What is a ‘Battery Passport’?

April 27, 2022

Germany’s Ministry of Economy, Robert Habeck, has announced that there are plans by a group of companies in the country’s automotive industry to develop a ‘passport’ that will be tracing the environmental impact of European batteries.

Overview:

The consortium consisting of 11 partners received EUR 8.2m of funding to develop a common set of standards to gather and disclose the data on European batteries.
This could become mandatory under the regulations of the European Union (EU).

Companies that are involved

Umicore, BMW, and BASF are some of the companies that are involved in this ‘battery passport’ effort.

European Commission proposal

Later this year, the European Commission will be discussing a proposal that will be ensuring that the battery producers disclose the content of recycled materials and the carbon footprint of all rechargeable electric vehicles (EV), industrial batteries, and light transport that are sold in Europe from the year 2024, and complying with the limit of CO2 emissions from 2027.

Requirement by batteries to use recycled materials

By the year 2030, the EU will be making it mandatory for the batteries to be produced using a minimum share of recycled lithium, cobalt, lead, and nickel.

Battery passport framework

Under the framework, the European batteries must carry a QR code that will link to an online database where the businesses, EV owners, and regulators will be able to access information on the composition of the battery. This digital tool will also be making it easier to recycle the raw materials that are present inside batteries. It will also help to reduce this region’s foreign suppliers’ dependence on resources like nickel and lithium which are essential for the production of batteries.

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