E-moped recalled after London Fire Brigade traced an underground car park fire to its battery

The Office for Product Safety and Standards issued a recall on 2 July 2026 for the UNU E-Moped / Scooter Classic, reference 2606-0200, after an investigation by London Fire Brigade.

How it came to light

A fire broke out in an underground car park in Kensal Town in March 2025. The e-moped was not charging at the time — it was parked and unplugged. Brigade fire investigators established that a defective battery could cause the product to overheat and enter thermal runaway.

In the course of the investigation they found that the manufacturer had already recalled the product in Europe but not in the United Kingdom. They notified OPSS, and the UK recall followed.

Why this one matters beyond the product

Two things make this case worth more than a recall notice.

The first is that the device was not charging. Much of the guidance circulating on e-mobility fire risk concentrates on charging behaviour — do not charge overnight, do not charge on an escape route. That advice is sound and incomplete. A battery in thermal runaway does not require a charger, which means storage location is a fire safety question in its own right, not only a charging question.

The second is where it happened. An underground car park beneath a residential building is a compartment, and whether it is adequately separated from the dwellings above is a compartmentation question that a fire risk assessment should already be asking. A car park fire that breaches into a building operating a stay-put strategy is precisely the scenario that strategy cannot absorb.

What responsible persons should do

Check whether the product is present. Beyond that, treat the case as a prompt to look at where residents actually store and charge e-mobility devices, as distinct from where the building's rules say they may — and at whether the car park's separation from the residential accommodation has been verified rather than assumed.