The carbon footprint of industrial batteries must be declared

From 18 February 2026 industrial batteries above 2 kWh require a verified carbon footprint declaration. It must rest on calculated life-cycle data.

2026-02-18

Without a carbon footprint declaration, an industrial battery above 2 kWh cannot be placed on the EU market.
A manufacturer statement alone is not enough — the declaration has to be verified.
The whole life cycle counts: raw materials, active materials, assembly, transport and treatment of the spent battery.
The figure is given for a specific model and plant, because identical cells from two sites have different footprints.
Without testing of composition and recovered content and without batch-origin records, the calculation falls back on unfavourable default values.
Performance classes come after the declaration and maximum thresholds after those — data collected from the outset never has to be reconstructed.

Source: EUR-Lex