“Essentially, the Battery Passport is a mechanism to collect as much data, both in terms of the manufacture, but also the life of that individual battery,” says Davies, adding that every passport will be different and will be connected to each individual battery.
How to prepare ahead of February 2027
With only a few months until implementation, Davies mentions that major manufacturers and big organisations are well advanced in implementing this new EU requirement. However, the pressure point will be towards mid-scale companies that “perhaps haven’t got major resources in terms of sustainability and circularity and regulatory compliance,” explains Davies, adding that “we’re getting lots of inquiries about these things now.”
“But you’d be surprised. We’re getting major EV companies asking us about it now, as well as mid-scale companies.
“The moral is there’s no need to panic. It is probably something that organisations need to have in place within maybe two months. In that regard, they’ve got a system and are trying to apply it. Because what you don’t really want to do is have a system going live on 17 February, ideally you want a situation whereby you’ve got things probably by the end of the year,” explains Davies.
Ahead of that deadline, Davies highlights three key priorities for compliance: data, how to transfer that data (including which format), and, lastly, their operations and when they want to apply the data. “Because maybe we don’t want to apply a battery right at the start of the process. Probably just before we say that is a product that we’re happy with, and we’re about to either put it into stock or we’re going to sell it to a client.”
For the data and how a company will facilitate the transfer of the battery’s data from their system into the data that will be acquired on the battery passport, Davies mentions that any battery passport provider can provide the information needed for that step, including the format that is needed, which he mentions is called a schema.
Furthermore, considering that these passports will work throughout the entire lifetime of a battery, it could happen that the original manufacturer has ceased to exist. Davies explains this will not be an issue, given that information will also be held on an EU register separate from the battery passport itself, while a third party will also hold all the information in case the original battery manufacturer goes out of business.
“There’ll never be a situation whereby the information on that battery won’t be accessible either from the original manufacturer, from the third party in the case of the disappearance of the manufacturer, or from the EU registrar.”
An evolving passport
Moreover, the implementation of that new EU Battery Passport in February 2027 should not be viewed as a one-off, but rather an evolving mechanism that will add new elements in the coming months.
“What’s been announced by the regulators is a fairly simple system in order to get it operational. It will develop. So, what will happen is there’ll be more and more information required on that DPP on the battery passport, so don’t necessarily think. In fact, you can be sure. Don’t think that once we’re compliant on February 18th, that’s it to forget about,” says Davies.
He mentions how, in the coming months after February 2027, there will be more information required to be added into the product’s passport, such as the carbon footprint information, which is not necessary now, but “it almost certainly will be within a matter of months.”
“It’s very much the first step. We are right at the cutting edge of a big revolution. This is the first one, so there’s no doubt it will evolve from there,” concludes Davies.