Scope

Which batteries need a passport?

Three categories are in scope from 18 February 2027: LMT batteries at any capacity, industrial batteries with a capacity greater than 2 kWh, and electric vehicle batteries. SLI and portable batteries are outside the passport obligation. If your product falls into one of the three, a passport is a condition of placing it on the EU market.

Article 77(1), Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 (CELEX 32023R1542).

EV batteries

All capacities

Traction batteries powering electric cars, vans, trucks and buses. Article 77(1) puts every electric vehicle battery in scope, with no capacity threshold attached to this category. It is also the category with the deepest obligations on paper — carbon-footprint declaration, recycled-content shares and state-of-health data running through the vehicle's life and on into second life and recycling.

Art. 77(1)

Typical products

  • Passenger EVs
  • Commercial vehicles
  • e-Buses & trucks

Industrial batteries

Passport trigger: over 2 kWh

Stationary energy storage, grid-scale systems and backup power. Read the two tests separately, because most summaries conflate them. Article 3(1)(13) defines an industrial battery as one specifically designed for industrial uses, or intended for them after preparation for repurposing or repurposing — that limb carries no weight and no capacity threshold — or any other battery weighing more than 5 kg that is not an EV, LMT or SLI battery. Capacity plays no part in the definition. The 2 kWh figure is the separate obligation trigger in Article 77(1). So a 3 kg battery designed for industrial use is an industrial battery; whether it needs a passport then turns on whether its capacity exceeds 2 kWh.

Art. 3(1)(13) · Art. 77(1)

Typical products

  • Grid & BESS
  • Home storage
  • Repurposed packs

LMT batteries

All capacities

Light means of transport — the batteries in e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mopeds and similar light electric vehicles. Article 77(1) names LMT batteries without any capacity qualifier, so every one of them is in scope. Where their treatment diverges from EV and industrial batteries is recycled content: the declaration duty starts later, and the minimum shares that bite in 2031 do not reach LMT batteries until 2036.

Art. 77(1)

Typical products

  • e-Bikes
  • e-Scooters
  • e-Mopeds

Outside the passport obligation

Article 77(1) lists exactly three categories, and these two are not among them — so neither needs a battery passport. Other duties under Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, including labelling, removability and collection, continue to apply to them.

Art. 77(1)

SLI batteries
Starting, lighting and ignition batteries — the conventional automotive starter battery.
Portable batteries
Consumer cells and packs, including those built into appliances and power tools.

Whose obligation is it?

The economic operator placing the battery on the market or putting it into service is responsible for the passport data being accurate, complete and up to date, and may authorise another operator in writing to act on its behalf.

Art. 77(4)

Obligations at a glance

One row per obligation, one column per category, and the provision behind every row. Where an obligation depends on a Commission act that has not been adopted, the cell says so rather than showing a date that is not yet real.

Reading the table

Required
In force for this category on the date given in the row.
Phased
Applies to this category, but from a later date than the others.
Conditional
On the statute book, but the obligation cannot start until an overdue or unadopted Commission act enters into force.
Not applicable
This category is outside the obligation as it stands — read the note, which may give a later date at which it comes in.

EV batteries

Digital battery passport, from 18 February 2027Art. 77(1) · CELEX 32023R1542
Required
Unique identifier uploaded to the EU digital product passport registryArt. 77(10) · CELEX 32026R1778
RequiredNote 2
Open standards, no vendor lock-in, passport persistenceArt. 77(5) · Art. 78(e)
RequiredNote 3
Tiered access for persons with a legitimate interestArt. 77(9) · Annex XIII 2 & 4
ConditionalNote 4
Carbon-footprint declarationArt. 7(1)
ConditionalNote 5
Recycled-content declarationArt. 8(1)
ConditionalNote 6
Minimum recycled-content shares, from 18 August 2031Art. 8(2)–(3)
Required
Supply-chain due-diligence policy, from 18 August 2027Art. 48 · CELEX 32025R1561
PhasedNote 9

Industrial batteries

Digital battery passport, from 18 February 2027Art. 77(1) · CELEX 32023R1542
RequiredNote 1
Unique identifier uploaded to the EU digital product passport registryArt. 77(10) · CELEX 32026R1778
RequiredNote 2
Open standards, no vendor lock-in, passport persistenceArt. 77(5) · Art. 78(e)
RequiredNote 3
Tiered access for persons with a legitimate interestArt. 77(9) · Annex XIII 2 & 4
ConditionalNote 4
Carbon-footprint declarationArt. 7(1)
ConditionalNote 5
Recycled-content declarationArt. 8(1)
ConditionalNote 6
Minimum recycled-content shares, from 18 August 2031Art. 8(2)–(3)
Required
Supply-chain due-diligence policy, from 18 August 2027Art. 48 · CELEX 32025R1561
PhasedNote 9

LMT batteries

Digital battery passport, from 18 February 2027Art. 77(1) · CELEX 32023R1542
Required
Unique identifier uploaded to the EU digital product passport registryArt. 77(10) · CELEX 32026R1778
RequiredNote 2
Open standards, no vendor lock-in, passport persistenceArt. 77(5) · Art. 78(e)
RequiredNote 3
Tiered access for persons with a legitimate interestArt. 77(9) · Annex XIII 2 & 4
ConditionalNote 4
Carbon-footprint declarationArt. 7(1)
ConditionalNote 5
Recycled-content declarationArt. 8(1)
PhasedNote 7
Minimum recycled-content shares, from 18 August 2031Art. 8(2)–(3)
Not applicableNote 8
Supply-chain due-diligence policy, from 18 August 2027Art. 48 · CELEX 32025R1561
PhasedNote 9

Notes

  1. Note 1. The 2 kWh figure is the obligation trigger in Article 77(1), not part of what makes a battery industrial. Article 3(1)(13) contains no capacity threshold at all.

  2. Note 2. Article 77(10), added to the consolidated text by corrigendum and absent from the 2023 Official Journal PDF, requires the unique identifier to be uploaded to the registry under Article 13(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1781. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1778 of 16 July 2026 (OJ L, 2026/1778, 17.7.2026; CELEX 32026R1778), in force 6 August 2026, lays down that registry's implementation arrangements and expressly covers batteries under Article 77. Member States must appoint a designated national registry administrator by 18 February 2027 — the same day the passport obligation begins.

  3. Note 3. Article 77(5) requires all passport information to be "based on open standards and be in an interoperable format, transferable through an open interoperable data exchange network without vendor lock-in, machine-readable, structured and searchable". Article 78(e) requires the passport to "remain available after the economic operator … ceases to exist or ceases its activity in the Union". The Regulation prescribes that outcome but names no custodian, escrow arrangement or duration for achieving it, and that gap is unresolved.

  4. Note 4. Article 77(9) required the Commission to adopt, by 18 August 2026, an implementing act specifying who counts as a person with a legitimate interest and what battery passport data they may access. As of July 2026 it is still at planning stage (Commission initiative 16473), no draft has been published for feedback, and the Commission's own roadmap targets Q4 2026 — so the deadline will be missed. Until it is adopted, the access tiers in Annex XIII points 2 and 4 cannot be operationalised.

  5. Note 5. No delegated or implementing act has been adopted under Article 7 as of July 2026. Because each declaration duty starts only 18 months after the relevant act enters into force, no carbon-footprint declaration obligation has actually taken effect for any category. The EV methodology went out for feedback in April 2024 against a statutory deadline of 18 February 2024 and remains unadopted; the industrial-battery methodology missed its 18 February 2025 deadline; the LMT act is due 18 February 2027 and the external-storage one 18 February 2029. Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/606 (CELEX 32025R0606) is frequently cited as a carbon-footprint act — it is not. It establishes recycling-efficiency and material-recovery methodology under Article 71(4).

  6. Note 6. Article 8(1) sets the recycled-content declaration duty at 18 August 2028 or 24 months after the enabling delegated act enters into force, whichever is later. That act was due by 18 August 2026 and remains unadopted — Commission initiative 14858 is still pre-draft with adoption only planned for Q3 2026 — so the 2028 date is expected to move.

  7. Note 7. Article 8(1), second subparagraph defers the recycled-content declaration duty for LMT batteries to 18 August 2033, subject to the same "whichever is later" condition attached to the 2028 date.

  8. Note 8. LMT batteries fall outside the minimum shares applying from 18 August 2031 — 16% cobalt, 85% lead, 6% lithium, 6% nickel — because Article 8(2) simply does not list them, not by any express exclusion. This is not a permanent exemption: Article 8(3) expressly names LMT batteries in the higher shares that apply from 18 August 2036, at 26% cobalt, 85% lead, 12% lithium and 15% nickel.

  9. Note 9. Regulation (EU) 2025/1561 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2025 (OJ L, 2025/1561, 30.7.2025; CELEX 32025R1561), in force 31 July 2025, postponed the Article 48 supply-chain due-diligence obligations from 18 August 2025 to 18 August 2027. It is a Regulation adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure, not a Commission delegated act. The same instrument moved the deadline for the Commission's due-diligence guidelines to 26 July 2026.

Orientation only. Several of these obligations depend on Commission delegated or implementing acts that are overdue or still unadopted, so their start dates can move. The regulation and its acts govern in every case.

Not sure if your product is in scope?

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