Both EVs and eBikes Post Safety Risks: Is Your Condo Prepared?

Housz
Jul 3, 2025
5 min read

July 2025

We're hearing that more condos with shared garages are implementing safety procedures or restrictions to avoid electric vehicle or electric bike fires—in some communities, banning ebike parking and storage altogether.

Of course, the risk with each type of vehicle isn't the same. But we checked in with our experts to find out if their boards are implementing changes when it comes to safety against the risk of fire or explosion from either type of vehicle. It turns out that, despite these vehicles' growing popularity, safety questions remain unanswered.

New York City Has Taken the Lead

Perhaps because for a time it seemed to be a hub for fires caused by ebike batteries, a growing number of New York City condos have fully banned ebike storage in garages and units.

“In New York City, EVs aren't very common, but ebikes and escooters are,” reports Tina Larsson, LEED Green Associate and CEO of The Folson Group, who consults with and represents more than 100 co-op and condo associations in New York City.

“When it comes to ebikes, because there were some explosions, a lot of buildings implemented rules not allowing ebikes in the building—people aren't even allowed to walk an ebike through the building,” she explains. “That's very common. And while you typically store bikes in the basements in a bike storage area, those that have banned ebikes have eliminated that completely.”

Going south to Florida, Jonathan R. Zim, a partner who advises community associations at Eisinger Law in Hollywood, Fla., which represents 600-700 associations throughout the state, says the law in his state isn't clear on whether condos can keep owners from keeping an ebike in their unit.

“We do have clients who are interested in that,” he says. “I do think they can alleviate issues by creating a designated area for owners to store and charge them. I haven't seen the same issues arise with EVs.”

In Ohio, Robin Strohm, CCAL, a partner at Williams & Strohm LLC in Columbus, Ohio, who has represented condos and HOAs throughout Ohio for more than 20 years, hasn't had clients implementing bans on ebike storage. “I've heard generally there have been fires,” she explains. “Most of that would occur downtown here. We represent probably a half dozen or more condos downtown. I haven't had any boards approach us about banning them or limiting where they're stored.

“We do have clients who have EV charging stations,” adds Strohm. “One in particular has their own transformer that was installed by the electric company.

“We have a policy that we have boards use for EV charging stations, and we'll tailor those policies individually depending on how the association is configured and where the charging stations are,” she notes. “Most are in concrete parking garages, and there are policies on who can install them, what type of EV charger they can have, who's responsible for maintenance, and where those lines are run.”

Risks Might Be Amplified in a High-Rise Building

One of our experts says it's possible that, despite the benefit to the environment from EVs and ebikes, this might be a good time for your board to be extremely cautious to protect your building residents and your bottom line. Even if the risk of fire or explosions is low, with EVs especially, the damage can be massive in an enclosed, shared garage.

“I've seen very few clients impose restrictions, but those I've seen have chosen to ban ebikes until the technology is better,” reports Robert E. Ducharme, founder of Ducharme Law in Stratham, N.H., who specializes in representing community associations. “I just finished an hour-long continuing legal education course on EVs in community associations, and it was fascinating.

“With EVs or ebikes, people think, ‘Hey, this is really cool, and it might be environmentally friendly, so let's do it,'” says Ducharme. “But if there's a fire with an EV, it's not really a fire. It becomes a chemical cloud, and it can take months to dissipate. And if one of those goes up in a condo parking garage, that's a huge problem.

“The cloud could also go up to units above and on either side of the site of the incident,” he adds. “There have been cases where communities have had to evacuate whole floors for weeks at a time until the cloud dispersed, and the association has been sued for not monitoring the problem.”

There's science behind Ducharme's comments. The risk of EV fires is low, but those vapor clouds are real, according to Scientific American. That same report states, “A 2023 study in Finland showed that, mile for mile, they caught fire less often than gasoline cars. But when an EV does burn, the physics shift. You're no longer fighting a puddle of gasoline on asphalt; you're battling an energy-dense, metal-oxide battery that is determined to finish what it started.”

The National Fire Prevention Association Research Foundation says one risk from EVs is a “potential toxic gas release” and a “possible vapor cloud explosion.”

Questions to Ask to Ensure You're on Top of Risks

These could be a huge problem if your community is the site of an explosion and you have to clean up later. “You can have large associations with 1,000 or more condos, and firefighters in those areas can typically handle those types of emergencies,” says Ducharme. “But if your community is in a smaller town, do you have the ability to respond to contain the chemical elements to stop the spread?

“I'm all in favor of the environment, don't get me wrong,” he adds. “But I'm not sure we're doing anyone a favor if we're not thinking of the worst-case scenario and doing our due diligence to identify the risks. It seems to me like we're not there yet.

“If a client asked me about the risk of an EV or ebike fire, I'd tell them that they should first get proof from their local fire department that their team can handle that type of explosion or fire,” advises Ducharme. “I'd also recommend they check with their insurance company to make sure their insurer is going to cover them if a chemical cloud spreads through their building from one of these situations. Who's going to pay for your owners to live somewhere else for six months until those chemicals are cleaned up?”

“Then they should require that all installations have to be approved by the board and that all EV charging stations be installed only by certified installers,” he says.

“As a condo attorney, I don't think these risks are worth it,” he says. “My preference would be that condos have no EV charging stations and no ebike parking until we've successfully done this for about 20 years—until we understand the amount of damage they can do and how to deal with things like toxic clouds.”

Reposted from HOALeader.com

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