The minimum energy density was 300Wh per kg per unit or 220Wh per kg for each battery system.

BMO analyst Colin Hamilton said this move would allow companies more freedom in battery design.

"To achieve higher energy density and greater range, battery manufacturers have been steadily transitioning to the nickel rich NCM battery chemistry, which has seen the appetite for cobalt sulphate decline markedly this year," he said.

"We continue to see the Chinese government supportive of increasing EV adoption while the removal of thresholds will reduce the impetus towards nickel rich batteries."

Hamilton has previously said nickel-manganese-cobalt 8:1:1 batteries were not going to come in as quickly as some in the industry thought.

At the recent Advanced Automotive Battery Conference, NMC811 was surprisingly absent from many of the discussions and presentations and we got a clear sense that a scientific consensus that NMC 532/622 may be the limit for this chemistry is a real possibility," he said in October.

"[But] given the time it takes to go through the various steps involved in developing EV battery packs, we don't see newer non-cobalt cathodes coming into play anytime soon."