From 18 February 2027, electric vehicle batteries, light means of transport (LMT) batteries and industrial batteries above 2 kWh cannot be placed on the EU market without a digital battery passport, a unique, QR-accessible record required by Article 77 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542. The date is fixed in the regulation; some of the technical detail is still arriving via delegated acts.
This page reflects the rules as of 10 July 2026. Regulatory dates are dated and may change, confirm against the current instruments or with qualified advisers.
The battery passport is an electronic record, unique to each individual battery, that anyone can reach by scanning a QR code on the battery itself. It is created under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (the EU Batteries Regulation), which entered into force in August 2023, not under the broader Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation. That matters because batteries are the one product group whose passport deadline is written directly into an adopted, in-force regulation rather than waiting on a future product-group act.
Article 77 sets the application date: 18 February 2027. From that day, an in-scope battery placed on the market or put into service in the EU without a passport is non-compliant. There is no phase-in beyond that date and, as of July 2026, no proposal to move it.
The passport must be accessible via a data carrier, in practice the QR code required by the regulation's labelling rules, which resolves to a unique product identifier. The record contains information about the battery model plus information specific to the individual battery, and it must remain available and up to date for the battery's life.
Three categories are in scope from 18 February 2027, under Article 77(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542:
Out of scope for the passport requirement: portable batteries (consumer cells, phone and laptop batteries), SLI batteries (starting, lighting and ignition, conventional car batteries), and industrial batteries at or below 2 kWh. These categories carry other obligations under the regulation, labelling, due diligence, collection targets, but not a passport.
One nuance worth planning for: when an in-scope battery is repurposed or remanufactured, say, an EV battery converted to stationary storage, the regulation treats it as a new battery placed on the market, and the operator carrying out the repurposing takes on responsibility for a new passport linked to the original.
Annex XIII of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 lists the passport's required content. It groups broadly into five areas:
Identity and origin, manufacturer, manufacturing place and date, battery category and model, weight, chemistry, and the unique identifier the QR code resolves to.
Technical and performance data, rated capacity, voltage, expected lifetime, cycle life, and, for the individual battery over its life, state of health and status parameters, which recyclers and second-life operators will rely on.
Carbon footprint and materials, the battery's carbon footprint declared per the Article 7 methodology, and the recycled content shares for cobalt, lithium, nickel and lead.
Circularity and safety, dismantling information, spare-parts and safety-handling detail, and the battery's role in collection and recycling obligations.
Compliance and documentation, the EU declaration of conformity, test results, and due-diligence-related information.
Crucially, not all of this is public. Article 77 defines tiers of access: some fields are open to anyone who scans the code; some are restricted to persons with a legitimate interest (recyclers, repairers, second-life operators); some only to notified bodies, market surveillance authorities and the Commission. Commercially sensitive data, detailed performance telemetry, supply-chain specifics, sits behind the restricted tiers.
The regulation left the fine detail, exactly which Annex XIII attributes sit in which access tier, who counts as having a "legitimate interest", and the rules for creating, updating and correcting passport records, to secondary legislation. Under Articles 77 and 78, the Commission is required to adopt these delegated and implementing acts by 18 August 2026.
As of July 2026, those acts had not yet been formally adopted; the statutory deadline of 18 August 2026 was approaching. The Battery Pass consortium, the German-funded project that produced the most widely used technical content guidance, has published detailed proposals for how the Annex XIII attributes map to access tiers, but its guidance is exactly that: guidance, not adopted law.
The practical read: the what is settled (Annex XIII data, per-battery passport, QR access, 18 February 2027), while parts of the how (field-level formats, access-tier boundaries, update rules) land in the final months before the deadline. That is a reason to structure your data against Annex XIII now and expect field-level refinement, not a reason to wait.
The carbon footprint is a passport data point, but it is also a standalone obligation under Article 7 that phases in before and after the passport date, category by category. Each category's date is expressed as a fixed date or a set period after the calculation-methodology acts enter into force, whichever is later:
Because the EV methodology act was still being finalised past its original schedule, the EV date has shifted from the nominal February 2025 and now depends on when the methodology acts are adopted. When your category's declaration obligation is live, the declared value belongs in the passport, so confirm the current status for your category rather than assuming.
Under Article 77(4) and (7) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, the economic operator placing the battery on the market or putting it into service is responsible for the passport, for creating it, and for ensuring the information in it is accurate, complete and kept up to date. For an EU manufacturer that is the manufacturer; for imported batteries the obligation attaches to the importer placing them on the EU market.
Responsibility does not end at the point of sale. The passport must stay accessible for the battery's lifetime, survive the responsible operator's own systems (the regulation requires a backed-up availability arrangement via an authorised provider), and pass to the new responsible operator if the battery is repurposed or remanufactured. Vehicle OEMs, battery makers and cell suppliers therefore need contractual clarity on who compiles which data, much of Annex XIII (cell chemistry, carbon footprint inputs, recycled content) originates upstream of whoever formally places the finished battery on the market.
Map your data against Annex XIII. The attribute list is adopted law, you can gap-check today. Most organisations find identity and technical data easy, and carbon footprint, recycled content and upstream material data hard, because they live with suppliers.
Start supplier data collection early. Recycled-content shares and carbon-footprint inputs typically need evidence from cell and material suppliers. That collection loop, request, chase, verify, version, is the long pole; 18 February 2027 arrives faster than a multi-tier supply chain does.
Assign per-battery identifiers and choose your QR architecture. The passport is per individual battery, accessed through a QR that resolves to a unique identifier. GS1 Digital Link is the emerging convention for structuring that URL so one code serves both retail scanning and the passport.
Track the pending acts rather than waiting for them. The August 2026 delegated and implementing acts will settle access tiers and update rules, they will not change the deadline, the scope, or the Annex XIII data list. Build against what is adopted; keep a watch process (or a provider that maintains one) for what is not.
It is written into Article 77 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, which is adopted and in force, unlike the ESPR product-group passports, which each wait on a future delegated act. Moving it would require amending the regulation itself, and as of July 2026 no such proposal exists. Treat it as fixed.
Not under the 2027 requirement, portable batteries are out of scope, as are SLI batteries and industrial batteries at or below 2 kWh. The passport applies to LMT, EV and industrial batteries above 2 kWh. Your batteries still carry other obligations under the regulation, such as labelling and, over time, removability and collection rules.
You can build a passport with a compliance-ready structure, aligned to adopted rules where they exist, tracked where they don't. The scope, the deadline and the Annex XIII data list are adopted law; the field-level formats and access-tier detail arrive in the acts due by 18 August 2026. Structuring your data against Annex XIII now means those acts become a refinement, not a restart.
The regulation anticipates this. Article 77 tiers access: some fields are public via the QR code, some are restricted to persons with a legitimate interest such as recyclers and repairers, and some are visible only to notified bodies, market surveillance authorities and the Commission. The exact allocation of fields to tiers is being finalised in the delegated act due by 18 August 2026.
Yours, if you are the economic operator placing them on the EU market. Article 77 puts responsibility for the passport's accuracy, completeness and upkeep on that operator, regardless of where the battery was made. Practically, you will need contractual arrangements with the manufacturer to obtain the Annex XIII data, carbon footprint, recycled content and chemistry data originate in their supply chain, not yours.
The carbon-footprint declaration is a separate Article 7 obligation that phases in by category, each date tied to adoption of the calculation-methodology acts. Once your category's declaration obligation is live, the declared value is part of your passport data. For EV batteries the nominal date has already passed and the live date depends on when the methodology act was finally adopted, check the current status for your category rather than assuming.
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