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Published - 4 November 2025 - 5 min read

EU Battery Passport Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542): What You Need to Know in 2026

The European Union’s (EU) Battery Passport Regulation is set to be one of the most ambitious sustainability frameworks in recent times. Introducing the Digital Battery Passport (DBP) requirements will help the EU reshape how batteries are designed, manufactured, used, and recycled.

As the EU is placing batteries at the heart of its climate and industrial strategy, with electric vehicles and renewable energy storage, ensuring sustainable, traceable, and recyclable batteries are no longer optional, it becomes a regulatory requirement.

The EU Battery Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542), adopted in 2023, introduced the concept of the Digital Battery Passport (DBP). This tool is designed to provide transparent and standardised information about every battery placed on the European market. From raw material sourcing to recycling, the passport makes critical data accessible to regulators, manufacturers, and consumers.

For Europe, this represents a significant step toward achieving both its Green Deal objectives and its strategic autonomy in the battery sector. For projects like BASE (Battery Passport for Resilient Supply Chain and Implementation of Circular Economy), it is an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in shaping and deploying practical solutions.


Why the Battery Passport Matters

Batteries are crucial for Europe’s decarbonisation. The European Commission estimates that demand for lithium batteries alone will grow by more than ten times by 2030. Without strong frameworks for sustainability, this growth could increase pressure on supply chains, carbon emissions, and resource extraction.

The battery passport directly addresses these challenges. Making lifecycle data available in digital form allows stakeholders to assess the carbon footprint, state of health, material composition, and recycling potential of each unit. This not only supports compliance with EU law but also enables innovation in design, repair, and reuse.

For the industry, it provides certainty in planning investments. For consumers, it builds confidence in product claims of sustainability. And for policymakers, it creates a tool to monitor progress against climate and circularity targets.


The Role of the BASE Project

The BASE project is developing a trusted and interoperable Digital Battery Passport framework that meets regulatory requirements while also creating added value for the battery value chain. Our work goes beyond compliance. We are designing a passport that can track batteries through their entire lifecycle, integrate AI-driven insights, and support the 4R strategies of Reduce, Repair, Reuse, and Recycle.

BASE ensures that the passport is not only a reporting tool but also a driver of innovation. By aligning technical standards, data governance, and interoperability, the project provides a foundation for businesses across Europe to adapt efficiently to the new regulation.

This approach places BASE at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to build a competitive and sustainable battery ecosystem.


Key Regulatory Requirements

The EU Battery Regulation requires that, by February 2027, all industrial batteries above 2 kWh and all electric vehicle batteries must be accompanied by a digital passport. This deadline gives industry less than two years to prepare systems, align supply chains, and ensure that accurate data can flow across borders.

The passport must include information such as:

  • Carbon footprint performance: from raw material extraction to production and transport.
  • Material composition and sourcing: including percentages of critical raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel.
  • Battery performance indicators: such as capacity, durability, and efficiency.
  • Recycling and reuse potential: including collection rates and recycled content requirements.
  • Compliance with due diligence obligations: especially concerning human rights and environmental standards in the supply chain.

By 2027, all covered batteries must carry a Digital Battery Passport accessible via a QR code, linking physical products to their verified digital record, ensuring that authorised stakeholders,  from repair workshops to recyclers, can access the right level of detail.

For many companies, the biggest shift will not be in technology but in data management. Collecting reliable, standardised information across global supply chains is a challenge that requires both new infrastructure and cross-sector collaboration.


How the Regulation Strengthens Supply Chain Accountability

The regulation is designed to increase the transparency of supply chains. Manufacturers and importers will be required to disclose information about raw material origins, carbon footprint, and recycling rates. This has wide implications for global supply chains, as non-EU producers will also need to comply if they wish to access the European market.

For supply chain management, the DBP is more than an administrative tool. It provides a mechanism for tracking a battery’s journey across its lifecycle, enabling data-driven decision-making for procurement, recycling, and second-life applications.


Benefits for the Circular Economy and Carbon Footprint Reduction

By standardising lifecycle data, the EU Battery Passport regulation directly supports the goals of a circular economy. Batteries can be reused, refurbished, or recycled more effectively when their history and composition are transparent.

The regulation also contributes to carbon footprint reduction by making manufacturers more accountable for the emissions embedded in their products. Over time, this should encourage cleaner production methods and incentivise the adoption of low-carbon technologies, including advances in recycling techniques and solid-state battery designs.


Challenges for Industry

Compliance will not be straightforward. Many manufacturers are still at an early stage in preparing for the new requirements. Integrating complex data streams from suppliers, ensuring cybersecurity, and maintaining data integrity across multiple jurisdictions are all significant hurdles.

Small and medium-sized enterprises face additional difficulties. They often lack the resources to build advanced traceability systems on their own. Without harmonised solutions, there is a risk of fragmentation, duplication of efforts, and added costs.

There is also a question of global coordination. Batteries are traded internationally, and while Europe is leading in regulatory design, other regions are exploring their own frameworks. This creates a need for alignment to prevent inefficiencies in global supply chains.

The BASE EU project addresses these challenges head-on by creating an interoperable, standardised framework that balances regulatory compliance with business practicality.


BASE Project’s Contribution

BASE EU is directly contributing to the future of the Digital Battery Passport. The project is building a trusted and interoperable DBP framework that can be adopted across the European battery value chain. By combining blockchain-enabled traceability with lifecycle assessment tools, BASE ensures that data shared between stakeholders is both secure and verifiable.

A key focus of the project is circularity indicators. BASE tracks how batteries perform against the EU’s 4R strategies: reduce, repair, reuse, and recycle. By embedding these metrics into the passport, the project provides actionable insights that go beyond compliance and actively support sustainability goals.

BASE also works on harmonised ESG and safety indicators, which are critical for ensuring consumer trust and regulatory alignment. These efforts help companies avoid fragmented solutions and instead adopt a unified framework that reduces costs and increases efficiency.

By piloting real-world applications, BASE demonstrates how the DBP can be scaled across different sectors, from electric vehicles to stationary energy storage. These pilots validate not only the technology but also the business models that will sustain the circular battery economy in Europe.


Looking Ahead: From Regulation to Global Transformation

The EU Battery Passport regulation is more than a European requirement. It is setting a global benchmark for sustainability and supply chain accountability. Manufacturers outside the EU that wish to sell into Europe will need to comply, creating ripple effects across mining, refining, and recycling industries worldwide.

For Europe, this is an opportunity to establish leadership in the circular economy. By ensuring that batteries are traceable, repairable, and recyclable, the EU is positioning itself as a model for responsible industrial transformation.

The coming years will be decisive. Those who prepare early will not only meet the 2027 deadline but also gain a competitive edge in a market that values transparency and sustainability. For the battery industry, this is not simply about compliance. It is about building a future where energy storage is both clean and circular.


The BASE project has received funding from the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) Research and Innovation Actions under grant agreement No. 101157200.


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