China has switched on a new national platform to track EV power batteries across their full life cycle, with the system going live on April 1 alongside new recycling rules for retired packs.
The move gives each battery a unique digital identity and links data from production, vehicle installation, servicing, battery swapping, scrapping, recycling and reuse.
Official coverage said each pack now has its own digital “ID card”.
The platform was publicly released on March 31 after a trial run that began on Jan 16, and it operates under China’s Interim Measures for Recycling and Utilisation of NEV Power Batteries.
CarNewsChina said the new setup replaces an earlier national monitoring and traceability system with a new architecture and a broader data framework.
In essence, regulators want to know where each battery came from, where it has gone and where it ends up.
Companies covered by the rules include battery makers, EV manufacturers, importers, maintenance firms, battery-swap operators and recycling companies. They must upload data covering production, installation, sales, scrapping, recycling and reuse, creating what officials describe as a closed-loop management chain.
The main job of the system appears to be real-time supervision, risk monitoring, traceability analysis, enterprise responsibility checks and industry research support.
Chinese reports also said the system is meant to stop retired batteries from slipping into informal channels, where patchy data and unclear accountability have made oversight harder.
The project is being coordinated by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, with the China Automotive Technology and Research Centre providing technical support and running the platform.
More than 500 organisations, including companies, industry bodies and international institutions, took part in the launch event in Tianjin, according to CarNewsChina.
The scheme also has some overlap with the battery passport idea discussed in Europe, though China’s version appears more narrowly focused on traceability, recycling oversight and regulatory management.
In Europe, the passport concept is more often linked to broader sustainability and carbon-footprint disclosure.
The rollout comes as China prepares for a larger wave of ageing EV batteries.
CarNewsChina also noted that the country will require battery carbon-footprint reporting from 2026, covering emissions from materials sourcing and manufacturing through to distribution and recycling.
The new platform will not sort out the recycling trade straight away, but it does give Beijing closer oversight of a difficult part of the EV chain.
