Setting Consumer Standards for Lithium-Ion Batteries Act

The bill would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to promulgate, within 180 days of enactment, three existing voluntary safety standards — ANSI/CAN/UL 2271 (batteries for light electric vehicles), ANSI/CAN/UL 2849 (electrical systems for e-bikes), and ANSI/CAN/UL 2272 (electrical systems for personal e-mobility devices) — as mandatory federal consumer product safety rules. The CPSC would be required to limit the application of these standards to consumer products as defined under the Consumer Product Safety Act.

The bill also establishes a process for keeping the standards current: when the standards organizations revise any of the three standards, they must notify the CPSC, and the revision would automatically become binding 180 days later unless the CPSC affirmatively rejects it within 90 days. Separately, the CPSC would be required to report to Congress within five years on fires, explosions, and other hazards involving lithium-ion batteries in micromobility products, including battery make and model, compliance status, and country of manufacture.

Manufacturers and distributors of e-bikes, electric scooters, and other personal micromobility devices sold to consumers in the United States who would need to certify compliance with the three ANSI/CAN/UL standards. Consumers who purchase or ride these products — particularly urban residents in dense cities — would gain the protection of enforceable federal safety baselines. The CPSC would take on new rulemaking and reporting responsibilities.

Currently these ANSI/UL standards are voluntary, meaning manufacturers can ignore them without legal consequence. Making them mandatory would give the CPSC enforcement authority to remove non-compliant batteries from the market, potentially reducing the fires and explosions that have killed and injured riders and bystanders. The automatic-revision mechanism would keep federal standards current as battery technology evolves without requiring Congress to act again.

The CPSC must publish the three standards as final rules through the standard notice-and-comment process under 5 U.S.C. § 553 within 180 days of enactment. Once in force, the standards are treated as consumer product safety rules under section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act, triggering existing CPSC enforcement powers. The bill creates an ongoing update mechanism: standards organizations notify the CPSC of revisions; revisions take effect automatically after 180 days unless the CPSC objects within 90 days and publishes its rationale. Five years after enactment, the CPSC must submit a hazard-incident report to the relevant House and Senate committees.