A year since the implementation of the initial steps in EU Batteries Regulation went into effect and the impacts are already being seen, writes Nicholas Bellini of TÜV SÜD.
This follows the ESN Premium video interview article published yesterday, in which senior reporter Cameron Murray speaks to Suriya Edwards, partner at law firm Freeths, and Sarah Montgomery, co-founder and CEO of battery supply chain traceability platform Infyos. Edwards and Montgomery speak in detail about the requirements the industry must meet, the impact of the regulations and other topics relating to transparency and traceability in an exclusive for our subscribers.
The mandatory CE marking and the conformity assessment procedure have been in effect since 18 August, 2024. In order to be placed on the EU market, batteries must now carry a CE marking.
The EU Battery Regulation aims to enforce sustainability, transparency, and safety across the entire battery life cycle. However, for many market participants, it has led to significant uncertainty and practical implementation challenges rather than clarity.
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While the ambition of the regulation is clear, the first year has demonstrated the difficulty of translating political intent into operational reality. The central question today is not what to comply with, but how to integrate compliance into product development, testing, and risk management without slowing down the innovation and deployment of urgently needed storage capacities.
Energy storage systems (ESS) play a particularly important role in this context: their complex system integration, long lifetimes, diverse applications (e.g., grid stabilisation, building storage, second-life applications), and often customer-specific designs make compliance significantly more challenging than for other battery categories.
To better understand the regulation’s structure, it is helpful to divide it into four main thematic areas: CE marking, battery passport, due diligence obligations, and waste battery management.
This guest article primarily focuses on the CE marking obligation to highlight the special position of ESS within the overall framework.
Review of challenges in the first year
One year after it entered into force, the EU Battery Regulation has revealed both its strengths and its growing pains. While the intention to harmonise standards across Europe is commendable, divergent national interpretations and the lack of consolidated guidance have created friction in practice.
This fragmentation, especially for stationary ESS, slows down investment decisions and innovation.
What the sector needs now is a pragmatic and cooperative approach: regulators, notified bodies, and manufacturers must collaborate to develop joint interpretation frameworks and standardised testing criteria. From TÜV SÜD’s perspective, this collaboration is essential not only for market access, but also for building trust and comparability in a rapidly expanding industry.
As companions of affected companies, we found that many were confronted with a range of early-stage challenges last year. These can be summarised as follows:
- Companies unaware of the regulation’s existence
- Significant difficulties in understanding and structuring the regulation for operational processes
- Varying national responsibilities leading to differing interpretations
- Ambiguous terminology (e.g., “placing on the market”, “manufacturer vs. producer”), causing legal uncertainty
- Overlap with other EU legislation (REACH, WEEE, MDR, IfSG etc.), which substantially increases coordination efforts.
These early obstacles forced many stakeholders to allocate resources to clarifying roles, defining terms, and establishing minimal documentation workflows before proceeding with technical implementation.
Industry partners and testing bodies report substantial implementation efforts and a high demand for practical guidance. For many, ecological objectives currently take a back seat to the central question: How can I pass the conformity assessment correctly and without misinterpretation?
CE marking in a nutshell – a quick checklist
Depending on the battery category and the role of the economic operator, different regulatory articles (6–10, 12–14) must be complied with to ensure CE conformity.
A proven approach to structuring and preparing compliance:
- Clarify your role: manufacturer, producer, importer, or distributor.
- Define the battery category: EV, LMT, industrial (incl. stationary systems), portable, SLI. Note: ESS are generally categorised as a subcategory of industrial batteries.
- Check which articles are already in force: a) Currently in force: Articles 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, b) Still pending: Articles 7, 8
- Identify the relevant articles: based on role and category.
- Technical documentation and declaration of conformity: include test reports, risk analyses, etc.
- Apply the CE mark to the battery.
Future tasks:
- Monitor upcoming articles: especially Article 7 (carbon footprint rules).
- Engage a notified body early to anticipate the need for third-party verification (Modules D1 or G).
The critical transition: Notified bodies & Article 7
So far, only a draft version of the carbon-footprint calculation for EV batteries has been published. Once Article 7 is officially released for a specific category, manufacturers have a one-year transitional period to comply via a notified body.
Article 7 currently imposes extensive obligations, including life-cycle modelling, energy-mix reporting, recalculation rules, and performance classes. These obligations are technically demanding and require major adjustments to data and process management, such as energy-source verification, supply-chain data and facility parameters.
The combination of these complex requirements and limited testing capacity makes Article 7 one of the most significant sources of uncertainty for the industry.
Specific challenges for ESS: Articles 12, 14 & second-life batteries
While Article 7 sets the general framework for carbon footprint compliance, ESS face additional requirements due to their operational and safety characteristics, compared to standard industrial batteries.
In addition to the CE marking obligation and associated requirements for industrial batteries over 2 kWh (Art. 6,7, 8, 10, 13), ESS are also subject to Articles 14, pertaining to information on state of charge (SoC) and expected lifetime, and 12, on the safety of stationary storage batteries).
Furthermore, the frequent use of second-life batteries in stationary energy storage systems (ESS) exposes this application to additional articles of the EU Battery Regulation, thereby increasing both the regulatory complexity and the number of aspects to be considered.
The risk analysis required for technical documentation is also often significantly more extensive than for other battery types, due to critical factors such as high energy and power density, stationary installation in buildings, and complex system integration.
The following additional obligations arise for manufacturers (i.e., CE-responsible parties). In addition to the CE marking obligations for industrial batteries with a capacity over 2 kWh (Art. 6, 7, 8, 10, 13), ESS are subject to:
- Article 12 – Safety of stationary storage batteries: This requires evidence of safety testing in accordance with Annex V, using state-of-the-art methodologies.
- Article 14 – Information on state of charge and expected lifetime: This requires the provision of SoC data, expected lifetime, and a software reset option.
- Second-life batteries: functional and comprehensive health checks; traceability; documentation; conformity assessment; inclusion of a digital battery passport; and extended producer responsibility.
- Risk Analysis (RA): This shall be included in the technical documentation and shall address operational, integration, and safety risks as set out in Article 5.2. The required evidence in this context is based, among other things, on tests and corresponding test reports.
Other challenges:
- Testing/Test reports: System-level vs. subsystem-level testing: Higher voltages observed at the system level may lead to the failure of safety components. Therefore, the wiring configuration and the relationship between total system voltage and pack voltage must be carefully considered.
- The functional safety assessment for second life batteries is challenging because the original documentation used for the component design is generally unavailable. In other words, the repurposer may be unaware of the (detailed) usage scenarios, operating duration, and environmental conditions for which the components were originally designed.
Due diligence, Battery Passport and Extended Producer Responsibility
As outlined in the introduction, CE conformity represents a key component of the EU Battery Regulation. At the same time, other central elements, such as the Battery Passport, due diligence, and waste battery management, are also crucial for ensuring compliance and transparency throughout the entire battery lifecycle.
Although CE conformity currently dominates the industry’s attention, these parallel pillars will soon have equally strong implications for market access. Data transparency, traceability, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) will become competitive differentiators — and not just compliance requirements.
- Battery Passport: digital information system (mandatory from Feb 2027) providing traceable static & dynamic data on battery specifications, sustainability, and performance.
- Due diligence obligations: mandatory from August 2027 for certain operators, addressing human rights and environmental risks in supply chains and requiring transparency and reporting – including a notified body verification.
- Management of waste batteries: applicable from August 2025, obliging producers to ensure the collection, return, and recycling of batteries, as well as the proper handling of hazardous substances.
Opportunities and next steps
Early adaptation: Companies that align their internal processes, testing routines, and supply chains with regulatory requirements at an early stage will reduce the risk of recalls, penalties, and project delays. This readiness also strengthens investor confidence and facilitates cross-border market entry.
Enhanced data utilisation: The dynamic and static battery data collected under the regulation and captured in the Battery Passport provide valuable insights into operational efficiency and sustainability. For ESS, this means that predictive maintenance, optimised charging strategies, and repurposing decisions can be based on validated, standardised datasets — potentially extending lifetime and reducing total cost of ownership.
New business models: Regulatory data could form the basis for digital monitoring and service platforms. For instance, combining TÜV SÜD-verified lifecycle data with AI-based analytics could facilitate new services such as health-index scoring, warranty optimization, or automated end-of-life decision support.
Collaborations: Joint projects between manufacturers, certification companies, and research institutions are the best way to achieve harmonised testing and mutual learning. TÜV SÜD supports these partnerships, translating regulation into workable, scalable processes rather than isolated pilot projects.
Benchmarking capability: The depth of regulatory data accelerates the standardisation of testing methods and enables more precise evaluation of design variants, material usage, and operational efficiency.
Ultimately, the EU Battery Regulation is more than just a compliance framework — it is a catalyst for systemic change. For stationary energy storage systems, it will define the intersection of safety, sustainability, and digital transparency.
The coming year will determine whether the industry can transform this regulatory challenge into a driver of innovation. As a testing and certification company, TÜV SÜD believes that harmonised standards, validated data, and transparent conformity procedures are the key to ensuring that transformation succeeds — safely, sustainably and on a large scale.
About the Author
Nicholas Bellino is a senior account manager and battery expert at TÜV SÜD. TÜV SÜD provides a comprehensive range of services for battery storage systems, including safety and performance testing, risk assessment, and certification to ensure compliance with global standards like the EU Battery Regulation and IEC standards.