The EU Council officially adopts the "New Battery Law"

At 10:35 local time on July 10, the European Council officially passed the "New Battery Law".

The "New Battery Law" will regulate the entire life cycle of batteries from production to recycling. The bill applies to all batteries, including all discarded portable batteries, electric vehicle batteries, industrial batteries, starting, lightning and ignition (SLI) batteries (mainly used in vehicles and machinery) and light transport batteries (e.g. e-bikes, e-mopeds, electric Scooter).

According to the Press Release of the Council of the European Union, the regulation will be signed by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament and will take effect 20 days after being published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The bill stipulates end-of-life requirements for batteries, including battery recycling targets and obligations, material recycling targets, and extended responsibilities for battery manufacturers.

Regarding the collection target requirements for battery manufacturers’ used batteries, the bill stipulates that the collection target for used portable batteries will be 63% by the end of 2027 and 73% by the end of 2030; for the collection target of used batteries for light vehicles, it will be 51% by the end of 2028. , 61% by the end of 2031.

Regarding the lithium resource recycling target for used batteries, the bill stipulates that 50% of lithium from used batteries will be recovered by the end of 2027, and 80% will be recovered by the end of 2031. The Council pointed out that it will authorize revisions to the bill based on market, technology, and utilization of lithium resources.

In terms of the minimum recycling content level of batteries, the preliminary mandatory recycling requirements for industrial, SLI batteries and power batteries are 16% cobalt, 85% lead, 6% lithium and 6% nickel, and batteries must maintain recycling content documents.

Regarding the recycling efficiency target, the bill stipulates that by the end of 2025, the recycling efficiency target for nickel-cadmium batteries will be 80%, and that for other batteries will be 50%.

In terms of battery replacement requirements, the regulation stipulates that by 2027, portable batteries incorporated into electrical appliances should eventually be removable and replaceable by users. The bill will leave enough time for companies to adjust the design of their products to adapt to this requirement. Light vehicle batteries need to be replaced by independent professionals.

In addition, the European Battery Law will impose strict restrictions on battery performance, durability, safety standards, and harmful substances such as mercury, cadmium, and lead, and will be mandatory through the integration of battery carbon footprint information.

For battery components, recycled content, as well as relevant battery labeling and information requirements stipulated in the bill such as electronic "battery passports" and QR codes, in order to allow member states and market participants sufficient time to prepare, labeling requirements will apply before 2026 , the QR code will be applicable until 2027.

Regarding labels and battery passports, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) released the battery passport proof-of-concept results for the first time and announced three battery passport prototypes. Through the battery passport concept proof released by GBA, product information has four important components: battery information (Battery), material information (Material), environmental social responsibility and corporate governance information (ESG), and data source information (Data).

With the implementation of battery passports, the disclosure of more information will bring a certain degree of risk to companies, such as battery core parameters, sensitive metals, and ESG-related punitive measures.

At present, our country has become one of the important exporters of power batteries in the world. In the context of increasingly strong consumer demand for new energy vehicles in overseas markets and a gradual increase in the probability of sales exceeding expectations in 2023, in the future, as my country's leading battery companies develop in the upstream The deployment of industrial chains, carbon footprints, digital battery passports, battery recycling, etc. has gradually matured. Coupled with the huge development potential of the European market, the installed capacity of my country's power batteries in the European market is expected to continue to increase.