BETHESDA, Md. (BRAIN) — The Consumer Product Safety Commission's e-mobility device and lithium-ion battery testing standards proposal finally is available for review and comment, more than a year after approval by a commission that's since been dismantled and a new procedure created by executive order that contributed to the delay.
The proposal to require e-bikes and other e-mobility devices to meet modified UL testing standards — while not also recognizing European standards that some brands use — will be listed in the Federal Register until Aug. 24. If finalized and depending on the comments received and any drafting of changes, promulgation could be delayed before the final rule is issued.
"Two things worth considering," said Alexander Hoehn-Saric, one of three commissioners who were fired in May 2025 for objecting to agency staff cuts and also a critic to the new procedure, in an email to BRAIN. "First, CPSC could have been at a final rule stage if the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) had not been pulled from the Federal Register and sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. That delayed the process by nine months. Second, until there is a quorum, any final rule issued by the CPSC is legally suspect and will likely be challenged in court. Even the issuance of the NPR raises legal questions, and the CPSC may want to reissue the NPR again once there is a quorum."
The White House previously submitted candidates for the four open commissioner seats with Senate confirmations still needed. The published proposal says the commission, which currently consists of only Acting Chairman Peter A. Feldman following the firings and the resignation of the other, could establish an effective date for the rule later than the proposed 180 days to give manufacturers more time to redesign products and spread research and development costs over a longer period of time.
On April 30, 2025, the CPSC voted 3-2 on the testing standards, which are now published unchanged:
UL 2849-20 (Standard for Safety for Electrical Systems for E-bikes), UL 2271-23 (Standard for Safety for Batteries for Use in Light Electric Vehicle Applications), and UL 2272-24 (Standard for Safety for Electrical Systems for Personal E-Mobility Devices) are proposed with the following modifications:
- "Adding to UL 2849-20 and UL 2271-23 tamper-resistant battery enclosure requirements from UL 2272-24 to reduce the risk of injury associated with consumers accessing the battery pack.
- "Adding to UL 2849-20 and UL 2271-23 post-discharge charge test requirements from UL 2272-24 to reduce the risk of injury by ensuring that the battery management system prohibits charging the battery if the cell surface temperature exceeds the specified upper limit.
- "Adding to UL 2849-20, UL 2272-24, and UL 2271-23, a reverse polarity test to reduce the risk of injury by preventing damage to the battery pack due to use of an incompatible charger."
The two dissenting commissioners from the 2025 vote — Feldman and Douglas Dziak, who resigned in August — said the proposal should be submitted to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs before public comment to ensure compliance with the new interagency review process established by a President Trump executive order. The formal interagency review process is coordinated through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
The OIRA, part of the OMB, reviews regulations, helping the president evaluate them. Feldman said ignoring the new regulatory process places proposed rulemaking at legal risk and encourages congressional disapproval. The proposal was submitted to the OIRA for review last fall.
After the commissioners' firings, which also included Mary T. Boyle, and Richard Trumka Jr., nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen filed a lawsuit on behalf of the trio. However, last July, the Supreme Court overturned a federal judge's ruling reinstating them. The case is now in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. However, as Hoehn-Saric noted to BRAIN, it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court's opinion issued Monday in the Trump v. Slaughter case granting the president authority over two dozen multi-member federal agencies will impact the appeal.
