Which batteries need a digital product passport, and when

The digital product passport duty in Article 77(1) of the battery regulation, which is in force, starts on 18 February 2027. It covers each light means of transport battery, each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kilowatt hours, and each electric vehicle battery.

If you export an e-bike battery to the European Union (EU), that date binds your product. If the battery has no passport on that date, your EU importer cannot lawfully place it on the market.

This is the first binding passport duty in European Union law. No delegated act under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) is adopted for any product group. So no ESPR passport is mandatory yet. A few other sectors get a passport from their own regulation. Toys need one from 1 August 2030 under the adopted EU toy regulation. See which products need a passport, and when.

Article 77(1) names three categories, and only one has a size threshold

The duty comes from Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, the battery regulation, which is in force. The Official Journal holds the text. Article 77(1) reads:

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').

The regulation names exactly three categories. Only one of them carries a size threshold, and that threshold is strictly greater than 2 kilowatt hours (kWh).

LMT means light means of transport, and it has no size limit

LMT is the short form the regulation itself uses. A light means of transport battery is the battery in an e-bike or an e-scooter.

Read the table again. That category has no threshold at all. A small e-bike battery needs a passport, and so does a large one.

Warning: two Commission wordings are loose

Warning: do not decide your position from the phrase "large batteries". A Commission news item of 20 July 2026 uses that phrase, and it is loose.

An e-bike battery is not large. It still needs a passport on 18 February 2027. If you read that loose phrase, you can incorrectly decide that the duty does not reach your battery.

The Commission web page on digital product passports is loose in a second way. Its timeline item for 18 February 2027 reads:

Digital Product Passports becomes mandatory for certain types of batteries, including electric vehicles, light means of transport and industrial batteries.

The word "including" leaves that list open. Article 77(1) closes the list at three categories, and it sets a threshold for one of them. Decide your position from the article above, and not from the web page.

The duty is per battery, not per model or per batch

Each individual battery needs its own passport. One passport for a model, a production run or a batch does not meet Article 77.

Three parts of the regulation confirm this.

So one passport belongs to one physical battery. Build your identifier scheme at item level, not at model level. See what is a product identifier and lifecycle events.

Every other battery gets a QR code, not a passport

Article 13(6) of the same regulation gives every battery a QR code under Annex VI Part C. That code leads to other information, and it is not a passport.

Portable batteries are in this group. They carry the code and the label, and they do not carry a passport. See data carriers for the difference between a code and the data behind it.

Batteries for military, security and space equipment are outside the rules

Article 1(5) excludes batteries for military equipment, security equipment and space equipment. The exclusion covers the full regulation, not the passport article alone.

There is no delay: the amendments did not move the passport date

The passport date has not moved. Two amending acts changed other parts of the battery regulation. Neither one changes Article 77.

The phrase "battery passport" does not appear in Regulation (EU) 2026/1738 at all. Plan on 18 February 2027.

The passport must stay available after your company closes

Article 78 sets the technical requirements for a battery passport. It governs the battery passport alone, not passports under other regulations. Point (e) reads:

the battery passport shall remain available after the economic operator responsible for the fulfilment of the obligations under Article 77(4) or (7) ceases to exist or ceases its activity in the Union

Cite this as Article 78(e). Some summaries call it Article 78(5). Article 78(5) does not exist, because Article 78 has lettered points and no numbered paragraphs.

Note the words the regulation uses: "ceases to exist or ceases its activity in the Union". Article 78 does not use the word insolvency. So the passport stays available after the seller closes. A person who buys a second-hand e-bike battery can still read the public part. See what happens if the company closes.

Three groups of readers, and only one group is the public

Article 77(2) sets three sets of data. Each set goes to a different group of readers, and each set points to Annex XIII.

The three sets are not nested. Point 2 goes to two of the three groups, so tag each field with every group that may read it.

The detailed composition is in Annex XIII point 2. It means the materials used in the cathode, the anode and the electrolyte. Do not put it on the public page.

Warning: the battery chemistry is a different field, and it is public. Annex XIII point 1(b) puts the material composition, including the chemistry, in the public set. Read who can see what before you decide what the public sees.

Monitor one further deadline. Article 77(9) required the Commission to adopt implementing acts by 18 August 2026. Those acts state who counts as a person with a legitimate interest. This site searched the Official Journal and two Commission registers on 15 August 2026, and found no adopted act.

The Commission's planning record and its web page both put the adoption in the last quarter of 2026. Both records give a plan, and that plan is after the date the battery regulation sets. Read what is an implementing act and what is public in a passport, and what is not.

Your EU importer carries the duty, and you supply the data

Article 77(4) reads:

The economic operator placing the battery on the market shall ensure that the information in the battery passport is accurate, complete and up to date.

If you have no EU establishment, you do not place the battery on the market. Your EU importer does that, so it carries the duty. See who is the economic operator.

You still have work to do. The importer cannot supply data that you never send. Article 41(2) of the battery regulation sets out what the importer must verify before it places the battery on the market:

• the EU declaration of conformity and the technical documentation in Annex VIII
• the conformity assessment under Article 17, carried out by the manufacturer
• the CE marking under Article 19
• the marking and labelling under Article 13

That list is the work you must do. See what a non-EU exporter must supply.

Article 77(4) also lets the operator authorise another operator in writing. Written authorisation is not a transfer of responsibility. Article 77(7) is the only transfer of responsibility. It covers re-use, repurposing, remanufacture and waste status.

What to do before 18 February 2027

1. Check each battery you export against the three categories above.
2. Measure the capacity of each industrial battery. Compare it to the threshold.
3. Give each individual battery a unique identifier.
4. Ask your EU importer who builds the passport and who hosts it.
5. Tag every data field with the group of readers that may see it.
6. Write the data duties into your supply agreement. Name one person on each side.

See agreeing data duties with your EU importer for step six. For the position across all sectors, see what this means for New Zealand exporters.