CATL’s energy-dense Qilin battery has become the first in the industry to comply with China’s upgraded safety standards for electric vehicle batteries nationwide to be enforced from July 1, 2026. This means CATL’s battery cannot catch fire or explode within two hours of an accident in most cases. The Chinese battery giant made the announcement on April 29, saying its batteries with nickel-manganese-cobalt cathodes recently passed tests conducted by the China Automotie Technology and Research Center Co.,Ltd (CATARC) in accordance with the new “electric vehicles traction battery safety requirements” (GB 38031-2025). The new rules require companies to ensure their batteries will not catch fire or explode in the first two hours after a thermal runaway event, something which usually occurs when the battery is breached or short circuits. This is a significant improvement on the five minutes specified in a current version of China’s safety rules dating from 2020. The new requirements were drafted by dozens of entities including CATL, CATARC, and BYD. International automakers including Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen were also involved. [TechNode reporting, CATL announcement, in Chinese]
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