Battery category: five legal classes, not market segments

The five classes, and where the industry goes wrong

Article 1(3) lists portable batteries, starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) batteries, light means of transport (LMT) batteries, electric vehicle batteries and industrial batteries, and adds that the Regulation applies regardless of shape, volume, weight, design, material composition, chemistry, use or purpose. A stationary battery energy storage system is not a sixth category: Article 3 defines it as an industrial battery with internal storage. The same holds for the cabinet battery at a base station — over 5 kg and neither EV, LMT nor SLI makes it industrial.

The tie-break rule does not reach this field

The second subparagraph of Article 1(3) provides that a battery which could be considered to fall under more than one category is deemed to fall under the one with the strictest requirements — but expressly “for the purposes of Chapter II”. Chapter II contains the sustainability and safety requirements; labelling is Chapter III and the digital battery passport is Chapter IX. On its terms, the Regulation does not extend that rule to the category you enter here. We do not settle that question for you; we flag it and record which definition your classification relied on.

Article 38(6) identification is not the unique identifier

Article 38(6) requires the battery to bear a model identification and a batch or serial number, or a product number, or another element allowing identification. That is a requirement on the battery itself. The passport has its own identifier: under Article 77(3) it is reached through the QR code and links to a unique identifier attributed by the economic operator placing the battery on the market, which must comply with ISO/IEC 15459-1:2014, 15459-2:2015, 15459-3:2014, 15459-4:2014, 15459-5:2014 and 15459-6:2014 or their equivalent. An existing ERP serial number does not automatically comply.

What counts as one model

Article 3 defines a battery model as a version all units of which share the same technical characteristics relevant for the requirements of the Regulation on sustainability, safety, labelling, marking and information, and the same model identifier. If two production runs differ in cell chemistry, or in a weight that decides the category, they are not the same model on that definition — regardless of sharing one material number in your system.

The identifier is not a permanent product marking

Article 77(7) provides that a battery which has been subject to preparation for re-use, preparation for repurposing, repurposing or remanufacturing shall have a new battery passport linked to the passport or passports of the original battery. Article 77(8) provides that a battery passport ceases to exist after the battery has been recycled. Your identifier scheme therefore has to do both: mint a new record carrying a link to its predecessor, and close a record out. Treating the identifier as a permanent product marking survives neither event.

Where it goes wrong

• Entering a market segment (“storage”, “telecom”, “UPS”) instead of one of the five categories in Article 1(3).
• Reusing an existing serial number as the passport's unique identifier without checking it against the ISO/IEC 15459 standards cited in Article 77(3).
• Invoking the strictest-requirements tie-break for the label or passport category, although Article 1(3) confines it to Chapter II.
• One model identification for units that differ in a characteristic relevant to the Regulation's requirements — on Article 3 those are not one model.
• Classifying a stationary storage battery as “other”, although Article 3 defines it as an industrial battery.

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