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Power banks are entering an era of stricter regulation.

On April 3, the “Mobile Power Source Safety Technical Specifications” (GB 47372—2026) (hereinafter referred to as the “new national standard”), formulated and released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was officially made public. Building on the existing requirements, it adds multiple key measures to further strengthen safety levels, including the introduction of needle penetration tests, cycle aging testing, and indicating a recommended safe usage lifespan.

“This is a clear raising of the safety threshold.” Mo Ke, founder of Zhenli Research, summarized this for China News Weekly.

However, once the safety standards are upgraded, one issue also follows—

Faced with stringent new testing and safety design requirements, will manufacturers’ costs inevitably rise, and will power banks see a wave of price increases in the future?

Image / Visual China

Safety, safety, or safety

For a long time, reports of power banks catching fire, spontaneous combustion, or even explosions have been all too common. The core underlying cause of such incidents is an internal short circuit within the battery cell; behind that, it often involves factors such as battery aging, material defects, external compression and impact, and high-temperature environments.

To address this, the new national standard introduces richer and stricter safety tests targeting the battery cell—the power bank’s core component—requiring higher safety performance for power banks under extreme conditions.

The most widely discussed of these is the needle penetration test.

This test is often called the “Mount Everest” of battery safety testing. Previously, it was used mainly to test the power batteries of new energy vehicles. Specifically, a steel needle is used to directly puncture the battery cell, simulating severe instantaneous internal short circuits that may occur in extreme situations, in order to evaluate whether it could lead to outcomes such as fire or explosion.

“This is the first time a needle penetration test has been introduced in consumer batteries, significantly raising the safety threshold.” Mo Ke analyzed that, to withstand extreme damage, manufacturers need more technical upgrades to the battery cells—for example, the ceramic coating on the separator must be more heat-resistant, the electrolyte needs to include flame retardants, and the electrode structure design must limit the speed of thermal propagation. This not only involves technical capability, but also increases costs.

Based on long-term research and observation of the industry, Mo Ke believes the current industry pass rate should not be higher than 40%.

Zhang Xiaorong, president of the Deep Technology Research Institute, also told China News Weekly that this means the safety standards for mobile power sources have officially been aligned with automotive-grade standards, effectively eliminating inferior battery cells.

In addition, the new national standard also targets “chronic ailments” of power banks. It adds professional detection for cycle aging, requiring lithium separation detection after 300 charge-discharge cycles. It also requires products to introduce intelligent management that provides real-time monitoring of voltage, temperature, and can store abnormal information. At the same time, it mandates that products clearly state a recommended safe usage lifespan to reduce the risk of long-term use.

The question, however, is: power banks have been sold for so many years—why is this “heavy punch” coming only now?

In response, Mo Ke said, “In the past, people didn’t think safety for consumer batteries was a major issue. But as power banks’ requirements for battery energy density and fast-charging speed keep increasing, safety must be taken seriously.”

At the same time, he said that in recent years, some manufacturers, in pursuit of extremely low costs, have been gradually testing the limits of safety—such as using recycled electrolytes and omitting protection circuit modules—leading to an increasing trend in safety incidents involving mobile power sources.

Against this backdrop, the uniqueness-based coding management promoted by the new national standard may effectively sever the industrial chain of low-priced, substandard power banks.

“This is a tightening noose around manufacturers.” Mo Ke commented. Once every mobile power source has its own exclusive “ID,” consumers can scan to look up information such as the battery brand. “With products that can be traced back, manufacturers will have no choice but to take it seriously.”

Will prices go up?

There is still a 12-month transition period before the new national standard takes full effect, but some companies are already keeping up.

As a company involved in drafting the new national standard, Anker Innovation told China News Weekly that the company had already made technical preparations and product validations earlier. For example, it uses special heat-resistant separators and flame-retardant electrolyte technologies to ensure that when a battery cell is punctured, thermal runaway can be contained locally rather than spreading. Its internal system also monitors battery health status and the number of cycles in real time. Once the system reaches a safety critical point, it will proactively provide warnings and alerts. Currently, it has launched two power banks whose complete units have passed the new national standard’s testing.

Meanwhile, according to JD’s merchandising team, JD has already listed multiple new products developed under the new national standard, such as Anker’s Smart Shield new product, Xiaomi’s magnetic charging stand, Pisen’s 2w Energy Power Bank, Baseus’s ultra-thin magnetic power bank, and more products will be released one after another.

However, faster switching on the supply side toward products that comply with the new national standard also means higher costs.

Looking at compliance costs alone, Mo Ke told people in the industry that in the future, the cost of conducting a full set of certification tests could be more than 4 times the current amount, and the timeline could be more than 3 times as long.

“Actually, the absolute amount of certification testing fees isn’t that high, but the costs for the R&D work and production-line improvements you need to make are relatively high.” Mo Ke further pointed out, “For some small factories, even if they are willing to spend money, they may not have the capability to do it.”

Above and beyond certification testing, there will also be changes in product costs themselves.

Zhang Xiaorong pointed out that, besides investment in quality control and testing during production, cost increases mainly come from two areas: first, the need to use high-quality battery cells capable of passing the needle penetration tests; second, protection circuits must add extra protection and smart management chips.

With a series of factors stacked together, it is inevitable that BOM (bill of materials) costs will rise.

Anker Innovation told China News Weekly frankly that the new national standard indeed increases the company’s investment in multiple areas such as R&D, testing, and materials. Costs for core technology R&D and upgrades to underlying materials may rise slightly. However, it did not disclose the specific magnitude of the increase.

Mo Ke said that his personal estimate is that the cost increase may be over 20%, though it also depends on the production volume and sales volume of each product. Zhang Xiaorong believes that the cost of an individual power bank may increase by more than 30%.

So, will this bill ultimately fall on consumers?

“In the short-term industry adaptation and transition stage, the overall rise in compliance costs does indeed have some limited impact on the market price system. But as the industrial chain gradually matures and scaled mass production of products under the new standard begins, overall manufacturing costs will steadily fall back to a reasonable range.” Anker Innovation stated. At the same time, it said it will absorb this cost pressure as much as possible from within through underlying technology optimization, supply chain integration, and its own economies of scale, so that consumers will face limited fluctuations in retail prices.

Mo Ke also believes the retail price of power banks will increase to some extent, but the increase will definitely be smaller than the increase in costs.

This may not necessarily be bad news. In Zhang Xiaorong’s view, it will signal that the industry is moving on from the low-price “involution” era and is formally shifting from a price war to a value war—moving from competing on price to competing on safety and quality.

In other words, for power bank companies, this new national standard is also a needle penetration test that could determine their survival.

Reporter: Shi Hanxu

Editor: Yu Yuan