To amend title 49, United States Code, to require each new electric and hybrid vehicle to be equipped with technology that allows the timely extinguishment of an electric vehicle battery fire, and for other purposes.

I 119TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 6948 To amend title 49, United States Code, to require each new electric and hybrid vehicle to be equipped with technology that allows the timely extinguishment of an electric vehicle battery fire, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JANUARY 6, 2026 Mr. LATIMER (for himself and Mr. F ITZPATRICK) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend title 49, United States Code, to require each new electric and hybrid vehicle to be equipped with tech- nology that allows the timely extinguishment of an elec- tric vehicle battery fire, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. ELECTRIC AND HYBRID VEHICLE STANDARDS. 3 (a) ELECTRIC AND HYBRID VEHICLES.—Subchapter 4 II of chapter 301 of title 49, United States Code, is 5 amended by adding at the end the following new section: 6 ‘‘§ 30130 Electric and hybrid vehicles 7 ‘‘(a) BATTERY SAFETY.— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 6948 IH ‘‘(1) I N GENERAL .—Not later than 2 years 1 after the date of the enactment of this section, the 2 Secretary shall promulgate a final motor vehicle 3 standard to mitigate unreasonable risk of fire, explo-4 sion, reignition, stranded energy, thermal runaway, 5 fire breaching the passenger compartment, loss of 6 electrical power, and any other safety risk related to 7 the battery used in any new electric or new hybrid 8 vehicle manufactured for sale, sold, offered for sale, 9 or introduced or delivered for introduction in inter-10 state commerce in the United States. 11 ‘‘(2) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall pro-12 mulgate such standard in consultation with a rep-13 resentative from each of the following: 14 ‘‘(A) Major electric vehicle and hybrid ve-15 hicle manufacturers. 16 ‘‘(B) An accredited standards development 17 organization with expertise in fire protection. 18 ‘‘(C) An organization that represents pro-19 fessional firefighters. 20 ‘‘(D) An organization that represents vol-21 unteer firefighters. 22 ‘‘(E) An organization that represents fire 23 chiefs. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 6948 IH ‘‘(3) M INIMUM STANDARD .—The final motor 1 vehicle standard described in paragraph (1) shall re-2 quire any new electric or hybrid vehicle manufac-3 tured for sale, sold, offered for sale, or introduced 4 or delivered for introduction in interstate commerce 5 in the United States to be equipped, at a minimum, 6 with— 7 ‘‘(A) first responder access technology that 8 allows immediate access to the battery for pur-9 poses of timely extinguishment of an electric ve-10 hicle or hybrid vehicle battery fire; 11 ‘‘(B) technology that suppresses thermal 12 runaway if an electric vehicle or hybrid vehicle 13 battery cell is damaged; 14 ‘‘(C) safeguards to delay breaching of the 15 passenger compartment by an electric vehicle or 16 hybrid vehicle battery fire, sufficient to permit 17 escape or rescue of the vehicle operator and all 18 passengers within a reasonable period of time 19 from a collision or battery malfunction; and 20 ‘‘(D) battery and first responder access 21 placed in uniform, standardized locations within 22 the vehicle, subject to industry standards, in 23 order to assist firefighters in recognizing and 24 responding to battery fires. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 6948 IH ‘‘(4) GUIDANCE FOR FIREFIGHTERS .—Not later 1 than 1 year after the promulgation of the final 2 motor vehicle standard described in paragraph (1), 3 the Secretary shall publish guidance on responding 4 to fire incidents involving batteries used in electric 5 vehicles and hybrid vehicles to be used as the basis 6 for training firefighters. 7 ‘‘(b) MECHANICAL DOOR RELEASE.—Not later than 8 2 years after the date of the enactment of this section, 9 the Secretary shall promulgate a final motor vehicle safety 10 standard that requires any new electric vehicle or hybrid 11 vehicle manufactured for sale, sold, offered for sale, or in-12 troduced or delivered for introduction in interstate com-13 merce in the United States to have clearly marked interior 14 and exterior mechanical door releases on each door and 15 hatch that allows safe exit of such vehicle in case of failure 16 of the electric system of such vehicle. 17 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 18 ‘‘(1) E LECTRIC VEHICLE .—The term ‘electric 19 vehicle’ means a passenger motor vehicle that is pro-20 pelled by an electric motor drawing current from a 21 rechargeable storage battery, fuel cell, or other port-22 able source of electrical current, which may include 23 a nonelectrical source of power designed to charge 24 any such battery and component thereof. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •HR 6948 IH ‘‘(2) HYBRID VEHICLE .—The term ‘hybrid vehi-1 cle’ means a passenger motor vehicle propelled by a 2 combination of an electric motor and an internal 3 combustion engine or other power source and compo-4 nent thereof. 5 ‘‘(3) S ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 6 the Secretary of Transportation.’’. 7 (b) C IVIL PENALTY.—Section 30165(a)(1) of such 8 title is amended by inserting ‘‘30130,’’ after ‘‘30127,’’. 9 (c) C LERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 10 for subchapter II of chapter 301 of title 49, United States 11 Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 12 ‘‘Sec. 30130. Electric and hybrid vehicles’’. (d) A PPLICATION.—The amendments made by this 13 Act shall apply to each new electric vehicle or hybrid vehi-14 cle manufactured for sale, sold, offered for sale, or intro-15 duced or delivered for introduction in interstate commerce 16 in the United States on and after the date that is 2 years 17 after the date on which the Secretary promulgates the 18 final motor vehicle safety standard pursuant to section 19 30130(a) of title 49, United States Code (as added by sub-20 section (a)). 21 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 •HR 6948 IH SEC. 2. STUDY ON THE HEALTH IMPACTS OF ELECTRIC 1 AND HYBRID VEHICLE BATTERY FIRES ON 2 FIRST RESPONDERS. 3 (a) STUDY.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 4 the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 5 Human Services shall conduct a study on the health ef-6 fects of electric and hybrid vehicle battery fires on first 7 responders. 8 (b) R EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 9 of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 10 Human Services shall submit to Congress, and make pub-11 licly available on the website of the Department of Health 12 and Human Services, a report that includes the following: 13 (1) The findings of the study under subsection 14 (a). 15 (2) Input from at least one representative from 16 the following: 17 (A) An accredited standards development 18 organization with expertise in fire protection. 19 (B) An organization that represents pro-20 fessional firefighters. 21 (C) An organization that represents volun-22 teer firefighters. 23 (D) An organization that represents fire 24 chiefs. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 •HR 6948 IH (3) Recommendations for legislative action to 1 protect first responders from the health effects of 2 electric and hybrid vehicle battery fires and improve 3 the safety of electric and hybrid vehicle batteries. 4 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:30 Jan 21, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H6948.IH H6948kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB