China will be tightening regulations for electric vehicle batteries with a set of newly-introduced technical standards for these batteries with the aim of reducing the risk of fire or explosions, reported Car News China.
The Chinese ministry of industry and information technology (MIIT) has announced mandatory national safety standards, named the GB38031-2025 Safety Requirements for Power Batteries of Electric Vehicles which will take effect on July 1, 2026.
This is to be the first EV battery standard requiring batteries to prevent fire and explosion even after internal thermal runaway has occurred, and the most significant change in the safety standard is the requirement for thermal diffusion, according to Car New China.
The updated regulations will replace the outgoing standard where a warning was only required five minutes before a fire or explosion occurs. Now, the regulations also require that any smoke emitted must not harm the vehicle’s occupants, in addition to the batteries not catching fire or exploding even during thermal runaway.
Also introduced with the updated safety standards are bottom impact testing to evaluate the vehicle’s battery protection capabilities, as well as the ability to withstand 300 fast-charging cycles without fire or explosion during short-circuit tests. Car News China cites battery manufacturer CATL as saying that its first-generation no-thermal-propagation technology has been in production since 2020.
This announcement by the Chinese ministry of industry and information technology comes after a high-profile incident involving a Xiaomi SU7 resulted in three deaths. The vehicle was reportedly in autonomous operation when the incident occurred.
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Malaysian government should look into this standard and set requirements of imported EV to comply with this standard. That’s a new progress in EV fire safety… I m impressed with what China is doing by leading safety of EV thru this standard.. I m curious if Tesla will fulfill this standard
Next, they will impose new rule. “Cannot feel hungry when not eating.”
this article title is akin to saying “battery cannot catch on fire after fire” better line up with the article’s “internal thermal runaway”
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thermal runawaw cannot be contained as the chemicals that breakdown are in a “exothermic” reaction…and create excess heat and fire is the result…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKE1IA8mRwo
This will push NMC batteries out,LFP as well as upcoming sodium batteries will replace Nickel based chemistry in future ev’s
So, what to do with existing millions ev on the road?
So China is trying to defy physics via tighter regulations? If physics cannot comply it will face the firing squad.