BATTERIES
The EU Batteries Regulation T
Marcus Sampson, business line manager for transport at TÜV SÜD
he EU Batteries Regulation entered into force on 17th August 2023, replacing the Battery Directive 2006/66/EC which expires two years later.
changes and requirements aimed at enhancing the sustainability and safety of batteries and battery-operated products. In contrast to a directive, a regulation is a legal act which applies automatically and uniformly in all EU countries, without the need for transposition into national law. UK-based operators who place or put into service batteries and battery-powered products must also comply.
The EU Batteries Regulation covers the entire life cycle of a battery, including raw materials procurement, battery production and battery reuse and recycling. It also introduces new categories of batteries according to their use and design. The Regulation will require light means of transport (LMT), electric vehicle (EV) and industrial batteries with a capacity greater than 2 kWh to be electronically registered with a battery passport. Safety testing requirements have also been introduced for stationary battery energy storage systems (SBESS). Portable batteries of general use (excluding button cells), rechargeable industrial batteries and LMT batteries will also have to comply with electrochemical performance and durability parameters.
It also mandates that portable batteries should be easily removable and replaceable by end-users, while LMT, EV and industrial batteries should be easily removable and replaceable by independent professionals.
Sustainability
The regulation introduces an obligation for large economic operators placing batteries on the market or putting them into service to have a diligence policy on responsible raw material sourcing, processing and trading periodically audited.
The Regulation also includes provisions for calculating the carbon footprint of batteries and setting recycled content targets for various elements, such as cobalt, lead, lithium and nickel. Recycling alongside material recovery targets for facilities for batteries. For end-of-life provisions, collection should be separate and maximised and recycling should be The Regulation also addresses the shipment of waste batteries outside the EU.
Hazardous substances
The Regulation restricts the use in batteries of certain substances listed in Annex I to the Batteries Regulation. This can be amended by the EU Commission through delegated
acts if there is an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment that is not adequately controlled and needs to be addressed on an EU-wide basis.
Information
Requirements for information and labelling aim to enhance information and traceability. labelling (chemistry, lifetime, charging capacity, collection, hazardous substances, safety risks), electronic databases and second life data sets.
By 2026, all batteries must be labelled with some general information and marked with a separate collection symbol. By 2027, all batteries must be marked with a QR code to access either a battery passport, for LMT batteries, some industrial batteries and electric vehicles batteries or the applicable information for other batteries. Furthermore, rechargeable portable batteries, LMT batteries and SLI batteries will need a label about charging capacity. The label on non-rechargeable portable batteries must detail their minimum average and say they are ‘non-rechargeable’. Batteries containing a minimum heavy metal content of cadmium or lead will have to be marked with a symbol, SLI batteries with a QR code about the amount of recovered cobalt, lead, lithium or nickel. The Regulation introduces another information requirement for SBESS, LMT batteries and EV batteries using a battery management system. The end-user or any third-party on their behalf must be able to check the data stored in that system to determine the state of health and expected lifetime of their batteries.
14 SEPTEMBER 2024 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS
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