Road Ministry Announces New Battery Safety Norms For EVs The new norms will come into effect from October 1, 2022
By Teena Jose
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The ministry of road transport and highway, on Thursday, has announced additional safety requirements related to electric vehicle (EV) batteries. As per reports, the new norms will come into effect from October 1, 2022. Considering the recent fire incidents of electric vehicles, the government had appointed an expert committee to recommend additional safety measures and guidelines in the existing battery safety standards.
"Based on the recommendations of the expert committee report, the ministry, on 29th August 2022, has issued an amendment to specific requirements for motor vehicles with less than four wheels with electric powertrain, and amendment to specific requirements for electric powertrain motor vehicles with at least four wheels used for carrying passengers and goods," said the ministry in an official statement.
The statement also added that these amendments include additional safety requirements related to battery cells, BMS, on-board charger, design of battery pack, thermal propagation due to internal cell short circuit leading to fire etc.
"The notification to mandate amended AIS 156 and AIS 038 Rev.2 standards for the respected categories of electric vehicles with effect from 1 October 2022 is in progress," the statement said.
Regarding the new guidelines from government, Kalyan C Korimerla, managing director of Etrio Automobiles, shared his viewpoints from a manufacturers' perspective. He said, "As a EV OEM committed to increasing EV adoption and safety, we at Etrio welcome the recently-notified regulatory amendments and battery norms suggested by the ministry of road transport, government of India. The additional safety requirements for battery cells, battery packs, BMS etc., when implemented, can greatly help the OEMs win the confidence of EV end-users by rolling out robust and safe vehicles. Safety standards such as these are extremely important in not only saving lives and minimizing fleet asset damage, but also play a pivotal role in making the public feel safe in switching to electric vehicles."
Commenting on the same, Dr Akshay Singhal, founder and CEO of Log9 Materials, shared his thoughts with BIZ Experiences India that, "Log9, in all earnest, welcomes the amended battery safety norms notified by the government. With this, we can say that the Indian EV industry has now come of age. The safety standards have been long overdue. With safety guidelines and regulations now conceptualized and designed as per the Indian operating conditions, we are confident that, in the future, every battery manufacturer and OEM will take full responsibility and go above and beyond to ensure that every single EV that reaches Indian roads is the safest of the lot. Inclusion of battery cells, on-board charger, battery pack design, and heat propagation due to internal cell short circuit leading to fire effectively encompasses all essential variables that could jeopardise a customers' safety, providing an additional push towards EV adoption."
