[akgerber]

I don't think there has been any sort of reliable survey on the quantity of ebikes in NYC, and 65,000 is likely to be extremely low. There is no registration or point-of-sale reporting requirement.

There are also large quantities of unregistered electric and gasoline mopeds and motorcycles, many of which are also labeled as ebikes by either their manufacturers/importers or public authorities when involved in an incident.

One can purchase custom-made ebike batteries in NYC from shops similar to the one in this article, often with substantially worse finishing/packaging quality and unknown BMS quality. And said batteries are often run hard in delivery service in 4-season conditions, including exposure to temperatures well below freezing and salty slush spray, then charged via chargers and cords of unknown quality plugged into what are often pre-WWII electrical systems.

The FDNY is appropriately raiding custom battery shops in NYC, since there doesn't seem to be an appropriate regulatory system yet for custom-manufacturing this sort of energy storage device in a dense urban environment yet: https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2024/02/09/queens-biz-...