Global Battery Alliance launches Battery Passport pilots

The GBA flagship initiative is now launching a second wave of pilot projects for the Battery Passport. The passport is a transparency and accountability framework, building on requirements from battery sustainability regulations – including but not limited to the EU Battery Regulation, a framework of legislation forming the European Battery Pass by 2027. For Battery Passports, each battery should display, among other things, where its raw materials come from and under what conditions, what the CO2 footprint is at every stage, and data to inform reuse and recycling.

The second wave of Battery Passport pilots is significantly expanding the scope of the 2023 proof of concept. In January 2023, the GBA launched the world’s first Battery Passport proof of concept led by Audi and Tesla and involving Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), among others. For the second wave of pilots, the GBA has now established 11 separate pilot consortia led by eight global battery manufacturers. This includes CALB Group, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), Eve Battery, Farasis Energy, FinDreams Battery, LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and Sunwoda. According to the GBA, these companies represent over 80% of the global electric vehicle battery market share.

New pilots involves independent track and trace solution providers

The new pilots also involves seven independent track and trace solution providers. This includes Circularise, Circulor, Glassdome, Nanjing Fuchuang Intelligent Manufacturing Technology, RCS Global – an SLR company, Shenzhen Dianlian Technology, and Shenzhen Precise Testing Technology.

The GBA says it is the largest multistakeholder organization in the energy storage space. The international organization includes over 160 members across the battery value chain and the wider ecosystem, including public organizations, NGOs, labor unions and academia. The GBA says Battery Passport rulebooks will facilitate benchmarking and the calculation of a GBA ESG score.

A new wave of geopolitical tensions

The global energy transition has unleashed a new wave of geopolitical tensions as countries race to secure supply chains. As batteries are key to the energy and transport transitions involving international processes and supply chains, fully utilizing raw materials and keeping these in circular loops without producing toxic waste will involve international reporting standards. Among other things, these standards should mean that, for example, batteries produced and or assembled in one country, can be optimally reused, such as in second-life applications for stationary storage, and properly recycled in other countries. The GBA says its pilots send a powerful message about the potential for international, pre-competitive collaboration to scale a sustainable battery value chain. 

Inga Petersen, Executive Director of the GBA said: “Seeing the incredible level of interest and engagement by battery manufacturers, their value chains from mining companies to electric vehicle manufacturers and independent solution providers across the 11 pilot consortia gives us great confidence in the potential for international, pre-competitive collaboration and our ability to create trusted sustainability scores for batteries as an essential instrument to establish sustainable, responsible and circular battery value chains by 2030.”

The GBA says it expects to publish pilot results by the end of the year on the GBA website