New safety standard for electric vehicles in China

On January 1st, 2021, a new standard on safety requirements on electric vehicles in China will come into force. 

The Chinese SAC (Standardization Administration of the People’s Republic of China) has announced that a standard regarding the electrical and functional safety requirements for electric vehicles in China, namely GB 18384-2020, will come into force on January 1st, 2021. The standard will replace existing standards and will apply to all electric vehicles in China. 

According to SAC the new standard will replace the following three standards: 

• GB/T 18384.1-2015 “Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 1: On-board rechargeable energy storage system (REESS)” 
• GB/T 18384.2-2015 2015 “Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 2: Vehicle operational safety means and protection against failures” 
• GB/T 18384.3-2015 “Electrically propelled road vehicles – Safety specifications – Part 3: Protection of persons against electric shock“ 

The new standard defines safety function testing of electric vehicles, the mandatory testing for new types of electric vehicles as well as the inspection of imported vehicles. The standard is based on the international standard UN GTR No.20, while also taking into account related Chinese specifities. The additions and changes to the previous standards include for example: 

• Addition of alarm signal requirements for thermal malfunction events in the battery system 
• Tightening of vehicles’ waterproof, insulation resistance and monitoring requirements 
• Optimization of insulation resistance, capacitive coupling, and other test methods