What Is the Battery Passport? The First Mandatory DPP
A battery maker ships an industrial battery into the EU. The buyer replies with one question. "Where is the passport?"
There is no paper to send. The answer is a QR code on the battery itself, and behind it a record the law now requires. No passport, no sale.
The battery passport is the first time a Digital Product Passport stops being a policy idea and becomes a hard requirement on a physical product.
What is the battery passport?
The battery passport is an electronic record for one individual battery. It is the first Digital Product Passport (DPP) to become mandatory in the EU, required under the EU Batteries Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542.
Every covered battery carries a QR code. Scanning it opens the passport for that one unit, not a datasheet for the model.
It is one passport per battery placed on the market, and it has to stay accurate for the life of the product.
Which batteries need a passport?
The passport does not apply to every battery. It targets the large ones.
Three categories are in scope:
- Electric-vehicle (EV) batteries.
- LMT batteries, light means of transport, such as e-bikes and e-scooters.
- Industrial batteries above 2 kWh.
Portable batteries are out of scope for the passport, the ones in phones, laptops and power tools. Other parts of the Batteries Regulation still apply to them, but they do not need a passport.
When does it start?
The battery passport is mandatory from 18 February 2027. From that date, a covered battery cannot be placed on the EU market without one.
This sits inside the wider EU Batteries Regulation timeline: the regulation has applied since 2024, labelling rules land in 2026, and the QR-linked passport follows in 2027.
What is behind the QR code?
A scan does not show everyone the same thing. The passport uses access tiers.
- Public: anyone who scans sees the general information.
- Legitimate interest: more detail for parties with a defined need, such as recyclers.
- Notified bodies and market-surveillance authorities: the full record.
What the record must contain is set out in Annex XIII, from carbon footprint to due-diligence data. We break that down in what a battery passport must hold.
Who is responsible?
One party carries the duty: the economic operator that places the battery on the EU market, whether that is the manufacturer or the importer.
They own the passport and must keep its data accurate, complete and up to date. There is one responsible operator per battery, so the duty cannot be quietly shared away.
How Bindu builds the passport
Most of a battery passport is data, and almost none of it starts in the factory that assembled the battery. The carbon footprint, the recycled content, the due-diligence records all come from across the supply chain, and they have to land in one published record per unit.
Bindu holds that record: the passport template per battery model, the evidence behind each field, and the published passport page the QR resolves to, with the access tiers built in. The data you collect once becomes the passport a buyer scans. See the battery passport breakdown.
FAQ
What is the battery passport? The battery passport is an electronic record for an individual battery, the first Digital Product Passport to become mandatory in the EU. It is required under the EU Batteries Regulation and is accessed through a QR code on each battery.
Source: EUR-Lex: EU Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77
When is the battery passport mandatory? From 18 February 2027. From that date, a covered battery cannot be placed on the EU market without a passport.
Source: EUR-Lex: EU Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77
Which batteries need a passport? Electric-vehicle batteries, LMT (light means of transport) batteries, and industrial batteries above 2 kWh. One passport per individual battery. Portable batteries are outside the passport requirement.
Source: EUR-Lex: EU Batteries Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77
Is the battery passport a Digital Product Passport? Yes. It is the first Digital Product Passport to take effect. Other categories, textiles among the first, follow later under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR).
Source: EUR-Lex: Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (EU) 2024/1781
Who is responsible for the battery passport? The economic operator that places the battery on the EU market, the manufacturer or the importer. They own the passport and must keep its data accurate, complete and up to date.
Source: European Commission: Batteries