154 Chapter 13 Table 1: Comparing industry trade groups vacuum.” By this I mean that without some level of organization and direction, manufacturers will develop different products at all levels from cell to module to pack and system, but without any commonality between them. So without some level of guidance internal industry regulation and standard setting, governmental organizations are likely to step in and create rules and standards that may or may not be right for the industry. Therefore, it is often in the industry’s best interest to self-regulate.
These include both national and international organizations that work collaboratively on developing and implementing standards around different areas of the battery, its performance, safety, recycling, and applications. Some organizations, such as the SAE, are focused on creating design, testing, and engineering standards to ensure that there is an amount of commonality among components such as on charging requirements, connectors, communication protocols, and other systems and components. Other organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) are focused on testing and certification standards.
Other organizations are focused on creating groups that enable networking between the different members of the value chain in order to find new and meaningful ways to help the industry grow. One of the biggest challenges with standards organizations is the potential for overlap. In the event that multiple organizations generate a set of standards to cover the same area or product, but that also differ—which one would take precedent? For that reason, many of the standards organizations participate in each other’s work groups and try to create unofficial “boundaries” for themselves to help prevent that overlap or even to coauthor standards.
This following section will review and discuss some of, but not all, the major organizations in each of these areas broken out into two main categories: voluntary standards, those that offer “best practices”; and mandatory standards, those that are required in order to build, sell, or use the product in certain markets. EVAA (1909–1917) USABC (1991–today) NAATBatt (2003–today) To encourage the adoption and … to promote long-term R&D …
to grow the North American use of electric commercial and within the domestic electrochemical market for products incorporating pleasure vehicle by electric light energy storage (EES) industry and advanced energy storage technol- and power stations and their to maintain a consortium that ogy and to reduce the cost of customers. (Kirsch, 2000) engages automobile manufactur- those products to U.S. consumers. ers, EES manufacturers, the (NAATBatt, 2014) National Laboratories, universities, and other key stakeholders. (USCAR, 2014)