E-bike battery ferrying ban worries Shanghai island residents
Shanghai's Hengsha Island from afar
Hengsha Island pinned on a map.
Hengsha Island in Shanghai's Chongming District, is the city's only area that is accessible by ferry. Its 33,000-odd residents rely heavily on electric bikes.
However, now they have a problem buying or replacing batteries of e-bikes after a national regulation was enforced in late-August, effectively banning ferries from transporting lead-acid batteries.
As a result, the seven e-bike repair shops on the island quickly ran out of battery supplies.
Residents on the island rely heavily on e-bikes. Approximately 14,000 e-bikes are owned by the island's 33,000-odd residents.
Earlier, the shop owners used to replenish their battery stock every one or two weeks, each time bringing in 10 to 60 sets of batteries by ferry.
One of the e-bike repair shops on the island.
The trigger for the decision was an August 20 incident, when a passenger carried an e-bike lead-acid battery onto a bus in Nanjing City, neighboring Jiangsu Province. Due to the heat and humidity, the battery ignited and blew up, killing two people and injuring five others.
Following which, Changheng Duijiang Ferry Co, the Hengsha Island ferry service operator, banned the transporting of lithium and lead-acid batteries on its ferries in line with the national regulation.
The impact of the sudden change has been huge.
A lot of customers have come to the shop but we don't have any batteries in stock, according to a shop owner surnamed Wu.
Another owner Xu hoped that the ferry operator would allow batteries to be transported on the ferry again. Otherwise, an increasing number of residents will have trouble going about their daily lives on the island.
It's not only new batteries that can't be transported to the island, damaged batteries are also stuck on the island. One e-bike repair shop owner has about 200 damaged batteries sitting in his shop, while there are only three new sets of batteries.
China's Ministry of Transport specified in May 2020 that batteries with acid or lye are deemed as dangerous items, which cannot be transported on ships.
A ferry staff member also made it clear that they deny passengers who carry multiple e-bike batteries.
One of the ferries that transport passengers and vehicles back and forth.
If batteries on the ferries were to have a leak, it will certainly pollute the island's environment, according to Zhu Jiang, an official with the Hengsha County government.
Possible solutions are being worked out by multiple parties to ensure residents' life can get back on track, with Chongming District authorities on Thursday pondering whether ships can be leased to only transport batteries at fixed times. More details will be released after consulting with locals.
