As well as being the largest market in the world for electric vehicles, China is also widely recognised as having some of the most stringent and comprehensive legal requirements on electric vehicle safety in the world. However, to ensure that their legal requirements kept pace with the latest developments in electric vehicle technology, almost three years ago, the Chinese Authorities began an exercise to significantly revise and update their GB Standards on both electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries.
The Committees responsible for drafting the new requirements took into account experience gained from applying the existing Chinese standards, new developments in the field of electric vehicle technology and, wherever possible, attempted to align their new requirements with those specified in United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) Global Technical Regulation (GTR) No. 20 on electric vehicle safety.
The work of these Committees resulted in the development of three new GB standards:
GB 38031-2020 -Electric Vehicles Traction Battery Safety Requirements
This new standard specifies safety requirements for electric vehicle battery cells, battery packs and battery systems, and replaces GB/T 31485-2015 on safety requirements and test methods for traction battery of electric vehicle and GB/T 31467.3-2015 on lithium-ion traction battery pack and system for electric vehicles -Part 3 -safety requirements and test methods.
Compared to the GB/T standards it replaces, the main changes introduced by this new GB standard can be summarised as follows:
- Revisions to the test procedures for crush and overcharge protection applied to battery cells.
- Deletion of the drop test, nail penetration test, seawater immersion test and low air pressure test applied to battery cells.
- Deletion of all tests applied to battery modules.
- Revisions to the test procedures for vibration, mechanical shock, crush, thermal humidity cycling, water immersion, temperature shock and salt spray applied to battery packs.
- Introduction of new tests for over current protection and thermal propagation applied to battery packs.
- Deletion of the drop test and flip test applied to battery packs.
GB 18384-2020 -Electric Vehicles Safety Requirements
This new standard specifies safety requirements for electric road vehicles and replaces GB/T 18384.1-2015, GB/T 18384.2-2015 and GB/T 18384.3-2015 on electrically propelled vehicles -safety specifications.
Compared to the GB/T standards it replaces, the main changes introduced by this new GB standard can be summarised as follows:
- Revisions to the requirements on isolation resistance monitoring systems to mandate the fitment of such systems on all electric vehicles.
- Revisions to the test procedures for isolation resistance and water resistance.
- Introduction of new requirements on thermal event warning.
GB 38032-2020 -Electric Bus Safety Requirements
This new standard specifies safety requirements for electric and hybrid electric buses of categories M2 and M3. The requirements specified in this standard are applicable to M2 and M3 category vehicles in addition to the requirements specified in GB 18384-2020.
This new standard includes specific requirements and test procedures for water resistance, fire resistance, thermal runaway, control system operation, battery charging and crash protection.
With regard to introduction dates, compliance with all three of these new standards becomes mandatory for new types of vehicle from January 1, 2021 and for all new vehicles from February 1, 2022.