REG-001
EU battery passport becomes mandatory
18 February 2027
in 166 days
No electric vehicle battery, no e-bike or scooter battery, and no industrial battery above 2 kWh can be placed on the EU market without a machine-readable electronic record, reachable from a QR code on the cell, carrying the data set in Annex XIII and kept current for the life of the battery.
The sentence that fixes the date
From 18 February 2027 each LMT battery, each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kWh and each electric vehicle battery placed on the market or put into service shall have an electronic record ('battery passport').
Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Article 77(1) — Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, OJ text
The day it lands
18 February 2027
166
days remaining
Counted from the date in the official journal text linked on this page. Arithmetic, not a forecast.
Who is forced to spend
Who
Every manufacturer and importer placing those batteries on the EU market, and behind them the cell suppliers, pack assemblers and recyclers who have to hand over the data.
What they spend today
The same firms already pay for CE marking files, REACH and RoHS declarations and per-market registrations, typically as consultancy days at four figures per product family.
Sector
Batteries and mobility
This catalyst has a dossier: what to build for the people it hits.