Woofun AI reports that starting July 1st, two mandatory national standards, GB 38031-2025 "Safety Requirements for Power Batteries in Electric Vehicles" and GB 18384-2025 "Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicles", officially entered into force, fundamentally altering the operational parameters of the new energy vehicle industry. These regulations establish a definitive safety boundary that supersedes previous industry norms, which only required an alarm to trigger within 5 minutes following a thermal runaway event, granting consumers a narrow five-minute window for evacuation. The updated mandates drastically elevate this threshold: upon a single cell experiencing thermal runaway, the entire battery pack is strictly prohibited from catching fire or exploding, and an alarm must be issued no later than 5 minutes after the incident occurs.

Furthermore, the standards dictate that smoke generated within the 5-minute window preceding and following the alarm must not pose any danger to the passenger compartment, effectively mandating a zero-tolerance policy for cabin contamination during critical failure events.

To enforce these rigorous safety requirements, the new framework introduces two distinct, mandatory testing protocols that were previously absent from unified testing systems. The first protocol subjects the battery pack to three sequential impacts at the bottom, each delivering 150 joules of energy, with the strict condition that the unit must not leak, crack, catch fire, or explode under such stress. The second protocol validates long-term durability by requiring batteries capable of achieving 20% to 80% charge in 15 minutes via fast charging to undergo 300 fast charging cycles followed by short-circuit tests without any occurrence of fire or explosion. These tests directly address real-world scenarios including collisions, stone impacts, and the aggressive "10 minutes of charging providing 400 kilometers of range" marketing claims, ensuring that safety is no longer an optional feature but a prerequisite for market entry. Consequently, the strategy of simply increasing battery cell counts to extend range or cutting costs to gain market share is rendered obsolete by these technical constraints.

Woofun AI data shows that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) research indicates a stark divergence in industry readiness, with 78% of companies possessing the technical capabilities to meet these standards immediately, while 14% can barely comply within one to two years, and the remaining 8% face likely elimination. The barrier to entry extends beyond simple cost considerations to fundamental technological hurdles; achieving fire resistance during thermal runaway requires comprehensive upgrades to battery cell composition, module design, thermal management systems, and overall packaging rather than superficial insulation applications. Industry estimates project that the cost of the battery system for a single vehicle will increase by 15% to 20%, translating to an additional expense of approximately 4,000 to 5,000 yuan per unit. For large automakers with annual sales of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, economies of scale may offset these incremental costs, but for smaller brands with annual sales of less than 50,000 vehicles, an additional cost of several thousand yuan per vehicle creates a binary choice: raise prices and lose market share or incur substantial losses leading to financial distress.

The most critical challenge for the industry, however, lies not in newly produced vehicles but in the millions of existing vehicles currently on the road that have been privately modified with non-compliant batteries. Incomplete statistics reveal that the first batch of new energy vehicles listed around 2016 has already exceeded the eight-year or 120,000-kilometer warranty period for their battery systems. Over the past two years, more than 19.5 million new energy vehicles have had their battery warranties expire, and the total number of vehicles reaching the end of their warranty period is projected to reach 41.6 million in the next eight years. Simultaneously, electric vehicles put into operation in 2018 and 2019 are now entering a phase of accelerated battery degradation, creating a volatile environment for vehicle owners and manufacturers alike. For private car owners, the impact of this degradation is already quantifiable; after six years, the battery performance of a household car may decline by 10% to 15%, whereas for ride-hailing vehicles, degradation can reach 30% to 40% in just three to four years, with some extreme cases showing a decline of over 60%.

Although the hardware of these aging vehicles often remains functional, the reduced battery performance severely compromises their utility, and since the warranty period has expired, the residual value of these vehicles is frequently only 4,000 to 5,000 yuan. The official cost of replacing the battery is often higher than the value of the vehicle itself, creating a perverse economic incentive for private modification. If the cost of replacing a single battery is calculated at 60,000 yuan, this represents a potential market worth 2.5 trillion yuan, and even if only 10% of these batteries require replacement, it constitutes a significant opportunity for unregulated businesses. Services such as "range extension packs" and "battery upgrades" offered on social media, which promise to increase range by 100 to 200 kilometers for just over 10,000 yuan, appear highly attractive compared to the official price of around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan for battery replacements.

However, these services carry profound risks, as modifying new energy batteries, particularly by installing units with different rated voltages than those originally specified, is explicitly illegal.

There have already been documented cases where auto repair workers were convicted for manipulating battery data, and many illegally installed batteries are stored in the trunk, creating a liability nightmare for owners in the event of a collision or fire. The new battery regulations have set a clear safety baseline that completely changes the design logic of battery systems, shifting the focus to preventing serious accidents through upgrades to battery cell design, thermal management systems, battery pack structure, and software monitoring systems. While managing new vehicles is a controlled process, dealing with problems on existing vehicles is extremely costly, as most illegally modified batteries consist of second-hand components, recycled batteries, or substandard B-grade batteries whose cost is less than one-third of genuine products. Without the original thermal management system or a matching Battery Management System (BMS), modifying batteries in any workshop is technically simple but fraught with obvious risks, including inconsistent battery voltages, lack of temperature control, and improper wiring that can lead to thermal runaway.

Data from fire departments indicates that in electric vehicle fires over the past few years, more than 60% were caused by illegally modified batteries, and these batteries burned five times faster than original ones. Incidents where illegally modified batteries caused fires that destroyed vehicles or ignited surrounding vehicles have resulted in significant financial losses for owners, yet automakers previously ignored these issues, believing that modification problems were the sole responsibility of owners who sought such alterations. They opposed allowing modifications because the original warranty system relied on using original components, but with the new regulations, public awareness of safety issues has increased significantly. In the event of a fire, the public will immediately associate the incident with a particular brand of electric vehicle, damaging the brand's reputation, and since many modifications are designed to be hidden, detecting and repairing problems after an accident is difficult. This results in long identification processes and high costs for automakers, who must spend considerable effort to prove their innocence, and even if they win legal battles, the damage to their brand image is often irreparable.

In the past, automakers mainly focused on preventive measures such as assigning unique identification codes to battery components and monitoring battery data in real-time, but these efforts only addressed symptoms rather than root causes. With encrypted BMS systems, there are always experts who can crack these systems, and even if automakers implement component identity verification, modification shops can find ways to bypass the monitoring. Since April 1st this year, the "Interim Measures for the Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries in New Energy Vehicles" have been in effect, requiring automakers to share battery technology information with compliant third parties, thus breaking their monopoly on maintenance technologies. In the future, qualified third-party repair shops will be able to perform legitimate battery repairs and replacements, reducing costs, while the "one-pool-one-code" traceability system ensures that each new battery has a unique identifier, making it increasingly difficult for substandard batteries to enter the market.

For automakers, addressing the needs of existing vehicle owners represents a strategic opportunity to build long-term customer relationships, as it is impossible to completely ban such modifications. It is better for automakers to take the initiative to regulate them by offering "officially certified recycled batteries" that are 80% healthy and have undergone certification and warranty procedures. These batteries would cost half as much as new ones and be slightly more expensive than those sold at roadside shops, but they would provide consumers with greater peace of mind. Automakers can also establish standardized battery service programs, providing training, spare parts, and traceability systems for roadside shops to improve the service experience for consumers and ensure the quality of battery replacements. In essence, the new national standards represent a shift from a "hardware-selling" model to a "safety-service-providing" model, marking the end of the era where anyone could modify batteries at their own risk. This transition signals a competitive landscape where only those who truly prioritize safety and can address the needs of existing customers will survive.