MoRTH Decelerates Rollout of New EV Battery Testing Norms; Industry Experts Say Step 'Much Needed'

The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has extended the deadline for mandatory implementation of recently notified electric vehicle battery testing standards, following requests from the industry. MoRTH stated: “For the OEMs to be better equipped to comply/implement the provisions prescribed under the standards AIS-156 and AIS-038, the Ministry has decided to implement Amendment 3 of the said AIS, in two phases.” The ministry earlier announced more stringent battery safety regulations for EVs would take effect from October 1. According to the ministry, these amendments include additional safety requirements for battery cells, battery management systems, onboard chargers, battery pack design, and thermal propagation due to internal cell short circuits leading to fire among others. “At the same time, vehicle OEMs now have enough time to introduce vehicles using these new batteries into the market in a safe manner and to get their vehicles re-certified.” Visakh Sasikumar, co-founder and CEO of Fyn, told News18 that these new standards provide for cell-level safety checks, check for charger level & thermal propagation inside the battery packs that leads to stricter and extensive testing.