CATARC considering establishing new standards for new energy vehicles in China

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai November 22) - The China Automotive Technology and Research Center is considering what new safety standards to establish for electric and new energy vehicles, the China Youth Daily reported today. The news came from an announcement made by CATARC President Zhao Hang at the Opening Ceremony of the First Automobile Safety Day and Launching Ceremony of CATARC Safety Lab held in Tianjin earlier this month.

"The biggest danger with new energy vehicles lies in their batteries, which risk deforming in a crash and potentially exploding," Mr. Zhao (pictured) said, adding that current safety standards fail to take this factor into account. Mr. Zhao believes that pure electric vehicles will be the future for new energy automobiles in China, however due to limited technology and maximum driving distances, EVs are mainly used for public transportation and rarely bought by personal buyers. As such there has been little attention paid to specific safety issues associated with EVs.

Mr. Zhao believes there is a great discrepancy between new energy vehicles in China and those overseas, which includes vehicles powered by natural gas as well as EVs. In addition to traditional safety concerns, attention should also be paid to battery and fuel tanks, he pointed out. "We need to do more research in this area," Mr. Zhao commented.

The new 40,000 square meter CATARC Safety Lab is the result of three years construction time and two billion yuan ($318.66m). A variety of crash tests will be able to be conducted at the site, which will be one of the leading automobile safety research centers in the country.