EU reaches a provisional agreement on new battery regulations on December 9, 2022!

Interim agreement on new regulations:

On 9 December 2022, the European Parliament and the European Council reached a provisional agreement aimed at making all batteries placed on the EU market more sustainable, recyclable, and safe. The agreement builds on the European Commission proposal of December 2020 and aims to address the social, economic, and environmental issues associated with all types of batteries.

The new legislation divides battery renewal into five categories:

Portable battery: sealed, mass ≤5kg, not designed for industrial use.
• SLI battery: Any battery designed to provide electric power for starting, lighting, or ignition, but also for auxiliary or standby purposes for vehicles, other means of transport, or machinery.
• Light Vehicle (LMT) battery: Any sealed battery with a mass of less than 25kg, designed to provide traction for wheeled vehicles, which can be powered by an electric motor alone or by a combination of electric motors and manpower, including Class L vehicles as defined in Regulation (EU) No 168/2013.
• Electric Vehicle (EV) battery: Any battery designed to provide traction for hybrid or electric vehicles of categories M, N, and O defined in Regulation (EU) 2018/858; Or Class L vehicle battery with mass >25kg.
Industrial battery: Any battery which is specially designed for industrial use, or any battery which has been prepared and reused for industrial use.

New requirements for battery production, recycling, and reuse in the new legislation:

1. When the new law comes into force, sustainability requirements for carbon footprint, recycled ingredients, and performance and durability will be gradually introduced from 2024.
2. A more comprehensive extended producer responsibility regulatory framework will begin to be applied by mid-2025.
3. Introduce higher collection targets over time: for portable batteries, the targets are: 63% by 2027 and 73% by 2030, and for light vehicle (LMT) batteries, 51% by 2028 and 61% by 2031.
4. All batteries collected must be recycled and a high level of recycling must be achieved, especially for valuable materials such as copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel, and lead.
5. Ensure that valuable materials are recovered and returned to use at the end of their useful lives by adopting more stringent recovery efficiency and material recovery targets over time. Lithium material recovery targets will reach 50 percent by 2027 and 80 percent by 2031.
6. Companies placing batteries on the EU internal market must demonstrate that the materials used in their manufacture are responsibly sourced. This means that social and environmental risks associated with the extraction, processing, and trade of raw materials used in battery manufacturing must be identified and mitigated.

Follow-up legislative actions of the new law:

The European Parliament and the Council must now formally approve the new regulation before it can take effect. The new regulations will replace the existing battery directive, which was issued in 2006. This new battery regulatory framework will require a number of more detailed rules (secondary legislation) to be passed from 2024 to 2028 to become fully operational.