Glossary
Glossary term

battery passport

An electronic record for certain batteries that combines model-level and individual-battery information for transparency, traceability, and lifecycle use.

3 official sourcesrelated_but_not_identical

What does battery passport mean?

Battery passport is a strategic glossary term because it sits at the intersection of compliance, product data, traceability, and sustainability communication. The cleanest legal anchor comes from Article 77 of the EU Battery Regulation, but real-world usage also includes a broader ecosystem meaning shaped by the Global Battery Alliance and implementation work around digital passports.

Official definitions by source

EU Battery Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries

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').

Reference: Article 77(1)

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EU Battery Regulation content scope

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries

The battery passport shall contain information relating to the battery model and information specific to the individual battery, including resulting from the use of that battery, as set out in Annex XIII.

Reference: Article 77(2) and Annex XIII

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Global Battery Alliance

Battery Passport

The GBA Battery Passport is a global sustainability reporting and certification scheme for batteries.

Reference: Main page description

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How the definitions differ

A battery passport is an electronic record for certain batteries that contains model-level and battery-specific information, including use-derived information, and is intended to support transparency, traceability, sustainability, and circularity across the battery life cycle.

Why it matters in practice

This term matters when companies decide what battery data must exist, how it should be linked to specific batteries, and how it should be made accessible to regulators, customers, downstream operators, and recyclers. It directly affects data architecture, QR-code linking, lifecycle reporting, and the way battery information is structured over time.

Minespider commentary

For Minespider, battery passport is both a regulatory object and a product-design object. The important move is to preserve the legal meaning of the required electronic record while also making the broader implementation layer understandable to customers and partners.

Common confusions

  • Treating battery passport and digital product passport as automatically identical without explaining their legal and ecosystem relationship.
  • Using only the broad GBA meaning and skipping the narrower Article 77 legal anchor.
  • Assuming the passport only contains static model data when Annex XIII also anticipates individual-battery and use-derived information.

Related Minespider reading

4 steps towards preparing your data to the regulation reporting

Direct implementation-oriented context for preparing passport-relevant data.

Read on Minespider

The difference between the Battery Passport and the Open Battery Passport

Useful boundary-setting between the core battery-passport concept and the Open Battery Passport framing.

Read on Minespider