Battery Safety Committee Established

SHENZHEN, China – Recently the Technical Committee of the Battery Safety Organization (BATSO) has been formally established and the first meeting was held in Shenzhen, China. About 40 international participants visited the TÜV Rheinland Battery Testing Center for an in-depth discussion of further steps in battery safety testing as well as amendments to the BATSO 01 manual, and elected the Chairman and Secretary of the BATSO Technical Committee.

Around 40 representatives of international companies involved or interested in battery safety issues met in Shenzhen on March 22nd and 23rd to learn about the BATSO standard for battery safety testing and discuss further developments. The two-day meeting was hosted by TÜV Rheinland in Shenzhen.

Holger Kunz, Managing Director of TÜV Rheinland South China welcomed the participants and introduced TÜV China. Shenzhen is one of numerous locations where the TÜV is represented in the Peoples’ Republic. Here, TÜV Rheinland has invested an enormous amount of money into their new Battery Testing Center last year – the only battery test lab so far, where BATSO tests can be conducted and battery packs BATSO certified.

Besides the UN-T standards tests, which are part of the BATSO testing, and can be conducted in many test labs, a unique element of the full BATSO testing is a vibration endurance test. This test involves an individual testing machine to simulate the vibration of riding a light electric vehicle and checks the battery's endurance capabilities under such circumstances.

Hannes Neupert, President of ExtraEnergy introduced the idea, history, and goals of BATSO and called on the audience to take battery safety seriously. A severe LEV battery accident could do significant harm to the entire industry, he warned. BATSO is one measure to help avoid such accidents.

For this reason, BATSO is now an obligation for manufacturers wishing to participate in projects at the EU level and is also recommended by authorities as the standard to which companies should apply. The standard is already part of the EU pedelec promotional programs Go Pedelec! and PRESTO. BATSO is also supposed to become a minimum requirement for subsidy programs provided by governments who intend to grow the LEV market.

Currently, BATSO is an open cooperation between ExtraEnergy, TÜV Rheinland. In the long run, BATSO should become a legal entity of its own, jointly owned by industry players. The organization will then be open for other testing houses to join and conduct battery safety testing, alongside TÜV Rheinland. In the future, the certification will be extended to environmental and other aspects that seem appropriate said Neupert.

Tim Schäfer, head of LiTec Battery Germany pointed out that BATSO tests are closely linked to UN-T safety regulations for battery transport. If a company has acquired UNT test already, the BATSO seal can be done without going through the UNT testing again.

The BATSO Technical Committee consists of Tim Schaefer of Li-Tec as Chairman. Ralf Knapp of TÜV Rheinland Taiwan was elected Secretary of the Technical Committee.