From 2024, manufacturers in Europe must disclose the carbon footprint of their batteries and from 2027 comply with a carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions limit, regulated by the European Union (EU) with independent auditors checking compliance. The German-funded consortium developing and testing ways to trace an individual battery's social and environmental characteristics highlighted in a summary seen by Reuters what information companies must make public. This includes the composition of batteries, their carbon footprint and recycled content, the summary shows. The guidance by the 11-member consortium, including BMW , Audi , Umicore and BASF , is the first attempt to interpret what the new demands will mean for electric car makers, industrial battery producers and light transport battery makers. Whoever sells the battery is responsible for ensuring it has the battery passport in it - meaning electric vehicle (EV) makers for EV batteries or the battery producer themselves if the battery is the end-product, such as for a storage system.
Still up for debate is the methodology for accurately
calculating the carbon footprint and recycled content, and who
will have access to what depth of data, consortium
representatives told Reuters.
More detailed information about the composition of the
battery as well as information on how to dismantle it will be
available to what the regulation calls "interested persons", but
how to define this is still undecided, the representatives said.
That decision will be key for companies juggling demands for
greater transparency with the need to protect intellectual
property on battery chemistry as they compete to make more
efficient electric cars and storage systems.
"We haven't solved all of it yet, but we are showing some of
the critical points that it will be important to consider," the
consortium's programme director Sophie Hermann said.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by John Stonestreet
and Alexander Smith)
