No Rules Yet for EV Batteries or Chargers — Time to Slow Imports Down?

Parliament's Sectoral Oversight Committee on Science, Technology and Digital Transformation met this week and flagged that Sri Lanka has no mandatory testing or certification for imported EVs, batteries, controllers, or charging stations. Officials said NERDC can already test battery capacity and lifespan, but using it isn't compulsory, and nothing has been approved yet, it's still just a proposal. One side says this is overdue. Lithium packs with no quality check are going into daily-driven cars and tuk conversions, and a bad cell or a badly wired charger isn't a small fault, it's a fire. The other side says be careful what you wish for: add mandatory certification on top of import taxes and surcharges that already bit hard this year, and EVs and conversion kits just get slower and pricier for ordinary buyers, while enforcement here has a patchy record anyway. If you're running an EV, a hybrid, or a converted tuk, has anything ever actually gone wrong with the battery or charger, or is this a solution looking for a problem? Would you pay more and wait longer for a certified pack, or trust the market to sort it out itself? මේකෙන් හරියට EV ගන්න කෙනාට සේප්පුවක් එනවද, නැත්නම් මේකත් තව කඩදාසි වේලාවක්ද?