China’s rules call for retired electric-vehicle batteries to be traced, collected and processed for resource recovery—not simply buried. A nationwide framework took effect on April 1, 2026, putting battery makers, vehicle makers and other businesses under defined collection, information-sharing and safety duties. A separate July policy change restricted some uses of retired batteries, but did not outlaw every form of reuse.
What happens when an EV battery retires in China?
The intended route is a regulated chain: identify the battery, record its movement, collect it through responsible businesses, then assess and process it. Where batteries are treated for resource recovery, the rules describe activities including dismantling, crushing, sorting and smelting. “Bury” is therefore a rhetorical description of the challenge, not the disposal method set out in the policy.
China’s Interim Measures for the Management of Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization of NEV Power Batteries were promulgated on December 31, 2025, published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on January 16, 2026, and took effect April 1, 2026. They coordinate six central authorities and cover collection and comprehensive utilization in mainland China. MIIT is the coordinating authority.
How the collection and tracking system is meant to work
Unique codes and battery records
Battery producers and importers must code cells, modules and packs and attach labels that are unique, accurate, visible, durable and difficult to replace. Battery companies must provide the codes and necessary dismantling information to vehicle makers and repair businesses. The measures also provide for a national NEV power-battery traceability information platform, intended to record stages including production, sales, repair, replacement, dismantling, collection and utilization. The MIIT-published measures establish the obligations and platform framework.
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Who has collection responsibilities?
Battery and vehicle manufacturers have recovery duties, alongside other participants with roles under the broader regime. The rules encourage battery and vehicle makers to establish collection-service outlets in line with the relevant national service-network standard. Workshops and other businesses also have responsibilities; the system is not designed around owners independently dismantling or processing a traction battery.
Collection matters because a battery that changes hands without its identity and movement being recorded is harder to route to a compliant operator. A five-department notice published on April 28, 2026, made improper sale or handoff of retired batteries and failures in traceability explicit enforcement priorities. The notice identifies targets for enforcement, not how often they occur.
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Why processing is an industrial activity
Operators carrying out comprehensive utilization must meet applicable safety and environmental requirements, project approval or filing rules, environmental-assessment obligations, and pollution-permit or registration requirements. That makes responsible recovery a regulated industrial operation, rather than a suitable do-it-yourself project.
Can retired EV batteries be reused in China?
China’s policy distinguishes reuse in another application from dismantling and recovering materials, but the rules changed in 2026. On July 30, MIIT announced that it would remove cascade-use provisions from the 2024 industry conditions and end announcement management for cascade-use firms, while retaining the published list of recycling firms. It also said products made using retired batteries must meet the quality standards applicable to their intended use. MIIT’s announcement sets out those changes.
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The announcement prohibits organizations and individuals from using retired batteries in electric bicycles, whether as complete packs or after separation, reassembly or assembly as packs, modules or cells. It also prohibits their use in other fields where laws, administrative regulations or mandatory standards bar them. This is a restriction on specified uses; it is not evidence that every second-life application is illegal.
MIIT also called for relevant cascade-use standards and organizational activities to be revised or discontinued. The regulatory change should not be confused with the separate material-recovery route: cascade use means putting a retired battery or its components into another application, while comprehensive utilization includes dismantling and treatment to recover resources.
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What Chinese authorities are trying to enforce
A joint enforcement notice issued by five departments on April 27 and published April 28, 2026, lists priorities across the retired-battery chain. They include improper sale or handoff, noncompliant products made from used batteries, missing traceability information, illegal dismantling and pollution, and operating without the required qualifications. The enforcement notice signals where authorities intend to focus attention; it does not quantify illegal activity or establish how prevalent any listed violation is.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How large is the battery-retirement challenge?
At a May 28, 2026, working-group meeting, MIIT described China’s NEV power batteries as entering a phase of large-scale retirement and called for a long-term mechanism. That is an official qualitative assessment, not a published estimate. The cited report gives no retirement tonnage, timeline or curve, regional processing capacity, or count of batteries retired. MIIT’s meeting report supplies the assessment but not those figures.
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The official material cited here also does not establish processing costs or recovery yields by battery chemistry or method. Those figures should not be inferred from the existence of a national policy framework.
What this means for EV owners
The policy assigns collection and processing duties to businesses across the battery and vehicle chain, rather than asking owners to take batteries apart. An owner dealing with a retired vehicle or battery should use the vehicle maker, an authorized repair or collection channel, or another properly qualified service provider—not dismantle or pass on a high-voltage pack informally. The regulations’ coding, information-sharing and operator requirements are designed to support traceable, compliant handoffs.
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