How to check your electric scooter's battery is AIS-156 approved

Short answer: you cannot test the pack yourself, so you check the paperwork. AIS-156 is the Indian standard for battery and electrical safety in L category vehicles, which means two-wheelers, three-wheelers and quadricycles. Cars and vans sit under AIS-038 Rev 2, and the older AIS-048 of 2009 is being phased out. Approval goes to a vehicle model with a specific battery pack, tested at a lab such as ARAI in Pune or ICAT in Manesar. So the question at the showroom is not "is the battery safe", it is "which pack and which charger are covered by this model's type approval".

What the standard actually tests

AIS-156 dates from 2020 and was tightened in two phases after the scooter fires of 2022. From 1 December 2022, packs needed traceability, a protective fuse, defined cell to cell spacing, safeguards around regenerative braking and a microprocessor based battery management system with all protections. From 31 March 2023 came the harder set: thermal propagation assessment, cell testing to IS 16893 at NABL accredited labs, an audio and visual warning in case of a thermal event, four temperature sensors in the BMS, EMC testing of the BMS to AIS 004 and earth leakage detection in the charger.

The tests cover electrical abuse such as external short circuit and overcharge, mechanical abuse such as vibration, shock and penetration, water ingress to IPx7 at pack level, and thermal propagation. The nail penetration test was dropped in favour of system level checks closer to UN and EU practice. Amendment 3, dated 28 September 2022, also removed the RFID tag requirement and the time based charge cut-off in chargers, and cut cell charge and discharge cycles from five to one.

Four checks before you pay

One, ask for the model's CMVR type approval, and note which testing agency issued it. ARAI and ICAT are the usual two for electric two- and three-wheelers. Two, ask for the battery pack and on-board charger part numbers listed in that approval, and check they match what is actually on the scooter you are taking home. Three, photograph the pack label and the serial, which is what a recall notice will ask you for later. Four, keep the supplied charger. An approval granted after 31 March 2023 includes earth leakage detection in the charger, and a cheap third party replacement is not part of it.

For swappable packs, ask whether the network's battery itself has AIS-156 Phase II certification. Hyderabad firm RACEnergy says it was the first to get one, from ARAI's Chakan facility on 27 April 2023, which needed changes to battery management control, thermal runaway protection and thermal monitoring.

Where AIS-156 does not reach

The gap matters if you are buying the cheapest scooter in the shop. Electric two-wheelers under 250 W with a top speed below 25 km/h do not need CMVR type approval at all, under notification GSR 291(E), though the maker is still supposed to hold an exemption document from ARAI. Ask to see it. A pack in such a scooter has not been through the AIS-156 test series, and nor has a loose replacement pack bought in a market.

Certification is also expensive enough to explain why grey market sellers skip it. For testing up to two pilot vehicles, EVreporter puts homologation at ₹3.5 lakh to ₹4.5 lakh for a low-speed two-wheeler, ₹7.5 lakh for an e-rickshaw capped at 25 km/h, ₹12 lakh for a regular high-speed two-wheeler and ₹26 lakh for a regular three-wheeler, with 2 to 3 months of compliance testing per model.

For a Bengaluru buyer the practical point is that none of this testing happens near you, and the dealer's file is your only evidence. Get the approval details in writing at the time of booking, not after a fire somewhere makes it news.

Sources

• Guide to Battery Safety Standards in India, compiled by ARAI, EVreporter
• AIS 156 Standard: additional safety requirements, a practitioner's perspective, EVreporter
• Guide to Homologation of Electric 2W and 3W in India, EVreporter
• RACEnergy first company to achieve AIS 156 Phase II certification for swappable batteries in India, Autocar Professional