Background

On June 14^th 2023, the EU parliament approved a new law that would overhaul EU battery directives, covering design, manufacture and waste management. The new rule will replace directive 2006/66/EC, and is named as New Battery Law.On July 10, 2023, the Council of the European Union adopted the regulation and published it on its official website. This regulation will come into force on the 20th day from the date of publication.

Directive 2006/66/EC is about environmental protection and wasted battery management. However, the old directive has its limits with high increase of battery demand. Based on the old directive, the new law defines rules on sustainability, performance, safety, collection, recycle and repurpose lifetime. It also regulates that end users and relevant operators should be provided with formation of battery.

Key measures

• Limit on usage of mercury, cadmium and lead.
• Rechargeable industry-use battery, light means of transport battery and EV batteries that are over 2kWh should provide carbon footprint declaration and label mandatorily. This will be implemented 18 months after regulation takes valid.
• The law regulates the minimum of recyclable level of active material

–Content of cobalt, lead, lithium and nickel of new batteries should be declared in documents 5 years after new law takes valid.

–After new law takes valid over 8 years, the minimum percentage of recyclable content is: 16% of cobalt, 85% of lead, 6% of lithium, 6% of nickel.

–After new law takes valid over 13 years, the minimum percentage of recyclable content is: 26% of cobalt, 85% of lead, 12% of lithium, 15% of nickel.

• Rechargeable industry-use battery, light means of transport battery and EV batteries that are over 2kWh should be attached with a document that states electrochemistry performance and durability.
•  Portable batteries should be designed to be easily removed or replaced.

(Portable batteries should be regarded as easily removed by end users. This means the batteries can be taken out with tools available in market instead of specialized tools, unless the specialized tools are provided freely.)

• Stationary energy storage system, which belongs to industrial battery, should perform safety assess. This will be implemented 12 months after the regulation takes valid.
• LMT batteries, industrial batteries with capacity of over 2kWh and EV batteries should provide digital passport, which can be access by scanning QR code. This will be implemented 42 months after the regulation takes valid.
• There will be due diligence for all economic operators, except for SME with operate income lower than 40 million Euros
• Every battery or its package should be labeled with CE mark. The identification number of notified body should also be marked beside CE mark.
• Battery health management and lifetime expectancy should be provided. This includes: remained capacity, cycle times, self-discharge speed, SOC, etc. This will be implemented 12 months after the law takes valid.

Latest progress

After the final vote in plenary, the Council will now have to formally endorse the text before its publication in the EU Official Journal shortly after and its entry into force.

There’s still a long time before new law takes effect, so long enough for enterprises to react. However, enterprises should also take actions as soon as possible to be ready for future trade in Europe.