On 28 August 2026 the Commission registered a new delegated act on batteries. It will be summarised in a dozen newsletters as battery passport news. It is not. It concerns AA and AAA cells, which never get a passport at all. The confusion is worth clearing up carefully, because 18 February 2027 is the date on which two separate battery obligations begin, and mixing them up costs money in both directions.
What the passport actually covers
Article 77(1) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 is short enough to quote in full effect: from 18 February 2027, each LMT battery, each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kWh and each electric vehicle battery placed on the market or put into service shall have an electronic record, the battery passport.
That is the complete list. Three categories. LMT means light means of transport: sealed, 25 kg or less, designed to drive a wheeled vehicle, which in practice means e-bikes and scooters. Industrial batteries only count above 2 kWh. Electric vehicle batteries are electric vehicle batteries.
Portable batteries are not on that list. Neither are SLI batteries, the ones that start a combustion engine. If your product runs on AA cells, or contains a small sealed pack under 2 kWh that is not an LMT battery, there is no battery passport obligation for it on 18 February 2027, or on any date currently in the regulation.
The other thing that starts on 18 February 2027
Here is where the date confusion comes from. Article 96(2)(a) says that Article 11 applies from 18 February 2027 - the same day as the passport, in the same regulation, for a completely different set of products.
Article 11 is about removability. Anyone placing on the market products with portable batteries incorporated must ensure those batteries are readily removable and replaceable by the end-user at any point in the product's life. The regulation defines what "readily removable" means: it must come out using commercially available tools, without proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents, unless the special tools are supplied free with the product. The duty attaches to the whole battery, not to individual cells inside it.
So on 18 February 2027, if you sell a device with a built-in portable battery, something does change for you. It is a design and documentation obligation, not a data obligation, and no passport is involved.
The obligation has exceptions, and the list of exceptions just grew. Article 11(2) lets two groups of products have batteries replaceable only by independent professionals: appliances designed to work in water or to be washed, and professional medical imaging, radiotherapy and in vitro diagnostic devices. On 14 July 2026 the Commission adopted a delegated regulation under Article 11(4), register entry 14857, that rewrites that paragraph and adds wearables, wireless food thermometer probes, equipment for explosive atmospheres, on-body drug delivery systems, roof-mounted telematics for agricultural and construction machinery, and, until 31 July 2030, electric toys with rechargeable batteries. Every addition is conditional on being needed for the safety of the user and the device. The act enters into force twenty days after publication in the Official Journal, which had not happened when this was checked on 15 September 2026. If your product is on that list, the removability obligation still applies; only who does the removing changes.
The act registered on 28 August
The new entry is 19132 in the Commission register of initiatives, reference Ares(2026)8097754, published there on 28 August 2026. Its legal basis is Article 9(2) of the battery regulation, and it is a delegated act still at the drafting stage.
Article 9(2) gives the Commission a deadline: by 18 August 2027 it shall adopt a delegated act establishing mandatory minimum values for the electrochemical performance and durability parameters set out in Annex III, for portable batteries of general use, excluding button cells.
"Portable batteries of general use" is a defined term, and the definition is a list of formats: 4.5 V (3R12), button cell, D, C, AA, AAA, AAAA, A23 and 9 V (PP3). Household battery formats, in other words. Button cells appear in the definition but are then excluded from this particular requirement.
The parameters in Annex III are physical, not informational. For non-rechargeable cells: minimum average duration, delayed discharge performance and resistance to leakage. For rechargeable ones: rated capacity, charge retention, charge recovery, endurance in cycles and resistance to leakage. The delegated act will put numbers on those.
Then Article 9(1) sets the compliance date, and it is later than most coverage will suggest: from 18 August 2028, or 24 months after the delegated act enters into force, whichever is the later. If the act arrives on its deadline in August 2027, the requirement bites in August 2029, not 2028.
Three obligations, three scopes, three dates
Set side by side, the picture stops being confusing:
- Battery passport - LMT batteries, industrial above 2 kWh, EV batteries. From 18 February 2027. A data obligation.
- Removability and replaceability - products with portable batteries built in. From 18 February 2027. A design obligation.
- Minimum performance and durability values - portable batteries of general use, excluding button cells. From 18 August 2028 at the earliest, and later if the act is late. A product performance obligation.
One company can sit in all three. An e-bike manufacturer has an LMT battery needing a passport, may have a removable portable battery in the display unit, and may sell spare AA cells. Those are three separate compliance tracks that happen to live in one regulation.
Why the deadline in Article 9(2) is worth watching
The Commission has given itself until 18 August 2027 for this act. That is a statutory deadline in the same regulation that already produced one it did not meet.
Article 77(9) required an implementing act on "legitimate interest" access to the restricted part of the battery passport by 18 August 2026. That date passed. We wrote about it on the day, and the position has not moved since: the register entry for that act, number 16473, has shown no change since 20 January 2026 and has never opened a feedback window.
This is not a prediction that the Article 9 act will be late too. It is a reason to plan as though a delegated act may arrive later than its deadline, and to note that when it does, Article 9(1) pushes your own compliance date back with it. That asymmetry is unusual and it works in your favour here.
What this is not
- It does not narrow the passport. The three categories in Article 77(1) are unchanged, and 18 February 2027 is unchanged.
- It does not mean portable batteries are unregulated. They carry labelling, collection, removability and, from 2028 at the earliest, performance duties. They just do not carry a passport.
- It is not a reason to stop building passport data. If you make LMT or industrial batteries above 2 kWh, nothing here touches your February 2027 date.
- It is not final text. Entry 19132 is at the drafting stage. The minimum values do not exist yet, and no one can tell you today what number your AA cell will have to hit.
How to check this yourself
The regulation is free to read. EUR-Lex blocks automated downloads, but the human version is at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1542/oj/eng, and the articles cited here are 3(10), 9, 11, 77(1) and 96(2). Every claim above is one paragraph of primary law, not an interpretation.
For the new act, the register entry is https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/brpapi/groupInitiatives/19132?language=EN. It shows the legal basis, the stage and, once a feedback window opens, the closing date. As of 1 September 2026 no window had opened.
What to do this week
- Write down which of the three categories your batteries are in. Capacity in kWh, and whether it is an LMT battery, decides everything else.
- If nothing you sell is on the Article 77(1) list, take the battery passport off your February 2027 plan and put removability on it instead.
- If you sell general-use cells, put 18 August 2027 in the calendar as the date to look for the delegated act, not as a compliance date.
- If a vendor told you your AA cells need a passport, ask them which article says so. There isn't one.
FAQ
My product has a built-in rechargeable battery under 2 kWh. Do I need a passport?
Not unless it is an LMT battery or an electric vehicle battery. Capacity alone does not put an industrial battery in scope below 2 kWh.
Is a power bank a portable battery?
It depends on the format and the design, and the regulation defines portable batteries as sealed, 5 kg or less and not designed for industrial use, EV, LMT or SLI. Most power banks land there, which means removability and not a passport.
Does the new act change what goes into a battery passport?
No. Passport content comes from Annex XIII. The new act sets physical minimum values under Annex III, a different annex for a different category.
What happens if the Commission misses the August 2027 deadline?
Article 9(1) ties the compliance date to the later of 18 August 2028 and 24 months after the act enters into force, so a late act moves your date later, not earlier.
Do button cells escape entirely?
They are inside the definition of portable batteries of general use but expressly excluded from the Article 9 minimum values. Other duties in the regulation still reach them.
Łukasz Głuch
Builds DPPera, a digital product passport tool for small and medium-sized companies. Reads the delegated acts so you do not have to. Writes about what he checked in the registry, not about what vendors promise.
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