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Home > Guides > Shipping e-bike batteries
Not with LetterAgent: its Canada-only Xpresspost labels are limited to 5 kg and do not cover dangerous goods. E-bike batteries almost never travel by ordinary parcel post. Most packs hold several hundred watt-hours, far above small-device thresholds, so they ship only as regulated dangerous goods by ground or through a specialist carrier.
Size. A laptop battery sits comfortably under the small-device threshold that passenger and parcel rules were written around; an e-bike pack holds several times that energy, in a housing designed to be swapped and carried. Air passenger rules cap batteries at about 100 watt-hours without special approval and forbid anything above roughly 160 entirely, which puts nearly every e-bike pack out of air travel and air freight alike. By road, lithium batteries this size are Class 9 dangerous goods: they need UN marking, proper packaging, a hazardous-goods declaration, and a carrier authorized to take them. The worry is thermal runaway, the chain reaction where one failing cell heats its neighbors, which is why damaged, swollen, or recalled batteries are refused outright by every legitimate carrier.
| Watt-hour band | What it covers | Shipping reality |
|---|---|---|
| Up to about 100 Wh | Phones, laptops, most power banks | Normal parcel rules with basic precautions |
| About 100 to 160 Wh | Some large tool batteries | Air travel only with airline approval; parcel carriers treat it as the ceiling |
| Above about 160 Wh | Nearly every e-bike pack | No passenger air; ground-only Class 9 dangerous goods with UN marking |
| Typical e-bike pack | Several hundred Wh (36 or 48 volt systems) | Specialist battery carrier or hazmat-certified ground service |
It is the battery's energy capacity: voltage times amp-hours. The rating must be printed on the outside of any battery manufactured after the end of 2011, so look for a label with a Wh figure, plus the voltage and capacity. If the label only shows milliamp-hours, divide by 1000 and multiply by the voltage to get watt-hours. Knowing your pack's rating matters because it decides which rule applies: below the thresholds you are shipping a battery, above them you are shipping dangerous goods, with everything that follows.
Start with the easy paths. If you bought the bike from a brand with retail stores, ask whether they exchange or ship replacement batteries themselves: manufacturers move batteries as dangerous goods every day and have the contracts for it. If you are selling a used pack locally, a local buyer who picks it up is simpler, safer, and cheaper than any carrier. For long-distance shipping, you need a carrier that accepts Class 9 dangerous goods by ground (some freight forwarders and battery-logistics specialists exist for exactly this), the battery packed in its original box or equivalent cushioning, terminals protected, and the state of charge reduced before shipping. Air rules now expect lithium-ion packs shipped alone to travel at no more than a small fraction of their rated capacity, and the same caution applies on the ground: a fully charged large pack is a riskier package.
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