A briefing on battery regulation, China's supply chain, and prices, for the people who buy and deploy the cells.
The EU battery passport now has a concrete 71-point checklist, six months before it goes live. The Commission's Digital Batteries Passport guidance ("data points by category"), published 21 August 2026, spells out the 71 data points every passport must carry across the three regulated categories. From 18 February 2027, every EV battery, LMT battery and industrial battery above 2 kWh placed on the EU market must have one. Until now that deadline was a date with no field list; it is now an actual specification you can map your records against.
Six of the eight passport data standards are adopted, and the August 2026 label date is now confirmed dead. Under Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1736 of 14 July 2026, the Commission adopted six of eight harmonised standards (EN 18216 and EN 18219–18223) for the Digital Product Passport under the Ecodesign regulation — the unique identifiers, data carriers, APIs and storage rules the battery passport will reuse. The same analysis confirms what our late-August issue flagged: the often-cited 18 August 2026 labelling date does not apply as written, because the Article 13(10) implementing act is still not adopted; the real QR and data-carrier deadline is 18 February 2027 for all batteries.
A new EU delegated act exempts some wearables, toys and ATEX gear from the battery-removal rule. On 14 July 2026 the Commission adopted a Delegated Regulation (C(2026) 5031 final) adding derogations to the removability-and-replaceability requirement for portable batteries — covering smartwatches and fitness trackers, electric toys, ATEX-covered equipment, and water-exposed or medical-imaging devices. It still faces a Parliament and Council scrutiny period, then enters force 20 days after Official Journal publication.
The US 45X manufacturing credit now carries a 60% non-Chinese material floor, rising to 85%. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Section 45X's advanced-manufacturing tax credit excludes battery components made with material assistance from prohibited foreign entities — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or firms they control — for tax years beginning after 4 July 2025. Qualifying makers must keep at least 60% of direct material cost outside those entities in 2026, tightening to 85% by 2030. Our June and August issues tracked the same "prohibited foreign entity" test on the 48E investment credit; this is the parallel screw on the 45X production credit.
UL 9540A's 6th edition adds an off-gas ignition test at the installation level. The change we flagged in earlier issues now has its teeth: UL's 6th edition of 9540A (published 13 March 2026) restructures the four-tier test hierarchy so the installation/large-scale level now requires intentional ignition of vented off-gases to see whether a fire or explosion follows — replacing a level that mainly measured sprinkler and aerosol suppression. The four-level structure is not new; the deliberate off-gas ignition is.
| Date | What changes | Who should care |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Feb 2027 | EU battery passport (>2 kWh) + 71 data points + QR mandatory | Importers, cell makers |
| 2026 tax yr | US 45X credit needs ≥60% non-Chinese material cost (85% by 2030) | US cell makers |
| 13 Mar 2026 | UL 9540A 6th ed: installation-level off-gas ignition test | US BESS installers |
Chinese storage makers booked 298 GWh of overseas contracts as domestic demand fell for the first time. Chinese energy-storage firms secured 298 GWh in overseas contracts in the first half of 2026, up 83% year on year, even as China's own half-year storage deployments posted their first-ever decline, to 22 GW / 59 GWh. Export is now the growth engine, and it competes with you for the same production slots.
CATL's Naxtra sodium-ion cell has reached GWh-scale production and a mass-market EV partner. Our June issue previewed CATL's sodium-ion storage container at SNEC; the news now is that its Naxtra sodium-ion line has hit GWh-level industrialization, rated up to 175 Wh/kg, with full mass production targeted for end-2026 and Changan as CATL's exclusive sodium-ion EV partner for a passenger car built on Naxtra cells (400 km-plus range). Energy storage is one of four listed 2026 deployment areas.
China's July storage-battery sales fell month-on-month but are up 79% for the year. The China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance reported July 2026 ESS battery sales of 56.1 GWh — down 10.3% from June but up 55.4% year on year — with cumulative January–July sales of 374.2 GWh, up 78.6%, now 32.1% of all battery sales.
| Vendor | What launched / scaled (2026) | Key figure | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| CATL | Naxtra sodium-ion line reaches GWh production; Changan EV partner | up to 175 Wh/kg | End 2026 |
ESS was 32.1% of all China battery sales in Jan–Jul 2026 (374.2 GWh cumulative). Source: CABIA.
Lithium carbonate sold off hard mid-week on the Chinese futures board. SMM's battery-grade lithium carbonate 2701 futures contract closed at 141,900 yuan/mt on 4 September 2026, down 7.41% in a single session, after opening the week at 160,800 yuan/mt on 1 September.
China scrapped its second-life battery whitelist outright. On 30 July 2026 MIIT issued Announcement No. 20, deleting the cascade-utilization (梯次利用) clauses from the 2024 edition of its comprehensive-utilization specification and ending whitelist management for second-life enterprises — removing roughly 100 previously certified firms, including BYD, Huayou Cobalt, Honeycomb Energy and Guoxuan High-tech, from the compliance roster.
A design standard for echelon-use batteries is already in force. GB/T 34015.5-2025, the design guide for echelon (second-life) use of EV traction batteries, took effect 1 September 2025, setting design principles for BMS, remote-monitoring data, and collection and identification symbols on cells destined for reuse.
Catch relabelled or aged stock when the delivery lands. 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 flag relabelled 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.
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