China’s first safety standard about EV battery swap approved by national standard authority

The Safety Requirements of Battery Swap for Electric Vehicles (called “the Requirements” for short), a national voluntary standard jointly hammered out by such companies and institutions as BAIC BJEV, NIO and China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATARC), has been approved by the National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization (NTCAS). It will serve as the guidance for the safe and sound development of the battery swapping business.

According to the Requirements, such key elements as complete vehicle, battery swapping system, swappable battery pack and battery swapping interface should be taken as research objects, and the potential failure modes lying in the battery swapping and a vehicle's running process should be fully analyzed.

Besides, the general safety requirements and the security requests on complete vehicle, system and parts of a vehicle equipped swappable battery pack should be determined and relevant testing and checking methods should be put forward accordingly.

To ensure a safe battery swapping process, the newly-approved standard also determines the minimum battery swapping times within a vehicle’s planned service life through analyzing the difference of various technology solutions, vehicles' actual driving scenarios and relevant data.   

Among Chinese automakers, NIO and BAIC BJEV are on the front line in deploying battery swapping business. William Li, Founder and Chairman of NIO, said at NIO’s 2020 Q2 earnings call that the process of its first vehicle under the BaaS (Battery as a Service) model has been validated including insurance purchase, loan application, and license plate registration. The startup is about to launch the BaaS solution on August 20, and a new battery asset management company, which serves as the operator of the new solution, is likely to be unveiled at the same time.

According to a framework agreement signed by BAIC Group and State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co., Ltd. (called “State Grid EV” for short) on July 27, BAIC BJEV and State Grid EV will continue their in-depth collaboration on battery swapping business, with the aim of jointly setting up 100 battery swapping stations and serving not fewer than 10,000 vehicles powered by swappable batteries before June 2021.