China introduces new e-bike safety regulations

Source: Cycling Electric

At the beginning of December, China introduced strengthened and stricter regulations on domestically produced electric bikes, which will also enhance the safety of Chinese-manufactured products entering international markets. The new rules follow a mandate earlier this year on EV battery fire prevention measures.

A new regulation, GB 17761-2024, means that every Chinese e-bike sold within China must have a valid China Compulsory Certificate (CCC), which supercedes any previous standards applicable to such products.

The rules include obligatory safety testing for battery issues such as thermal runaway, as well as a stipulation that there must now be digital communication between the battery and charger before the charging process can begin.

Batteries and chargers will be subject to separate CCC certification, meaning that all electrical components of e-bikes are subject to the same standards, including components that are made available independently from complete bikes.

Detail of new regulations

• Certification: Mandatory CCC marking indicating compliance with GB 17761-2024 regulations.
• Battery safety: Lithium-ion batteries and their respective chargers must be CCC compliant. Batteries need to pass a set of set safety tests, which will ensure that a single defective cell does not cause a fire or explosion. The battery and charger must communicate before charging commences, to ensure proper compatibility. Abnormal temperature detection must trigger an alarm.
• Materials: The e-bike’s construction must contain no more than 5.5% non-fire resistant plastics.
• Defence against tampering: Battery, controller and charging components must be interoperable, and designed with a level of security that makes tamper attempts harder. All newly produced e-bikes must make it impossible to have their speed limits adjusted.
• GPS: The new rules encourage features such as GPS integration, real-time communication and dynamic safety monitoring. This is to help end-users track their e-bikes and to enable safety alerts. Electric bikes built for commercial use must be equipped with Beidou positioning chips.