An e-bike caught fire, on average, every two days in London in 2023. In total, London Fire Brigade attended 143 e-bike fires and 36 blazes involving e-scooters, up 78 per cent on the previous year, which left three people dead and around 60 injured.

The cause of these fires is often due to incompatible chargers, modifications or faulty or counterfeit products, such as lithium batteries, which are purchased online. They can spread quickly out of control and, because many people charge batteries or store e-bikes in communal areas, block people’s ability to escape.

In fact, the London Fire Brigade now describes lithium-ion battery fires as the fastest emerging and growing fire risk in the capital. Such is the concern that at least 16 train operators have banned e-scooters on their trains and in their stations.

Electrical Safety First is a charity with a mandate to reduce the number of deaths and accidents caused by electricity every year. E-bikes are top of its agenda.

The charity has a four-pronged ambition to become the leading voice for solutions to prevent e-bike fires, to pressure the government to prevent dangerous e-bike batteries and chargers flooding the market, to raise consumer awareness of the dangers and to engage reputable manufacturers to support its campaign.

Its approach to achieving these four goals started with a 60-page report Battery Breakdown, described as the world’s most comprehensive report on dangers associated with the lithium batteries that power e-bikes. This revealed that many of the fires were actually linked to conversion kits which convert a manual pedal bike into an e-bike.

Electrical Safety First identified mainstream British media as the best way to engage its target audience, with a particular focus on broadcast, such as BBC Breakfast, Sky News, ITV Lunchtime News.

The charity also wanted support from fire and rescue services, politicians and policymakers to drive legislative change. It created digital content, such as infographics and videos, that they could share to drive awareness further.

To ensure that each of its four priorities received maximum exposure, Electrical Safety First took a staggered approach. The first phase tackled the need for better regulation. Phase two highlighted the dangers of using incompatible chargers. And phase three launched on the anniversary of a tragic e-bike case study, in which a father shared the story of how he lost his partner and two children.

The charity started by sourcing real life case studies of families affected by e-bikes to speak about their experiences. It also commissioned and filmed laboratory research of an e-bike exploding, which graphically demonstrated the power of a lithium battery, which contains about the same explosive clout as six grenades.

A large bank of graphics to support key statistics and data as well as animations that explained the science of thermal runaway, the chemical reaction that causes fires. And finally, there was advice on how to stay safe when using e-bikes and e-scooters.

The campaign exceeded all expectations, generating almost 1,000 pieces of media coverage, while the report was downloaded more than 5,000 times. Phase three was the number one most read story on the Guardian website on the day it launched.

Electrical Safety First secured 116 backlinks to its campaign website, including high domain sites such as the BBC and Daily Mail, which built its ranking on key search terms. Sky News carried its test lab footage in two television broadcast pieces, its online report, YouTube channel and two TikTok videos, achieving in excess of half a million views.

The judges said the campaign had ‘far outstripped expectations’, describing more than 5,000 downloads of the report as ‘remarkable for a technical publication’ and highlighting the significant boost to Electrical Safety First’s brand recognition. ‘An amazing campaign that was integrated across all channels, and delivered way beyond expectations,’ they concluded.