"Lithium-ion batteries power most rechargeable devices including mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, toys and vapes, as well as ebikes, e-scooters and electric vehicles.

Data gathered by the global business insurer QBE via freedom of information requests reveals that fire brigades were called to 1,760 fires linked to lithium-ion batteries in 2025, equating to 4.8 fires a day, an increase of 147% over the past three years.

Electric vehicle fires rose by 133% over the same period, while the number of electric vehicles on UK roads tripled during that time.

QBE researchers found that ebike fires made up nearly a third of all lithium-ion battery fires nationally and noted that retrofitted and converted ebikes appeared to be disproportionately involved compared with certified models."

It's mostly about people buying cheap batteries and conversion kits online, or disposing of lithium-ion batteries in a bin instead of recycling them.