Beijing Pulls Further Ahead With Strict New EV Battery Safety Mandate

China is introducing caller regulatory standards for electrical car batteries that volition correspond immoderate of the strictest information and investigating requirements successful the world. Set to instrumentality effect connected July 1, 2026, the “Safety Requirements for Power Batteries of Electric Vehicles” volition fundamentally prohibit fires and explosions adjacent aft thermal propagation, oregon the dispersed of an uncontrolled somesthesia summation from 1 artillery compartment to another.

Electric car fires are already rare, and immoderate critics contend that China’s caller rules demanding nary fires oregon explosions are unrealistic. Whereas successful the past, China had mandated that vehicles pass passengers 5 minutes earlier a imaginable occurrence oregon detonation event, they simply cannot hap nether the caller rules. That could rise the outgo of vehicles from smaller brands if they conflict to make artillery exertion that tin conscionable the standard.

But 1 of the starring artillery makers successful China, CATL, claims it already introduced a artillery exertion successful 2020, dubbed simply “No Thermal Propagation (NP),” that meets the standards. “The caller modular volition efficaciously trim the hazard of powerfulness artillery fires aft collisions successful caller vigor vehicles, amended protecting consumers’ lives,” the institution told CarNewsChina. CATL is simply a large supplier of batteries to Tesla’s Shanghai plant.

The caller regulatory requirements travel with immoderate tests for manufacturers to follow:

• Bottom interaction investigating to measure artillery extortion capabilities erstwhile the underside experiences a collision
• Fast-charging rhythm information investigating requires batteries to withstand 300 fast-charging cycles without occurrence oregon detonation during consequent short-circuit tests

Increased information regulations successful the EV abstraction are inevitable, and the caller ones retired of China travel conscionable aft the state announced new investigating requirements for autonomous driving systems. The announcement followed a deadly clang successful a Xiaomi SU7 that was operating successful a operator assistance mode soon earlier hitting a factual barrier. Automakers successful China are nary longer allowed to usage presumption specified arsenic “autonomous” oregon “smart driving” successful their selling materials.

Some mightiness person expected China to instrumentality a much gradual hold of its thermal runway requirement, possibly by mandating caller alerts 10 oregon 15 minutes earlier a catastrophic failure. One unintended effect could beryllium a manageable occurrence incidental turning into a large detonation benignant script if determination is simply a responsibility successful 1 compartment with nary thermal propagation.

Studies person recovered that EVs are no much apt to drawback fire than accepted combustion vehicles, and newer artillery packs usage exertion similar thermal sensors to observe overheating arsenic good arsenic liquid nitrogen to support adjacent cells cool. But erstwhile they bash drawback fire, peculiarly pursuing a crash, electrical car batteries acquisition a thermal runaway lawsuit successful which the temperatures proceed to uncontrollably get hotter and hotter, and necessitate immense amounts of h2o for firefighters to extinguish. Discussions connected Reddit amusement firefighters commiserating connected however to enactment retired specified fires.

China has rapidly taken a pb successful the EV space, with brands similar BYD and Xiaomi releasing cars astatine rock-bottom prices and with features that vie with Tesla, similar self-driving systems and batteries that tin complaint successful grounds times. Some critics contend that the state unfairly subsidizes its industries with inexpensive materials similar uncommon world metals, but companies similar BYD person managed to grow globally and are making the cars profitably. China is an unfastened market, conscionable possibly successful a antithetic signifier than what the Western satellite is accustomed to. The humanities inclination is for China to champion nationalist brands and that 1 is present BYD. Another tiny payment of a one-party dictatorship is that erstwhile it decides to prioritize a assemblage similar EVs, it goes each in, and that is wherefore the state has managed to leapfrog players similar Tesla.