MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BRAIN) — A woman filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Rad Power Bikes and an authorized dealer in Florida after one of the brand's e-bikes ignited in her garage and killed her husband.
The lawsuit officially lists as a defendent New Summit Collective Inc., which was Rad Power's parent company before the brand was acquired by Life Electric Vehicles Holdings Inc. in March through bankruptcy proceedings.
Shannon Stephens filed the lawsuit in District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division on April 28. It asks for a jury trial and alleges that on Jan. 3, 2025, the e-bike caught fire at the home in Andalusia, Alabama, in the early morning hours while the couple was asleep. While Shannon was injured, she escaped but husband Dr. Keith Stephens did not.
According to the lawsuit, the e-bike was defective, and "in its aggressive push for a greater share of the e-bike market, Rad Power Bikes knowingly released into the stream of commerce a product powered by unstable lithium-ion battery technology known to trigger thermal runaway events."
Located in Pensacola, Florida, retailer The Cycle Joint Inc. is named as a defendant because it assembled the e-bike. The shop serves customers in the Alabama-Florida border region.
The Stephens' son, Clay, purchased the e-bike as a Christmas gift for Keith and brought the sealed box to his parents' home. On Dec. 31, Keith dropped off the unopened box to The Cycle Joint for assembly. Keith Stephens, a Ph.D chemist and environmental manager at PowerSouth, used the bike as Rad Power instructed and charged it indoors using a grounded outlet that had no history of malfunction or overload, according to the lawsuit.
A fire investigator said the blaze originated from the e-bike's battery pack, the lawsuit states. Additionally, "a nationally recognized battery expert has conducted an evaluation of the e-bike battery pack and determined it to be defectively designed. Had Rad Power Bikes incorporated appropriate and available design features, the fire — which originated from the e-bike battery pack — would more likely than not have been contained within the battery pack and prevented from spreading. This event was foreseeable. More importantly, it was preventable," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit cited two other suits filed against Rad Power: by Anthony Reyna and State Farm Insurance Company. Reyna reached a settlement last year after alleging his Rad Runner Plus e-bike caused him to fall and sustain injuries and damage property. The State Farm suit settlement was reached in 2024 on behalf of an insured homeowner client who suffered property damage after his e-bike caught fire.
Less than a month before filing for bankruptcy, Rad Power said it could not afford a recall on some of its older lithium-ion batteries that the Consumer Product Safety Commission declared unsafe. The CPSC issued the warning because it said some batteries can unexpectedly ignite and explode, especially when the battery or harness has been exposed to water and debris. Rad Power Bikes did not agree to "an acceptable recall," according to the CPSC, and the brand told the agency that given its financial situation, it can't offer replacement batteries or refunds to consumers.
New owner Life EV has said in March it will address that issue by implementing a program to replace the approximate 120,000 recalled batteries at 50% discount. The recall involved mostly older batteries before Rad Power obtained UL certification for its Safe Shield-branded battery, which features a special resin coating around the cells to mitigate thermal runaway.
