Three major Chinese national standards for electric vehicle battery safety entered into force on July 1, 2026: two mandatory standards — GB 38031-2025 (traction battery safety) and GB 18384-2025 (vehicle-level EV safety) — plus China’s first national standard for solid-state vehicle batteries, GB/T 43568-2026, which bans misleading marketing terms and defines technical classifications for next-generation battery technology.
What Happened
On July 1, 2026, China brought into force a trio of battery and EV safety standards that together represent a significant tightening and modernization of the regulatory framework for electric vehicles and their battery systems. GB 38031-2025 replaces the prior traction battery safety standard with updated mandatory requirements — most critically, that battery systems must not catch fire or explode even during thermal runaway events. GB 18384-2025 updates vehicle-level EV safety mandatory requirements. Alongside these two mandatory standards, GB/T 43568-2026 establishes China’s first formal national classification system for solid-state batteries in vehicles, settling a long-running industry dispute over product terminology and claims.
What’s New
- GB 38031-2025 (Mandatory): Updated traction battery safety standard. Key requirement: battery systems must not catch fire or explode during thermal runaway. Replaces the 2020 version with updated test procedures and stricter safety thresholds.
- GB 18384-2025 (Mandatory): Updated vehicle-level EV safety standard, revising the full-vehicle electrical safety and functional safety framework for battery electric vehicles.
- GB/T 43568-2026: China’s first national standard for solid-state vehicle batteries. Defines “all-solid-state” as batteries with a liquid electrolyte mass fraction of less than 5%.
- Marketing term ban: GB/T 43568-2026 explicitly prohibits the use of the terms “semi-solid,” “quasi-solid,” and “pseudo-solid” in product marketing — eliminating ambiguous claims that had been widespread in the industry.
- All three standards effective July 1, 2026.
Key Dates & Timeline
GB 38031-2025, GB 18384-2025, and GB/T 43568-2026 published by SAC/MIIT.
Mandatory compliance for GB 38031-2025 and GB 18384-2025; GB/T 43568-2026 takes effect as national recommended/classification standard with binding marketing-term prohibitions.
Chinese type-approval bodies will apply updated standards for new vehicle and battery system certifications.
Affected Industries
Battery manufacturers (traction battery and solid-state battery developers); automotive OEMs producing battery electric vehicles for the Chinese market; Tier 1 battery-system integrators; EV component and electronics suppliers; international automakers with China-market BEV programs; solid-state battery start-ups and investors.
Who Is Affected
Any manufacturer, importer, or supplier of traction battery systems or battery electric vehicles sold or type-approved in China must comply with GB 38031-2025 and GB 18384-2025. Solid-state battery developers and manufacturers marketing products in China must comply with GB/T 43568-2026’s classification definitions and marketing-term restrictions, regardless of whether their product is marketed as “all-solid-state” or transitional technology.
Standards / Products in Scope
GB 38031-2025: Traction battery systems for electric vehicles (mandatory). GB 18384-2025: Battery electric vehicles at the full-vehicle level (mandatory). GB/T 43568-2026: Solid-state vehicle batteries — classification, definitions, and marketing terminology restrictions; all-solid-state defined as <5% liquid electrolyte mass fraction.
Prohibitions, Restrictions & Requirements
Battery systems must withstand thermal runaway without fire or explosion (GB 38031-2025). Product marketing using the terms “semi-solid,” “quasi-solid,” or “pseudo-solid” for vehicle batteries is prohibited in China (GB/T 43568-2026). New type-approval applications are subject to the updated standards from the date of entry into force.
What Companies Should Do
- Verify that traction battery systems meet GB 38031-2025 thermal-runaway fire/explosion prevention requirements and update type-approval documentation accordingly.
- Review vehicle-level EV safety compliance against GB 18384-2025 for all BEV models type-approved or in development for the Chinese market.
- Audit all marketing and product-specification materials for use of the now-banned terms “semi-solid,” “quasi-solid,” or “pseudo-solid” in China-market communications.
- Classify solid-state battery products against the <5% liquid electrolyte mass-fraction threshold defined in GB/T 43568-2026 before making any “all-solid-state” claims.
- Engage Chinese certification and type-approval bodies to confirm testing schedules and updated dossier requirements under the new standards.
The simultaneous entry into force of GB 38031-2025 and GB 18384-2025 sets a materially higher mandatory safety bar for EV batteries and vehicles in China — thermal-runaway fire/explosion prevention is now a hard requirement, not just a design target. The simultaneous publication of GB/T 43568-2026 closes the door on loose “solid-state” marketing claims, forcing both established battery makers and start-ups to substantiate their technology classifications under a defined national standard.
Reference: GB 38031-2025 | GB 18384-2025 | GB/T 43568-2026
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