Battery blasts spark crackdown in China

Fires and explosions triggered by batteries undergoing catastrophic thermal runaway could be a thing of the past thanks to radical new safety regulations introduced in China.

It is understood that a high-profile crash in China involving a Xiaomi SU7 passenger car that saw three female university students burn to death after the sports sedan suddenly caught fire after an impact triggered the stricter testing and incoming rules, which are aimed at ending battery fires and explosions.

While the investigation is still ongoing it is thought legislators needed to act swiftly to alleviate public fears and concerns over so-called spontaneous combustion risks linked to EVs.

Announced by the China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the new safety regulations that every battery-maker in the nation must abide have shocked the EV industry and go well beyond any current global safety regulations.

In force from July 1, 2026, the MIIT regs governing batteries are effectively designed to prevent fire and explosions, usually caused by their power packs after internal thermal runaway occurs – which is when they get too hot.

China's MIIT plans to enforce the new regulations via a series of exhaustive testing designed to unearth any weaknesses in battery design.

Previously, Chinese regulations only demanded car-maker's broadcast an onboard warning signal to drivers five minutes before a fire or explosion was about to occur – but now that is deemed wholly insufficient.

Instead, from 2026 all power packs made in China must undergo impact testing on the underside of the cells to assess the casing's protection capabilities.

Every battery must also be able to withstand 300 individual DC fast-charging cycles without fire or explosion or any sign of short circuiting.

Welcoming the stricter testing and regulations governing battery safety Chinese battery manufacturer, CATL said it has already developed batteries that meet the new standards and first rolled out its No Thermal Propagation (NP) tech back in 2020 that effectively reduced the risk for fire or explosions linked to thermal runaway.

"The new standard will effectively reduce the risk of power battery fires after collisions in new energy vehicles, better protecting consumers’ lives,” reads the CATL press statement.

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