The project is set to run for two years and is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE). It builds on the work of its predecessor project BatteryPass, which developed the foundations for digital battery passports.

The goal of the new project is to develop a test environment for battery passport users and make this accessible to all stakeholders within the battery ecosystem. However, the new EU director poses challenges for battery suppliers and producers, particularly around adapting their data management and making it accessible to these stakeholders. According to the project consortium, this presents a number of hurdles – particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The participants in BatteryPass-Ready include the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK), the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the data standardisation specialists GEFEG, and the Technical University of Berlin. Additionally, there is close cooperation with relevant associations including the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), the German Mechanical and Plant Engineering Association (VDMA), the German Bicycle Industry Association (ZIV), and the IT industry association BITKOM.

“Digital product passports like the battery passport are a key enabler when it comes to building a circular economy. But they are much more: We must understand them as an efficiency tool that goes far beyond simply complying with the EU Battery Regulation. They help us save resources, become more independent of critical raw materials, and create new added value in the battery ecosystem. The sooner small and medium-sized enterprises in particular gain experience in their use, the faster and more widely stakeholders can be convinced of the added value of digital product passports – and use them,” said acatech President Thomas Weber, commenting on the project launch.

BatteryPass-Ready is ultimately intended to enable distributors and service providers from the battery ecosystem to analyse ongoing developments on mandatory data points, test the completeness and plausibility of the data, and ensure compliance of the battery passport itself. Emulation environments will also be available, particularly for components provided and operated by the European Commission. Additionally, the project aims to provide action guidelines for policymakers and companies.

“The transparent, interoperable, and trustworthy provision of data is the foundation for the success of the digital product passport. With the BatteryPass-Ready project, we are creating a test environment to quickly disseminate the battery passport and make it secure and directly usable for industry, because reliable data will become gold in the digital circular economy,” says Prof. Holger Hanselka, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Although the project is intended to help companies test their battery passports, some are already using digital battery passports even though they are not yet mandatory. For instance, Volvo has begun equipping the EX90 with a battery passport, a simplified version of which can be accessed via a QR code on the inside of the driver’s door. A more complete version of the passport is set to be forwarded to regulatory authorities. And, in January, the Austrian powertrain developer AVL presented a digital battery passport of its own. The EU project BASE, led by Fraunhofer IEG, is also working on a digital battery passport using blockchain technology.

acatech.de