UL Certification FAQ
Safety is Rad Power Bike's top priority, for our bikes and across the industry. As America’s largest ebike brand, we have a responsibility to drive the entire ebike space forward for all riders. We’re supportive of greater regulatory requirements, like mandatory UL compliance, that will ensure all ebike brands are prioritizing rider safety, making ebikes even safer for all riders, while boosting ebike awareness.
Starting on 9/12/23, Rad Power Bikes will only produce ebikes that are certified to meet UL 2849 and 2271 standards, the highest available for battery safety. This means our bikes can be sold in New York City adhering to those regulations, and further signals our ebike’s electrical systems, charger, and batteries have been thoroughly assessed to ensure safe and high-quality components, battery cells, and battery management systems that meet or exceed requirements.
Q: What does UL compliant mean?
A: Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is a leading product safety and certification organization. The organization has three certifications that apply to ebikes, their electrical systems, and batteries:
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UL 2849: Ebike electrical systems
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UL 2271: Lithium Ion Ebike Batteries
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UL 62133: Portable battery safety
Q: What is the difference between UL compliant and UL listed?
A: UL compliant means that a third-party, UL approved lab has tested the product to meet or exceed UL’s standards. UL listed works with a UL lab and can bear the UL logo.
Q: Why is UL certification important for ebike safety?
A: UL certification has become the gold standard of safety compliance. Certifying and testing to the UL standard, as Rad Power Bikes does, ensures that ebike batteries are upheld to the highest standards of safety and have undergone rigorous testing.
UL certification ensures that batteries:
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Are fire resistant as well as resistant to other forms of damage.
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Have an airtight seal.
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Have a closure can hold up against impacts, direct heat, and light rain.
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Have wiring protected against accidental shorting.
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Have been tested to ensure they can endure overcharging, over-discharging, short-circuiting, and imbalance charging.
Q: Are Rad Power Bikes UL Certified?
A: Many current ebike models are UL compliant, including the RadWagon 4, RadCity 5 Plus, RadRover 6 Plus and RadRunner 3 Plus, and going forward Rad Power Bikes will only produce ebikes that are certified to meet UL 2849 and 2271 standards, the highest available for battery safety.
You can verify your battery is UL compliant one of the following ways:
- If your battery charger has an orange cord.
- If you received the battery in ship mode (semi-integrated batteries only).
- Battery model numbers RAD-S1304R and RAD-21304Y. You can find the model number on the safety label or bar code on the battery.
- Semi-integrated batteries
- External batteries
- Semi-integrated batteries
RadMission batteries and other legacy batteries have not been tested for UL compliance.
Q: Can I buy a battery that is UL compliant?
A: Any semi-integrated battery being sold individually meets UL compliance.
Most standard external batteries will meet UL compliance, however we do have batteries in our inventory that were produced by our venders that were not tested for compliance. While we know this is the minority of batteries, we are currently not set up to filter through this inventory, so we cannot guarantee that what will be shipped is considered UL compliant.
Take a look at the following battery articles for additional reading and advice: