GB 18384-2025, Electric vehicles safety requirements, is a mandatory Chinese national standard covering the safety of the whole electric vehicle. It entered into force on 1 July 2026, replacing GB 18384-2020, and is the vehicle-level companion to GB 38031-2025, which covers the traction battery cell, pack, and system.
Disclaimer: This is not a definitive guide, just an indication, and it is important that you always go back to the source for legislation.
Scope and Applicability
GB 18384-2025 applies to electric vehicles sold in China, alongside GB 38031-2025’s requirements on the traction battery itself. Where GB 38031-2025 sets the safety floor for the cell and the pack, GB 18384-2025 covers how the vehicle protects its occupants once that battery is installed. Clause 5.4 makes the relationship explicit: the traction battery fitted to the vehicle must comply with GB 38031-2025.
Key Requirements
Driver warning linked to the battery’s thermal-event signal
GB 18384-2020 already required a conspicuous audible or visual warning to the driver when the vehicle’s rechargeable energy storage system (REESS) was about to undergo a thermal-runaway safety event. GB 18384-2025 tightens this by tying the warning directly to GB 38031-2025’s thermal-event alarm: when the battery issues that signal, the vehicle must alert the driver with both light and sound. This closes a gap in the previous pair of standards, where the battery-side alarm and the vehicle-side warning were specified separately rather than as one linked signal chain.
Physical propulsion power cut-off
The vehicle must provide a driver-accessible physical device that can cut propulsion-system power in one action when the vehicle is stationary and neither charging nor discharging. This gives first responders and drivers a manual means of isolating the high-voltage system that doesn’t depend on the vehicle’s own control logic still functioning correctly.
Vehicle-level underbody impact test
A towed vehicle is driven over a fixed 150 mm solid hemispherical barrier made from #45 steel at 35 km/h, with 30 mm overlap. The barrier is positioned at a vulnerable point within ±150 mm of the REESS centreline. This is a whole-vehicle test and is distinct from the pack-level bottom impact test in GB 38031-2025, which uses a 10 kg impactor with a 30 mm hemispherical head striking a bench-mounted pack at three defined points rather than a moving vehicle passing over a fixed barrier.
Pass criteria after the underbody impact test:
- The REESS and high-voltage connectors must still meet IPXXB protection requirements
- No electrolyte leakage within 30 minutes of the impact
- No fire or explosion within 2 hours of the impact
- The vehicle must retain the required insulation resistance
Transition Timeline
GB 18384-2025 uses the same two-tier implementation structure as GB 38031-2025:
- 1 July 2026 — new vehicle models applying for approval must comply
- 1 July 2027 — vehicle models already approved for sale must comply
The transition rules apply to vehicle model approvals. They do not require manufacturers to modify or recall vehicles already sold or registered; recalls remain governed by separate vehicle-defect rules.
Relationship to GB 38031-2025
GB 38031-2025 and GB 18384-2025 are best read as a pair rather than in isolation. GB 38031-2025 sets the requirements the traction battery must meet on its own (thermal propagation trigger methods, alarm timing, smoke limits, bottom impact, fast-charge durability). GB 18384-2025 sets what the vehicle must do once that battery is installed (physical cut-off, underbody protection, and the driver warning chain). A pack or system can pass GB 38031-2025 in isolation, but full vehicle type approval in China now depends on both standards being satisfied together, and validated as an integrated system rather than as two separate submissions.
Comparable Vehicle-Level Standards Elsewhere
- FMVSS 305a (USA) — becomes mandatory for US light vehicles from 1 September 2027. Requires a driver thermal-event warning within 3 minutes of onset, sustained for at least 5 minutes, a shorter window than GB 38031-2025’s 5-minute alarm requirement, and uses a different crash-test sequence [1].
- ECE Regulation R100 (Amendment 3) — UN type-approval for rechargeable energy storage systems (REESS) in electric vehicles, using a different thermal propagation test structure again. None of the three use the same test, so direct pass/fail comparisons between markets aren’t meaningful.
References
- FMVSS 305a, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, mandatory from 1 September 2027.
- GB 18384-2025, Electric vehicles safety requirements, effective 1 July 2026.
- GB 38031-2025, Electric vehicles traction battery safety requirements, effective 1 July 2026.
See also: Thermal Runaway – the cell and pack-level behaviour that GB 18384’s driver warning and power cut-off requirements are designed to respond to., ISO 6469-3, GB/T 43568-2026