As April 1, 2026 approaches, China’s battery recycling industry is at a historic turning point. The Interim Measures for the Administration of Recycling and Comprehensive Utilization of Retired NEV Power Batteries (hereinafter the “Measures”), jointly issued by six ministries including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, is expected to officially take effect. Hailed as the “strictest in history,” the new regulation marks the industry’s formal entry into an era of stringent, law-based and standardized supervision.
China’s NEV sector has been experiencing explosive growth. In 2025, China’s NEV production and sales reached 16.626 million units and 16.49 million units, up 29% and 28.2% YoY, respectively, with NEV new-vehicle sales accounting for 47.9% of total new-vehicle sales. As the capacity of power batteries in previously sold and deployed NEVs continues to degrade, China is about to enter a phase of large-scale power-battery retirements.
However, behind the enormous market potential lie daunting challenges. For a long time, the power-battery recycling industry has been characterized by a landscape that is “small, scattered, and disorderly.” A large number of unlicensed small workshops, relying on cost advantages, bid high to seize supply sources of retired batteries, resulting in the distorted phenomenon where “formal players cannot get enough, while small workshops are everywhere.”
With the rollout and implementation of the new regulation, the power-battery recycling industry is set to undergo profound changes. Ming Yuebin, Vice President of Battery Technology Co., Ltd., noted: “By strengthening oversight over the recycling and post-processing stages, the new Measures will gradually phase out enterprises that fail to meet environmental protection and safety requirements, and promote the industry’s long-term, healthy development.”
In the long run, healthy industry development will also require sustained efforts in technological innovation and public participation. Enterprises need to continuously enhance the intelligentization of recycling and processing, reducing costs and improving efficiency through technological upgrades. Consumers should also strengthen their sense of responsibility, proactively hand retired batteries over to formal channels, and resist the temptation of ‘high-price recycling.’
April 1, 2026 is not only the effective date of a regulation; it is also the watershed moment for China’s battery recycling industry as it shifts from unchecked growth to standardized development. As the era of “formal players” arrives, the 100-billion-yuan-scale power-battery recycling market is set to undergo a value re-rating, laying a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the NEV industry.
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