EU battery labels are now mandatory on every cell

The EU battery label is now mandatory, the date June flagged has arrived. As of 18 August 2026 the EU Battery Regulation's general information-labelling obligation (Article 13(1), Annex VI Part A) is in force: every battery placed on the EU market must carry a readable, visible label stating capacity, chemistry/composition, performance, expected lifespan and disposal information. Our June issue told you to have the label data ready but not to print from the draft spec — that waiting period is over. The separate mandatory QR code (Article 13(6)) follows on 18 February 2027, the same day the digital passport goes live.

Flash Battery

BYD's 2710Ah cell lands Poland's largest battery project. BYD will build a 600 MW / 2.4 GWh installation in Siedlce for developer Greenvolt Power — Poland's largest battery project — using its Haohan system built on the new 2710Ah energy-storage-specific LFP blade cell, which BYD calls the world's largest mass-produced cell designed purely for storage (~14.5 MWh per Haohan unit, rated over 10,000 cycles). Construction starts in Q3 2026, with commercial operation targeted by end-2027.

EqualOcean

REPT Battero took the No.1 spot in residential storage cells. REPT Battero (瑞浦兰钙) ranked first globally in residential energy-storage cell shipments and second in commercial & industrial ESS cells for H1 2026, per ICCSINO and NECI, with first-half revenue expected at RMB 14.5–15.2bn (~EUR 1.87–1.96bn), up 52.8–60.1% year on year; the company says three of Europe's five most-recognised residential battery brands already run its cells.

REPT Battero

China's July battery numbers, LFP now 85% of installs. CABIA's July 2026 data puts domestic power-battery installations at 74.6 GWh (+33.5% year on year, −2.5% month on month), with LFP taking 84.6% of it and ternary down to under 15%. We have tracked the LFP-dominance trend since June; the fresh detail is the July monthly mix and the scale of combined output — 218.0 GWh of power-plus-storage cells made in a single month, up 62.9% year on year.

CABIA via NetEase

China's retired-battery wave is about to double. China's retired power batteries are projected to reach about 1 million tonnes in 2026, up from roughly 400,000 tonnes in 2025, with the domestic recycling market worth around 40 billion yuan as Beijing pushes used cells to cut reliance on imported metals. Our last issue sized the global EV-recycling market; this is the feedstock volume behind it.

Caixin Global

Why bigger LFP cells keep cutting system cost even as lithium triples. Intertek CEA argues the shift to 587Ah LFP cells can keep pushing BESS system costs down through 2027 despite lithium carbonate roughly tripling: LFP cells are only ~18% of total system cost and lithium carbonate is ~10–12% of that, while the larger cells deliver ~20% cell-level energy-density gains that compound to 60–80% gains at module/rack level — enough that fewer components and higher density outweigh the raw-material rise.

pv magazine

A second-life BMS just cleared the functional-safety bar built for new storage. Moment Energy became the first company globally to earn UL 60730-1 functional-safety certification for a battery-management system built specifically for repurposed EV batteries, completing a UL stack (alongside UL 1974, UL 1973 and UL 9540) meant to show second-life systems match purpose-built storage on safety.

Charged EVs

Rivian and Redwood put 100+ used packs to work as grid storage. Rivian and Redwood Materials deployed a 10 MWh dispatchable second-life storage system built from more than 100 used Rivian EV battery packs at Rivian's Normal, Illinois plant.

Carbon Credits

Check what actually turned up before you sign off the batch. Every Chinese-made cell carries a printed traceability code, and you can only read it once the goods are physically in front of you. Paste it into the decoder and you get the manufacturer, chemistry, spec and exact production date in seconds — enough to catch relabelled or calendar-aged stock at incoming inspection.