Fire brigades across the UK are tackling lithium-ion battery fires at a rate of one every five hours, figures show, as fire chiefs warn that public awareness and government regulation have not kept pace with the ubiquity of this new hazard.

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…