Question of the day:
Question of the day: The following question has reached us: Can you transport my private eMountainbike lithium ion battery (700 Wh / 36 Volt Lithium-Ion battery with dimensions approx. 6x9x50 cm and approx. 3.6 Kg) to Auckland / New Zealand? The safety data sheet and the bill for the MTB incl. battery can be presented. Can I do this by air freight or only by sea?
Question of the day:
The following question has reached us:
Can you transport my private eMountainbike lithium ion battery (700 Wh / 36 Volt Lithium-Ion battery with dimensions approx. 6x9x50 cm and approx. 3.6 Kg) to Auckland / New Zealand? The safety data sheet and the bill for the MTB incl. battery can be presented.
Can I do this by air freight or only by sea?
Our answer:
Lithium battery service is not itself a forwarding agency. And we do not offer packaging services either.
We advise on how this can be done in compliance with regulations.
The cheapest for you will be to you ask the bicycle manufacturer to help you ship the battery. The manufacturer has the correct approved packaging for the battery and the appropriately trained personnel allowed to pack the battery and to mark and label the packaging. And to draw up the IMO declaration for sea transport.
Perhaps the bicycle manufacturer can also organise the shipment by sea with its own forwarding agents.
If this is not possible, you can use the search engine to find packaging service providers who will prepare the lithium-ion battery for shipping and prepare the IMO declaration for you.
The search terms would be: Packaging service provider dangerous goods and the name of a city near you
The packaging service provider can then certainly recommend a sea freight forwarding company, which organises the transport of your battery.
Unfortunately air transport to New Zealand is not possible at the moment. Here really only sea transport is possible.
Supplier inquery:
However what the packaging service provider and the forwarder want to see from you in advance is a document confirming the legal transport requirements (e.g. the manufacture of the battery according to the quality management program and the declaration of conformity with the passed UN test 38.3).
Ask the bicycle dealer or the battery manufacturer to fill it in or ask for a manufacturer's product data sheet with this information.
Here is the link to the supplier inquiry in German and English :
https://www.lithium-batterie-service.de/en/downloads-guest
From 01. January 2020 onwards a UN 38.3 Test Summary needs to be provided by the manufacturer and any subsequent supplier on request. We have included all required details of the UN 38.3 Test Summary in our Supplier Inquiry Form.
What the quality management program includes, you can find here:
https://www.lithium-batterie-service.de/en/quality-management-program
The latest when a lithium cell or lithium battery is sold to end users, the UN test series 38.3 must have been successfully passed.
The UN test series 38.3 includes the following:
https://www.lithium-batterie-service.de/en/un-38.3-test-series
We got the comment from one of our blog readers that shipping a whole eBike shouldn´t be a problem as cargo.
That´s correct. This would be shipped under UN 3171.
But most airlines prohibit the carriage of eBikes in passenger baggage.
The eBike without the battery can be carried as checked baggage and this most often at a good price.
That´s why the original question was not about the eBike but about the lithium ion battery alone.
Of course when shipping an eBike as cargo e.g. the manufacture according to QM Programm and the successfully passed UN Test Series 38.3 need also be confirmed.
