China is enhancing the management of recycling batteries from electric vehicles following production and sales reaching 16 million units in 2025, with digital history data stored for every vehicle battery.
On 16 Jan 2026, Xinhua News Agency reported that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with five other government agencies, issued temporary measures outlining a plan to upgrade the management of recycling and utilization of used batteries from new energy vehicles (NEVs), effective from 1 Apr 2026.
Every vehicle battery will have digital history records. This initiative comes as China’s new energy vehicle industry rapidly expands, with production and sales expected to exceed 16 million units in 2025, accounting for over half of all new car sales nationwide.
The ministry noted that batteries from earlier models of new energy vehicles are beginning to reach the end of their service life due to capacity degradation, leading to a significant increase in the volume of expired batteries.
Industry experts say the timing of these regulations is appropriate, as China is entering a phase with a huge volume of retired batteries, projected to exceed 1 million tons by 2030.
These temporary measures emphasize comprehensive management frameworks covering all channels, the entire supply chain, and full lifecycle processes, including establishing a national platform for tracking new energy vehicle batteries and systems for managing digital history data.
In June 2025, China launched a special three-year campaign targeting the illegal dumping and disposal of waste such as end-of-life vehicles, electronic waste, retired new energy equipment, and used energy batteries.