Draft UN legislation on EV battery durability
The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29), hosted by UNECE, endorsed a Proposal for a new UN GTR on In-vehicle Battery Durability for Electrified Vehicles
The draft Global Technical Regulation provides a worldwide harmonized method to set and verify minimum performance requirements on in-vehicle battery durability of Pure Electric Vehicles (PEVs) and Off-vehicle Charging Hybrid Electric Vehicles (OVC-HEVs).
Until now, consumers have been unable to access reliable information on how well vehicle batteries will perform over time, which caused doubts on the sustainability of their investment.
The proposal for a new legal instrument to ensure minimum durability of batteries fitted in full electric and plug-in hybrid cars, endorsed by WP.29, is a potential solution to this problem. It marks the first international effort, supported by Canada, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and the European Union to regulate the issue of battery degradation.
The new provisions, developed as a UN Global Technical Regulation (GTR), will require manufacturers to certify that the batteries fitted in their electric vehicles (EVs) will lose less than 20% of their initial capacity over 5 years or 100,000 kms and less than 30% over 8 years or 160,000 kms.
This would prevent the use of low-quality batteries, ensuring that only durable batteries are installed in EVs.
Each vehicle will have to report its own battery health status to the relevant national or regional authorities, via over-the-air data transmission or other means to be determined depending on local conditions.
The agreed proposal will be put to a vote at the WP.29 session of March 2022. Countries voting in favour of the new legal text will need to transpose it into their national/regional legislation with a dedicated timeline of entry into force of the new regime, which could come as early as 2023.