A briefing on battery regulation, China's supply chain, and prices, for the people who buy and deploy the cells.
The EU battery passport registry is live. The European Commission's Digital Product Passport Registry became operational on 20 July 2026. The passport stays mandatory from 18 February 2027 for EV, LMT and industrial batteries above 2 kWh, the date we have tracked since June, but suppliers can now register real passports rather than promise them.
The passport access-rights act is finally moving. The Article 77(9) implementing act that decides who may read which passport fields is no longer just unadopted: a draft was circulated to the Commission's Battery expert group in late April 2026, with public and WTO-TBT consultation and adoption expected around Q4 2026.
UL 9540A's new edition raises the fire-test bar for ESS. The 6th edition of UL 9540A, published 13 March 2026, adds a mandatory large-scale fire test (Section 10) that must show fire will not propagate between ESS units, drops the Unit Level Test for non-residential systems, and aligns with the 2026 edition of NFPA 855.
The UK now has a wiring chapter written for battery storage. The IET and BSI published BS 7671 Amendment 4, the Orange Book, on 15 April 2026, introducing a new Chapter 57 for stationary battery installations covering system design, bidirectional energy flow, ventilation and fire risk. Compliance is required for UK work from 15 October 2026.
| Date | What changes | Who should care |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Mar 2026 | UL 9540A 6th edition published (mandatory large-scale fire test) | ESS buyers / integrators |
| 15 Oct 2026 | BS 7671 Amendment 4 (Chapter 57) compliance for UK BESS work | UK ESS installers |
| ~Q4 2026 | EU Art. 77(9) passport access-rights implementing act expected | Second-life operators / data users |
| 18 Feb 2027 | EU digital battery passport mandatory (>2 kWh); registry live since 20 Jul 2026 | Anyone selling into the EU |
CATL's sodium storage crosses into Europe. CATL and Dutch energy-tech firm Alfen signed a memorandum of understanding on 16 July 2026 to deploy 5 GWh of sodium-ion battery storage in the Netherlands and Western Europe from 2027, the first commitment putting Chinese sodium-ion cells into the European grid-storage market. It builds on the TENER Sodium system CATL launched in Munich.
China's export surge is lopsided, power cells are pulling away from storage cells. CABIA's H1 2026 figures show power-battery exports of 122.7 GWh (+50.3% year on year) versus ESS-battery exports of just 58.6 GWh (+28.5%). Storage-cell export growth is running at little more than half the power-cell rate.
| Vendor | What | Key numbers | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| CATL & Alfen | MoU to deploy TENER Sodium (sodium-ion) BESS in the Netherlands & Western Europe | 5 GWh planned deployment | MoU 16 Jul 2026 · from 2027 |
Power-battery exports 122.7 GWh, up 50.3% YoY; ESS-battery exports 58.6 GWh, up 28.5% YoY. CABIA via AskCI
Lithium carbonate is firming, not falling. SMM's most-active lithium carbonate futures closed at 147,200 yuan/mt on 27 July 2026, up 2.39% on the day, with battery-grade spot deals concentrated around 145,000 yuan/mt as downstream buyers pushed back on higher quotes.
China just scrapped its second-life whitelist. On 30 July 2026 MIIT issued Announcement 2026 No. 20, abolishing the cascade-utilization clauses of the 2024 spent-power-battery norm conditions and removing all 100 previously listed second-life companies, including Shanghai BYD, Huayou, Svolt and Gotion, from the compliance list; already-listed regeneration and material-recycling firms keep their status.
The standard to lean on once the whitelist is gone. UL 1974 second edition (ANSI/CAN/UL 1974:2023) governs the sorting and grading of repurposed batteries, adds routine maintenance tests and diagnosis, and bars any component used beyond the original manufacturer's calendar expiration date.
Verify what actually arrived before you sign off the batch. The traceability code printed on a Chinese-made cell can only be read once the goods are in your hands. When a delivery lands, paste a code into the decoder: it returns the manufacturer, chemistry, spec and exact production date in seconds, enough to catch relabeled or calendar-aged stock at incoming inspection.
Paste any code from a Chinese-made cell. The decoder reads the maker, the spec and the true factory date. Full tool at batterydays.com.
You're receiving this because you subscribed at batterydays.com. Unsubscribe anytime.
