BIS Dates Extended for Battery Registration
The original deadline to have a battery submitted to BIS for compulsory registration was August 13, 2015. As of August 7, 2015, that deadline was formally extended to December 1, 2015. Although this seems like a good extension, this is still a tight time line for anyone that has not started the process of testing and registering their products in India yet. There are currently only a handful of labs accredited to perform the testing in accordance with BIS16406 in India and until recently, cell suppliers were not engaged in obtaining BIS Registration on their products. As the cell suppliers have entered the registration process, they have taken a crowded field of labs and added a full complement of testing to them. Additionally, there are a total of 6 product categories with mandatory testing and registration for India. Cycle time for testing a single battery pack in India and completing the report preparation have been taking over 2 months from the date samples are received in India for testing. If you consider that the new date for registration to start is only a little over 3 months out, this could still be a problem for anyone that has not started the testing process yet.
What changes after the December 1, 2015 deadline that is so difficult? The main issue that is going to face battery manufacturers after the passing of the new deadline is the need to use an already separately BIS registered cell in their batteries. Until the December 1, 2015 date, a battery may be tested and registered in India with only verification of IEC62133 testing on the component cell, and the cell does not have to be BIS registered. However, once the new deadline is reached, this is no longer the case. The cells used in the batteries looking to gain registration in India must use a cell that is already BIS registered. One of the issues with this is that most cell suppliers are currently quoting late November to early Q1, 2016 dates for completion of their BIS registrations. Many have not yet started the process. The schedule of the cell registration could lead to delays in the ability of the battery pack to obtain BIS report and registration, well into 2016.
Battery manufacturers need to work closely with their cell suppliers to understand their schedules to be sure it can work with their plans for shipping product into India. The current timeframe for testing and report generation for the battery also needs to be considered and built into the product schedules. In addition to the current 2 month process to completed testing and report generation, the latest quoted cycle time for the registration to be completed by BIS is 60-90 days. This is after the reports are written and issued by the lab completing the testing. Based on this, a full registration could take 5 months or longer to complete from the time samples are received until the actual registration number is issued. The deadline only applies to having the report issued and the registration submitted to BIS by the December 1, 2015 date.
Here is some additional information about the extension in dates for BIS registration.
