Standards and Services
The standards are designed jointly with the key stakeholders of the electric vehicle, light electric vehicle and stationary energy storage landscape to help mitigate the potential risk of fire and electrical hazards and enhance the overall safety of batteries for electric vehicles abd stationary energy storage. These standards evaluate the ability to safely withstand simulated normal use and abuse conditions based upon the manufacturer's specified charge and discharge parameters and installation specifications. The EV standard does not evaluate the interaction with other control systems within the EV and none of the UL large battery safety standards evelauate the performance or reliability of these devices.
Standards
Applicable Standards
- UL 2580 Batteries for use in Electric Vehicles (EV)
- UL 2271 Batteries for use in Light Electric Vehicles (LEV)
- UL 1973 Batteries for Light Electric Rail (LER) and Stationary Applications
- UN Lithium Battery transport tests
Please also find more information related to the standards at our Code Authorities pages.
Test Methods | ||
Electrical Tests | Mechanical Tests | Environmental Tests |
| Overcharge | Vibration endurance | Thermal cycling |
| Short circuit | Shock | Salt fog |
| Overdischarge protection | Crush | Immersion/moisture resistance |
| Imbalanced charging | Drop | External fire exposure |
| Temperature | Rotation | Internal fire exposure |
| Failure of cooling/thermal stability system | ||
| Dielectric voltage withstand | ||
| Isolation resistance | ||
| Continuity |
In addition to these safety requirements UL offers a broad range of performance verification services. Ultimately, UL's requirements for electric vehicle and stationary energy storage safety help move the industry toward performance and safety standardization.
Services
- Predictable global market access through safety certification
- Technical consulting
- R&D collaboration
- Value-chain-services (added EV and stationary energy storage infrastructure certification)
- Data acceptance programs (DAP)
- Performance verification services
UL's research team is collaborating closely with stakeholders involved with electric mobility and large format energy storage systems, tailored to understanding failure modes and continuously improving standards, test methods, and thereby assuring safe products are entering global markets.
Research
- Battery hazard analysis - using FTA and FMEA
- Indentation induced internal short circuit (IIISC) testing - using state-of-the-art facilities
- Analysis and identification of battery components including electrolytes, anode, cathode and separator materials
- Thermal, electrochemical and functional materials analysis for surveillance and test method development
- Computational modeling of failures
- Program partnerships with government national labs and battery supply chain - NASA, ORNL, ITRI
- Battery aging studies
Learn more about UL's large battery standard technical panels (STPs).
Additional resources
- Download additional info material
- Product Categories (Category Control Numbers - CCN) for regulators and utilities
- For more details, please contact us at largebatteries@ul.com or by telephone at 1-877-854-3577.
