PHMSA - Lithium Batteries|Cells

Lithium Batteries/Cells

Unless excepted by provisions in 49 CFR 173.185, Lithium batteries must be approved for commercial transportation by PHMSA's Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Safety. The Office of Special Permits and Approvals' Energetic Materials group handles Lithium battery applications,and issues Competent Authority Approvals for their commercial transportation as appropriate. The approvals typically contain specific requirements and limitations concerning testing, packaging, and hazard communication, particularly for those batteries approved for transportation by aircraft. The Competent Authority Approval is issued by the Chief, Energetic Materials on behalf of the Associate Administrator.

Approvals Search Tools

Note the data used to populate “Approval Search” is being reconfigured into a new document management system and as a result some of the data posted may be a few weeks out of date. We anticipate that the search feature will be up-to-date by mid-March. If you need information concerning application status that is not available in this search, please contact: PHMSA Approvals@dot.gov or call 202/366-3987. We apologize for any inconvenience.
(Note approved by the Office of Special Permits and Approvals)

Approvals Search

Terminated Approvals

Guidance and Criteria:
Competent Authority Numbering System

At the beginning of 2000, it became necessary to update the Competent Authority (CA) numbering system from the seven-digit sequence to the current 10-digit sequence. The old seven-digit number (and in a few cases, nine-digit number) and the new 10-digit number are interchangeable. It is not necessary to apply for a new number and the old number is still valid. All CA's issued by the Approvals Office will contain the new 10-digit number. If you company is using packagings, labels, and/or stamps with the old number, you may continue to use them when practicable.