China to track all electric vehicle batteries

China will introduce a scheme to certify and trace electric vehicle batteries from August 1. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released provisions on July 3 that will require companies manufacturing and recycling electric vehicles and batteries to adopt the scheme, reports People’s Daily. Manufacturers and importers will also have up to a year to enter stocked electric vehicles into the scheme, which will log battery repairs, expiration and recycling. Sales in China accounted for more than half of the 1.2 million electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2017. As the first generation of vehicles approaches retirement, the volume of spent lithium-ion batteries is expected to increase significantly. China largely relies on imports of lithium to manufacture batteries but hopes the new scheme will help it develop effective recycling of the metals in used car batteries.