Two New National Standards for Electric Vehicles Take Effect on July 1

Two mandatory national standards involving electric vehicle safety will officially come into effect on July 1, corresponding respectively to wholevehicle safety and power battery safety. The new standards aim to further enhance the safety protection capabilities of electric vehicles in scenarios such as collisions, thermal runaway, underbody scraping, and fast charging. Compared with the old standards, the new national standards add a physical "onebutton power off" requirement, emphasizing that in the event of a sudden accident, the highvoltage circuit can be quickly cut off with a single action. At the same time, the thermal propagation test requirements for power batteries have also been further tightened, clearly stating that the battery pack should not catch fire or explode during testing, and that the impact of smoke on occupants should be minimized as much as possible. The new standards also add underbody impact and underbody scraping tests, and increase safety verification after fastcharging cycles. Industry insiders believe that these detailed requirements will help drive companies to improve safety levels in R&D, production, and testing processes. For vehicles that are already on the road and legally in use, reports indicate that there is no need for immediate replacement; as long as the vehicle is in normal condition and meets the annual inspection requirements, it can continue to be used.