What changes with the new Battery Regulation?

What you need to do concretely

What is expected of you

The Battery Regulation replaces the old Battery Directive and operates differently: a regulation applies directly in each Member State without requiring national legislation first. Those who already complied with the old rules now face a series of new obligations that go beyond collection and recycling alone. What the difference is with the old Battery Directive shows how that transition looks; below is what concretely changes.

A digital passport per battery

For a portion of batteries, a digital product passport is required: an online file containing technical data, origin and performance, accessed via a QR code on the battery. For a company with 10 to 100 employees, this mainly means a new information flow that must be organised — collecting data from the manufacturer, keeping it current, and ensuring the QR code on the product remains in place and functional. Not every battery receives this passport; whether the passport applies to specific batteries is a first question to answer before investing time in it.

Due diligence requirements in the supply chain

For larger batteries, there is an obligation to map the origin of certain raw materials (such as cobalt, lithium and nickel) and assess risks in the chain. This particularly affects parties that themselves import or commission battery production, less so those who only resell batteries already integrated into products. In practice, this means documentation from suppliers is needed about where raw materials come from — something that is often not yet systematically recorded now.

Requirements on carbon footprint and performance

For certain battery categories, there is an obligation to calculate and state the carbon footprint, and minimum requirements apply to performance and durability. For an importer, this means this information must be requested from the manufacturer — it is not a calculation that the business itself makes, but rather something whose presence must be verified before a battery is placed on the market.

Expanded labelling

Alongside the passport, there are also requirements for the label on the battery itself: information on capacity, composition and a symbol for separate collection. For most businesses, this is a matter of checking whether the manufacturer already applies this, and not having to design it themselves — provided the battery is not placed on the market under the business's own brand.

Replaceability of batteries

For some product categories, batteries must be removable and replaceable by the user or by an independent repairer. This particularly affects manufacturers and machine builders who integrate batteries into their own product; it is a design requirement, not only an administrative obligation. Who creates the passport when the battery is built in describes how that responsibility is divided between the battery manufacturer and the producer of the end product.

Extended producer responsibility

The obligations concerning collection, reuse and recycling that already existed are tightened with new targets. For a trading business, this often means no new action, as this is usually handled through a producer organisation — but it is worth checking whether your own registration there is still up to date.

Where things go wrong in practice

A common scenario: an importer of e-bikes assumes the passport only applies to car batteries, and discovers too late that the LMT battery in their own range is also covered by it. What an LMT battery precisely is clarifies that boundary, and prevents a wrong assessment based on the word "car" or "vehicle".

A second situation: a company believes that only the manufacturer abroad is responsible for the passport, whereas the party that first places the product on the EU market often qualifies as the responsible party themselves. This frequently only comes to light during an inspection, not at the time of purchase.

A third: with industrial batteries, the 2 kWh threshold is wrongly estimated, because a battery cell pack is assessed instead of the complete battery as it sits in the end product. How that 2 kWh threshold exactly works shows that the unit of measurement here must be applied precisely.

A fourth situation: data for the passport are only collected once a battery is already on its way to the customer, whereas manufacturers in Asia sometimes need weeks to provide technical documentation. This creates delays in delivery, not merely an administrative problem.

A fifth: a company assumes that a small portable battery (such as in a power bank) falls outside all obligations, whereas certain requirements also apply to that category, albeit less extensively than for LMT or industrial batteries. Whether portable batteries also fall under the passport makes that distinction concrete.

What you can record

• An overview per product group of which batteries are sold or imported, with the type (LMT, industrial, portable) and the capacity in kWh.
• Contact details and agreements with manufacturers on the supply of technical documentation, carbon footprint data and origin information.
• A dossier per battery type with the data needed for the passport, including version management when a manufacturer changes a specification.
• Agreements on who in the chain (manufacturer, importer, or platform such as batpas.eu) compiles and maintains the passport.
• Evidence of registration with a producer organisation for collection and recycling, and the date of the last update thereof.
• An internal check at new product introductions on the question of whether the battery falls under the regulation, for example via the question of whether the passport applies as a fixed part of the purchasing process.