Old TVs were easy and safe to repair after some minimal training. I learned to do it from a pro when I was 16. As long as you properly discharge the tube and the bigger caps, it's safe to work on.
Battery packs are much worse because they cannot be completely discharged before you work on them, i.e. you have to work on them "hot" while they're still storing energy. It takes more training, more tools, and a dedicated facility to do it safely.
And when they go they make your average TV failure look like a picnic. Though, to be fair, an old tube could do some pretty bad stuff if mechanically damaged.
And I guess the TV tube was also more likely to just kill the person working on it, not random people who live in your building. (Still not a great outcome, but better if the only person who dies is the only person who actively consented to the risks.) A lithium fire is gonna spread pretty quickly.
Quite. The hard part is to realize - up front, hopefully - that all of your normal firefighting instincts aren't going to work and have a good chance of making things worse.
Yes, it is clear they are arguing for their own book. But they do have a point: as currently shipped these packs are dangerous. But I would expand that to 'dangerous to use', and not just 'dangerous to repair'.
But they could make them less dangerous, they could also make them much less dangerous to repair. But with a pack costing roughly 1 euro / Wh they are stupendously overpriced and a major source of revenue. And most bikes have one or more pack replacements during their lifespan. So it's clear why they would want you to buy another, at the same time they are playing the safety card for disingenuous reasons.
A safe to repair pack would have cell modules that could be replaced individually and with sense wires that are bonded to the case in such a way that they can never end up crossed and squashed.
The problem is that by making them repairable they open themselves up to legal liability.
A phone battery goes bad... it's a few ounces of solvent to burn. An ebike battery goes bad, and it's going to be near impossible for it not to take the structure with it. That's a massive liability.
You can buy replacement batteries on amazon for phones and powertools. You don't know where they come from, and I avoid them for this reason. I've seen batteries from reputable companies combust just sitting on a shelf. The idea that any company would sanction anyone to buy shady grey market and use them with their product puts them in the path of unavoidable financial ruin.
Pretty much all liability laws include various forms of "the manufacturer is not liable if the fault happened because the customer (or some repair shop) messed around with the item". It's already the kind of thing which people do frequently, arguably the lack of proper spare parts and documentation makes this more dangerous, not less.
So we had a solution: TV repair men!
The issue isn't so much that consumers can't fix these things. The issue is that even skilled technicians can't.
Manufacturers are saying, rightfully, "Its too dangerous for consumers to repair"
But they are also saying, wrongfully, "Therefore only we can repair it!"
They are creating a false dichotomy so they can corner repairs.