Further regulations attached to Chinese made electric bikes look set to drive up standards on safety, plus tackling the issue of tampering head-on, making it harder for end-users to modify equipment to go faster.

As of December 1st, China introduced stricter regulations on electric bikes made within its borders, in large part to improve its domestic market, which is the world’s largest for e-mobility, but also to improve the safety of products fed into the international marketplace. The latest rules come on the back of an EV safety mandate reported this spring that mandates that battery packs ‘cannot catch fire’.

This standards improvement drive comes as part of a new regulation (GB 17761-2024) that means every Chinese electric bike sold domestically must have a valid China Compulsory Certificate (CCC), something that overwrites any old standards applicable to these goods. Enforcement action is threatened against non-compliant retailers and manufacturers.

Mandatory safety tests for things such as thermal runaway form part of the new rules and from now on there must be a digital communication between the battery and charger before the charging process begins. Batteries and chargers will have separate CCC certification, ensuring all parts of the power chain are up to standard. These are already commonplace features in most electric bike batteries, but can be absent backstops in lower-priced and lower-quality items that are sold on price and power alone.

Producing around 45 million electric bikes per year, China is a leading source globally for supply and with the UK having lifted its anti-dumping duties on Chinese electric bikes, excluding folding models, it is highly likely that the UK market is seen as a comparably opportune place to ship exports. For those selling into China, the rules apply in the same way.

There appears to already be evidence of progress in relation to fire safety. China already launched campaigns to raise awareness of the new regulations and, in the first half of 2025, a 44.7% decrease in thermal runaway incidents was apparently logged.

It should be stressed that incidents of fire are, despite what the press may have you believe, statistically rare. The most stringent testing ever undertaken on UK soil found that incidents are limited to a small pool of products, of which almost all are exclusively direct-to-market conversion kits, rather than complete electric bikes. In most instances where there is battery management systems in place, it’s near impossible to generate a thermal reaction because the software attached will isolate damaged cells and attempt to shut down the battery. Many batteries have both physical fire breaks and software based solutions.

The regulation adjustments at a glance

Certification: Now mandatory, all e-bikes sold in China must have CCC marking to show compliance with GB 17761-2024 rules.

Battery safety:
Both lithium-ion batteries and their chargers will require separate CCC compliance. Batteries should pass a series of mandatory safety tests, ensuring that one single defective cell does not cause a fire or explosion.

There must be a communication function between the charger and battery before charging begins to ensure compatibility and safety.

If an abnormal temperature is detected an alarm must function.

Materials: There must be no more than 5.5% non-fire resistant plastics in the e-bike construction.

Tampering defences: Controllers, batteries, and chargers must be interoperable and technically harder to tamper with. Newly produced e-bikes cannot have their speed limits adjusted.

GPS: The new rules encourage features such as GPS integration, real-time communication and dynamic safety monitoring. This is to help end-users track their e-bikes and to enable safety alerts. Electric bikes built for commercial use must be equipped with Beidou positioning chips.