Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, carried out the revision work of the mandatory national standard "safety technical specification for electric bicycles" (GB 17761-2018, hereinafter referred to as "technical specification"), form a standard draft for comments and publicly solicit social opinions. The person in charge of relevant departments of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interprets the technical specifications for safety of electric bicycles (draft for comments) as follows.

I. What is the basic situation of China's electric bicycle industry?

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of electric bicycles. By the end of 2023, the number of electric bicycles in China had exceeded 0.35 billion. Electric bicycles mainly use lead batteries and lithium batteries. At present, the number of lithium battery electric bicycles is about 50 million. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, there were 738 enterprises above the scale in electric bike manufacturing industry including electric bicycles in 2023, with an annual output of 42.28 million vehicles, an increase of 3.8 percent year-on-year, and an average annual growth rate of 11.8 percent in the past five years; according to the statistics of the General Administration of market supervision, as of August, 2024, a total of 591 production enterprises had obtained 13360 compulsory product certification (CCC) certificates for electric bicycles. The distribution of electric bicycle production enterprises and consumer market is obviously Regional, among which the production enterprises are mainly concentrated in five provinces of Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Guangxi; the top five provinces in the electric bicycle market are Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan and Sichuan respectively.

II. Why should this standard revision be carried out?

After years of development, electric bicycles have gradually become an important basic means of transportation for daily short trips of Chinese consumers. However, with the continuous expansion of the market scale, the electric bicycle industry has also exposed some problems. For example, in recent years, electric bicycles have caused fire accidents many times, even causing casualties, threatening the safety of people's lives and property. According to the National Fire Rescue Bureau, there were 18000 fires caused by electric bicycles in 2021and 25000 in 2023, with an average annual growth of about 20%. The proportion of electric bicycle fires in large fires throughout the year, from 5.9 percent in 2021to 12.7 percent in 2023. In addition, because many vehicles are storedIn the case of illegal tampering, the maximum speed, battery voltage, motor power and other technical indicators exceed the provisions of the current mandatory national standard "electric bicycle safety Technical Specification" (GB 17761-2018), becoming an important incentive for traffic safety accidents; Industry level, despite the increasing concentration of electric bicycle industry in recent years, a number of leading backbone enterprises with annual sales exceeding 10 billion yuan have emerged, but the overall quality assurance capability of the industry is still weak, many enterprises lack sufficient R & D investment and design ability, and the homogenization of products is serious. They even use inferior raw materials and reduce testing items to reduce production costs, resulting in uneven product quality and low sampling pass rate, there is a gap with people's expectations. Therefore, in the whole chain rectification action of electric bicycle safety hidden danger deployed by the State Council, perfecting the quality and safety standard system is a key task, hoping that through the revision of "electric bicycle safety technical specification, improve the intrinsic safety level of electric bicycle products, promote the standardized development of the industry, and effectively protect the safety of people's lives and property.

III. What are the principles of this standard revision?

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the emergency management department, the General Administration of market supervision, the State Fire Rescue Bureau and other five departments conscientiously implement the State Council electric bicycle safety hidden danger full chain rectification action deployment, it will be "four benefits" (that is, it is conducive to preventing fire accidents, reducing potential traffic safety hazards, meeting consumers' daily travel needs, and promoting high-quality development of the industry) as the basic principle of the revision of the safety technical specification for electric bicycles, the specific considerations are as follows:

first, it is conducive to preventing fire accidents. During the revision process of this standard, the revision expert group always focuses on preventing and resolving fire risks. Through detailed investigation and analysis of the causes of electric bicycle fire accidents in recent years, aiming at the problems existing in current electric bicycle products, such as insufficient fireproof and flame retardant performance of non-metallic materials, excessive use of flammable plastic parts, and inconvenient traceability investigation after fire accidents, in the draft for comments, the articles such as the requirements for fire prevention and flame retardant of materials, the proportion of plastic parts, the unique code of the whole vehicle and the permanent mark of high temperature resistance were improved, it is helpful for the Prevention of electric bicycle fire accidents and the whole chain traceability investigation after the accidents.

Third, it is conducive to meeting consumers' daily travel needs. Considering that the pace of people's life has accelerated and the radius of travel has expanded in recent years, in order to better meet the daily travel needs of consumers, the draft for comments appropriately relaxed individual indicators that have little impact on safety performance, for example, lead batteries are favored by electric bicycle consumers because of their advantages of high cost performance and good stability. However, lead batteries also have the disadvantages of low energy density, large volume and heavy weight, etc, as a result, lead battery vehicles that meet the weight limit of 55kg in the current standard cannot meet the needs of consumers for continuous mileage and charging frequency. Therefore, the draft for comments will relax the weight limit of the whole vehicle of lead battery models from 55kg to 63kg, which is helpful to provide consumers with products with higher cost performance and better use experience. In addition, in order to improve the practicability of the product, the draft no longer forces all types of electric bicycles to have the pedal riding function, but the enterprise decides whether to equip the function according to the needs of vehicle design, it is not only conducive to saving production costs, but also provides more space for consumers to choose models.

Fourth, it is conducive to promoting the high-quality development of the industry. In order to further optimize the industrial structure of electric bicycles in our country and improve the industry concentration and product quality level, the content of enterprise quality assurance capability and product consistency has been added in the draft for comments, put forward requirements for the production capacity and testing capacity of the whole vehicle and key components, promote enterprises to improve production technology and equipment, improve the level of automation and intelligence, and improve the quality monitoring methods of the production process, so as to guide enterprises to improve production efficiency and product qualification rate through large-scale production organization and application of advanced technology and equipment, gradually eliminate workshop enterprises that do not have quality control ability, and improve industry concentration. In addition, the draft also adds requirements for Beidou positioning and dynamic safety monitoring functions of vehicles, thus improving the level of product informatization and the ability to prevent security risks, and promoting the electric bicycle industry to be more intelligent, development in a safer direction.

IV. Compared with the current standard, this levyWhat are the main amendments to the draft?

In the process of this revision, the revision expert group carefully sorted out and systematically analyzed the statistical data of all kinds of fire accidents and traffic accidents caused by electric bicycles in recent years, and widely collected the opinions and suggestions of the people on the technical indicators and functional parameters of products, based on the positioning of electric bicycles in China's transportation system and the direction of product development and evolution in the future period, on the basis of extensive market research and scientific and rigorous experimental verification, the current standards have been revised in the following aspects: first, improve the fire prevention and flame retardant test requirements and methods of non-metallic materials used in electric bicycles, and improve the whole vehicle and saddle, the fire and flame retardant performance requirements of components such as conductor insulation layer, and the proportion index of plastic parts are added to guide enterprises to compress the use of unnecessary plastic parts. Non-flammable materials should also be selected when they really need to be used, so as to reduce the risk of fire occurrence, delay the spread speed of fire, reduce the fire load and release of toxic and harmful gases. The second is to improve the tamper-proof requirements and methods of batteries, controllers, speed governor, etc. It is clear that electric bike controller, batteries, and Chargers should have mutual recognition and coordination functions, and increase the maximum speed of vehicles, motor power, it is difficult to tamper with key parameters such as battery type and output voltage to reduce safety accidents caused by illegal modification. The third is to strengthen the requirements and testing methods for key parameters such as the rated continuous output power of the motor and no-load back electromotive force, so as to ensure that the vehicle cannot overspeed technically, prevention increases the speed of the vehicle by reserving a "back door" in the controller; At the same time, increases the low-speed running torque limit of the motor to ensure the normal short-distance climbing ability of the vehicle, which is convenient for consumers to use. The fourth is to increase BeiDou positioning and communication functions to facilitate consumers to understand the key safety information such as longitude, dimension and battery status of electric bicycles in real time, and to identify abnormal conditions of vehicles, when necessary, alarm information can be sent through the communication network, so as to have dynamic safety monitoring capability and enhance the active safety performance of the vehicle. The fifth is to increase the quality assurance requirements and methods of enterprises, requiring electric bicycle manufacturing enterprises to have the production capacity, testing capability and quality control capability of complete vehicles and key components matching the production capacity, so as to improve product consistency and sampling pass rate, and improve industrial concentration by encouraging large-scale production. The sixth is to appropriately relax the weight of the whole vehicle, comprehensively consider consumers' demands for reasonable use, and increase the weight of the whole electric bicycle using lead batteries from 55kg to 63kg, So that the lead battery electric bicycle can better meet the normal demand of consumers for continuous mileage and charging frequency. The seventh is to optimize the pedal riding function. Considering that the pedal riding function has a low frequency in actual use, all models are no longer required to install pedal power devices in the draft for comments, the adjustment is to design and install the production enterprise according to the actual needs of the vehicle type, so as to provide more vehicle type choices for consumers while saving costs.

v. What positive effects will the revised standard play after its official release?

After this standard is officially released, it is expected to play a positive role in the following aspects. One is to reduce the risk of fire. This revision is conducive to reducing the risk of fire accidents caused by electric bicycles and improving the intrinsic safety level of electric bicycle products in china by optimizing technical indexes such as fire prevention and flame retardant of electric bicycles and proportion of plastic weight. The second is to reduce the hidden danger of traffic accidents. This revision has improved tamper-proof requirements such as battery, controller, speed governor, and tightened the rated power test method of the motor to prevent the illegal conversion to electric bicycle to speed up and reduce traffic accidents caused by overspeed. Third, it is convenient for consumers to use. Appropriately relax the vehicle weight limit of lead battery models to better meet consumers' demand for mileage and reduce charging frequency; All models are no longer required to have pedal riding function, reducing waste of resources, provide more vehicle selection space for consumers. The fourth is to improve the quality of product supply. Increase the product quality assurance capability and product consistency requirements of production enterprises, clarify the production capacity, inspection and quality control indicators of key processes of electric bicycles, and promote enterprises to improve the production technology and equipment level, improve product quality. The fifth is to improve active security performance. By adding Beidou positioning and real-time communication functions, dynamic security monitoring of key security information such as the location of the electric bicycle and the status of the battery can be realized, abnormal situations can be identified in time and alarm information can be sent, greatly increasing by vehicle security.

6. In addition to the revised "technical specification for safety of electric bicycles", what other mandatory standards related to electric bicycles?

In recent years, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has earnestly performed the functions of industry management, and together with the General Administration of market supervision, it has successively formulated and issued a number of mandatory national standards related to electric bicycles. Among them, the electrical safety requirements for electric bicycles (GB 42295-2022) was released in 2022 and began to be implemented on January 1, 2024. Its No. 1 amendment was released on August 23, 2024 and will be implemented on November 1, 2024; "Safety technical requirements for electric bicycle charger" (GB 42296-2022) was released in 2022and implemented on July 1, 2023. its No. 1 amendment was released on July 24, 2024and will be implemented on November 1, 2024. In addition, lithium-ion battery for electric bicycleSafety technical specification (GB 43854-2024) was released on april 25, 2024and will be formally implemented on november 1, 2024. this standard regulates the design, production and sales process of lithium ion batteries for electric bicycles, effectively improve the intrinsic safety level of lithium ion batteries for electric bicycles. The above three standards are connected with the technical specification for safety of electric bicycles to form a complete mandatory national standard system for electric bicycles, thus fundamentally ensuring the quality and safety of electric bicycle products.

VII. After the release of this revised standard, how should production enterprises meet the requirements of the standard?

After the official release of the revised electric bicycle safety technical specifications, the vast number of electric bicycle manufacturers need to upgrade their technologies, equipment and products as soon as possible according to the relevant provisions in the standards, meet the requirements of the standard as soon as possible. First, adjust the product design scheme as soon as possible, produce new models according to the standard requirements, and verify them according to the test methods in the standard to ensure that the scheme design is reasonable and the product quality is qualified. The second is to improve the production process and equipment, improve the level of automation and intelligence, meet the requirements of enterprise quality assurance capability and product consistency in the standards, and enhance the market competitiveness of enterprises. Third, plus-sized r & d investment, equipped with technical equipment and scientific researchers needed for the development of common key technologies, especially to improve the independent r & d capability of key components, reduce unqualified products caused by quality defects of key components and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises.

VIII. After the release of the new standard, how do manufacturers and products apply for compulsory product certification (CCC certification)?

After the release of the new standard, the enterprise can propose the new product certification entrustment and the change entrustment of the existing certification certificate to the relevant certification institution according to the relevant standard change arrangement. According to the relevant requirements of the standardization law of the People's Republic of China and the regulations of the People's Republic of China on certification and accreditation, after the implementation of the new standard, electric bicycles must meet the new standard and can only be produced, sold, import or use in other business activities.

IX. Will the production cost and price of electric bicycles increase significantly after the new standard is released?

the sales price of electric bicycles is determined by many factors, such as production cost, logistics cost, channel cost, pricing strategy, supply and demand relationship, etc. Among them, production cost is one of the important factors that affect the selling price of products, but it cannot directly determine the final price of products. The electric bicycle products produced according to this draft have increased some production costs in terms of upgrading the flame retardant performance of plastic parts, increasing Beidou and communication module, but on the other hand, it will also be due to the cancellation of pedal power devices, reduce the use of plastic parts and other factors to save the cost of corresponding parts and materials. Overall, after the implementation of the new standard, the production cost of electric bicycles will remain basically stable, and the terminal market price will not fluctuate significantly.