically have to let them burn or submerge them in a tub of water (it can take days before they are safe to be taken back out). That said, Dutch authorities are now trialing a fire suppression protocol which involves highly concentrated salt water brine with a novel delivery system to both cool the battery and also rapidly drain it which will prevent self-reignition of the battery. It has so far been proven quite effective.

You seem like a generally nice guy. Giving simple tips and advice to keep others safe. Thank you

I always remember this quote by Jackie Chan I once read in an article from a 2009 Variety magazine: "Chan also attacked Chinese goods, saying they had too many quality problems. Last year, contaminated milk powder killed a number of children and made thousands sick in China. “If I need to buy a TV, I'll definitely buy a Japanese TV. A Chinese TV might explode,”

I fly radio-controlled models. They use Li-Ion batteries as well. I have a specialized box (BatSafe) in which I store and charge the batteries, and I use a smart charger at 1x charging speed. Takes more time but is much safer. Also, never discharge these batteries all the way; if you have to store them long term, it is best done at 50 % capacity.

Keep up the great work Winston. These vids are important for the freedom of mankind

In Australia, we have over 150,000 electric cars. Many of them are Chinese. How many have caught fire under operating conditions? Six. None related to charging. One arson, three in houses that caught fire and the car was in the garage. One hit a tree at 160 km/hr and one, travelling at 110 km/hr, ran over the tailshaft that had fallen off a truck.

Chinese craftsmanship is lit

We had a mother and her two children die in their home here in the UK a month or so back because one of these Chinese e-bikes was left on charge overnight, the bike was in the hallway so they wouldn’t have been able to get out but they didn’t even get the chance to try due to smoke inhalation. If you have to charge these things overnight just don’t buy it.

Hey, I started following you a few years ago, and I find your content amazing. I’m in Mexico, whenever you want to visit my country, it’d be nice to meet you and your family, and show you around Mexico City and Cancun. Take care friend!

Orderer: "I want to produce you some hot bikes." Chinese manufacturer: "Here you go."

As someone who flies Drones . Battery care is extremely important . I saw this coming hot or stressed batteries = TNT.

A few christmases ago, the top selling kids toy were “hoverboards”, the two wheeled skateboard but sideways contraptions that caused so many show-off adults to turn up at hospital with head and back injuries between christmas and the new year. These all had lithium batteries, and the social media channels were full of videos of kids screaming and running away from the two-wheeled inferno they had just been standing on.

Even the best quality cells can start a fire. It only takes one bad cell to lose capacity and then get too hot charging or discharging. To make it worse, almost all chargers do not balance the cells at all, never mind bringing the pack down to storage voltage when not in use.

That’s awesome. Good for you an your channel. Your doing something great for ppl an it’s getting info on a country most would not ever see

You guys should plug your independent channels more in The China Show

Ive never been afraid of flying but ever since the advent of so many electronic devices that may have chinese batteries in them i actually worry about fires breaking out in the luggage crates.

Li Ion batteries can explode if overcharged. Back in the 90s when they first started being used in phones the chargers had to be designed so as not to overcharge the phone, this was a safety critical part of the design. It wasn't long before Li Ion batteries started being manufactured with their own in built protection so the charging algorithm wasn't as critical. I suspect these fires are being caused by cheap batteries that have no overcharging protection.

I have always had a question about Lao WY and the moniker c-milk. It's funny another guy on the internet had the moniker Sewerzuk. He rebuilt heavy duty generators the military was surplusing. He has since changed his moniker. I think it meant something in Polish. Being raised on a dairy farm class c milk was spoiled and only used to feed hogs who greedily slopped it up with grain.

Don’t worry y’all, this is just them demonstrating the state of their economy for us👌👌

I think in general people need to do an audit of all the forgotten lithium batteries in their homes. Old phones, cameras, game controllers, powerbanks, wireless mice, random crappy IOT things etc. SO MANY things have lithium batteries in them. And even a tiny battery in something can burn your house down if it goes up. Will easily burn for long enough to catch plastic or whatever is around it on fire.

It's interesting to learn about e-bikes. I've never seen one, never knew this. Thanks for sharing

Thank you for your spotlitighting reports.

I think the most common issue with these would be that they are adding a circuit that allows for "super fast charging", but they are not adding anything to counteract the heat that comes with that "super fast charging". Lithium Ion batteries can get really hot. Especially the ones they would have used in scooters (higher amperage ones). The batteries get damaged over time from the lack of thermal protection, and then one day they go boom. They might appear to work fine at first, but eventually, without proper thermal protection, its not gonna be good.

I was hiking once in Florida and came across a large barren area in the woods. All I saw in it were thousands of what looked like plastic bottle caps. I examined some and realized they were car battery caps. It was an old battery dump, used to save money from forced recycling. The batteries had dissolved and only the stronger caps were left. Absolutely nothing was growing there. This was only a hundred yards from the Hillsborough River, the source of Tampa Bay Florida's drinking water. I've also seen many old car tires floating down the HR. People dumped them for the same reason, to save on the recycling fees.

Very informative, thank you so much

I'm a little bit nervous about these inexpensive "Portable Power Stations"/ so-called "Solar Generators" which contain Lithium batteries. About half of the ones I own are not the safe LifePo4 battery chemistry. They are Lithium NMC (which is still pretty safe). But all it takes is one little short circuit or something in a single battery cell and it results in an uncontained volatile fire. They are ALL made in China, by Chinese companies (and mostly in the Guangdong Province region). While I know they are safer than e-Bike Batteries, I still worry my house will burn down.

BYD cars are now being sold in my country, the commercials are so disgusting. People have no idea of the ticking time bombs they are buying. Very sad to see...

I live on the east coast of the United States. About a month ago my wonderful girlfriend took me on a cruise to the Bahamas. I’ve known for a long time that we’ve got it good in the United States. We visited Nassau on one of the stops. That was the first time that I have been out of the US. We did an excursion that wasn’t sanctioned by Carnival Cruiselines. I was legit concerned on making it back to port safely. Your videos and actually visiting another country in person has really brought things to light for me. I wish everyone could know the discomfort and fear that I felt. My lovely girlfriend didn’t understand the risk that we had put ourselves to. That life is something that an untold number of people cannot escape from. We are complacent in our blessings. God bless you all. Thanks for your work, SerpentZA.

In India, batteries and control units that were imported from China are causing havocs in EV Scooter markets. So much so that most of the companies that use those batteries are mostly cease to exist. There are quite a few reputed brands (Ather, TVS etc) which are still going strong, but their sales went down, even after being very reliable.

The beauty of storing a e-bike outside, preferably on top of cement, is that if something happens you at least have a decent chance that the whole chemical reaction can run it's full course isolated. In case of an unavoidable lithium battery reaction you want it to occur over cement which can take the abuse and stay structurally sound. This should be common sense.

Jacky Chans once advised, "If you want to buy a television, buy Japanese because those made in China will explode". The fact is this applies to E-bikes too.

You know the beauty of lead acid is it works below freezing it's more sustainable then lithium , and when it stops charging just put Distilled water in it.

We’ve had two big house fires in my city that were caused by charging e bikes. One person was killed. The problem is exacerbated by Deliveroo who incentivise poor migrants to acquire cheap home made e-bikes to deliver takeaway food. Most don’t even have working brakes!

This recently came up again in the media here in Australia. It's estimated that at least one E-Bike a week explodes every week in Melbourne. There are serious calls for new laws regarding them, especially quality control standards.

Well done. Haven't watched for a while. Seems similar things happen in fire. We all have to let go of trying to fix it, and let it go until we can come up with real 'green' solutions. We just seem to be making things worse due to our impatience to prove ourselves.

Jordan Petrson said that in China knives in your own homes are chained to the bench and people are microchipped and welding machines have facial recognition it allows you to use it.

"If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate it; if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Every government, everywhere.

It’s awesome how much your channel is growing! Nobody is talking about the issues you cover. Keep it up! Cheers from 🇺🇸

I'm in Phoenix Arizona and these last 12 months I've witnessed several very dark, black and large smoke plumes going up. I can't help but think it is something with a big battery.

One of the slickest ad moves I've seen ~~~

glad to see electric technology is saving the environment

The scariest thing about Lithium battery fire is: It can´t be put out easily. You literally need to bury it in sand or dirt, completely severing any access to air. Possible to do with your phone, harder to do with an e-bike and almost impossible to do with cars/busses/whatever else big.

lol at the people running around spraying fire extinguishers on Lithium Ion battery fires.

In recent years, lithium batteries have been widely used, and the fire problem of electric bicycles has also become serious. Previously, lead-acid batteries had almost no fire problems.

Considering Tesla’s are banned in many parts of China because of concern that they are spying, you should do an episode on the data that is collected and stored and shared by the various EV manufacturers. Apparently the Chinese EV manufacturers collect a lot more data than others.

A buddy of mine is a firefighter in Greater Toronto Area and he was explaining that in their trainings they submerge an EVs in a pool and that is still not enough to extinguish the fire, just barely enough to prevent everything around it to burn with it. High standards and quality control is very important.

I have a Jetson bolt scooter. Not sure if it's battery is properly equipped with regulators and everything but so far (almost a year) it's been fine. I never leave it plugged in though sometimes I may forget to unplug it if I had it overnight and go to work. No explosion yet! About those little cars though, it would be so cool to mod one with a motorcycle engine and transmission with a full size gas tank. That would probably get amazing gas mileage with good performance!

That's good news about the cars. It's unbelievable what's going on there. Thank you also for sharing all that is happening in China. A lot of people don't have a clue what is going on out there.

As a engineer in USA lots of companies in China don't use BMS system that's why they catch fire

Like Larry Burns commented on his ever increasingly strained relationship with his father: "it's falling apart like a Chinese motorcycle!"

Them spraying water on these types of fires is just the icing on the cake 👀😬

A couple years ago I was in a housefire caused by an e-bike myself, in switzerland. Heavy rainfalls had slightly flooded the basement where somebody had stored an electric scooter and it started a fire. It was contained to the basement though.

This is true. I burned my house down charging one of the Chinese lithium batteries. That was 6 years ago. I finally got over the PTSD and was charging a bike this summer and it started to explode but we caught it in time. All charger was properly being used.🤯

Thanks for informing us

Smooth delivery my man, caught me off guard.

I appreciate the use of the word "janky". It's one of my favorite words 😂

This is why I never leave the batteries plugged into in my cordless tools when not in use. I also never leave the batteries on the charger longer than necessary and I'm always nearby.