What Your Battery Supplier Must Send You for the Passport

The battery passport is your responsibility as the importer, but most of the data that fills it is not yours to produce. It sits with the manufacturer. The difference between a smooth compliance process and a stressful one is usually whether you asked for that data in one structured request or chased it field by field. This guide is the request to send.

Why the data comes from the supplier

The passport describes how a battery was made and what is in it: its chemistry, its carbon footprint, its recycled content, how it performs. All of that originates in manufacturing, which is your supplier's domain, not yours. As the operator placing the battery on the market you are responsible for the passport existing and being correct, but you are collecting most of its content from upstream. See who is responsible for the battery passport.

That is why the passport belongs in your purchasing conversation. A supplier that can produce this data is far easier to work with than one you discover cannot, after the order is placed.

The structured request to send

Ask for the full Annex XIII data set per model, grouped so nothing is missed. See Annex XIII explained. In one request, ask for:

• Identity and chemistry: model identifiers, category, cell chemistry and composition.
• Carbon footprint: the declared figure, its calculation basis, and supporting documentation. See the carbon footprint declaration.
• Recycled content: the declared share for the relevant metals, with its basis and evidence. See recycled content declaration.
• Performance and durability: the attributes describing how the battery performs over its life.
• Hazardous substances and safety: substances of concern and the safety information handlers need.
• Supporting documentation: test reports (including transport safety testing) and declarations that evidence the figures. See how the passport, CE marking and UN 38.3 fit together.

Make it easy to say yes to

A request the supplier can act on cleanly gets better results:

1. Ask per model, since the data is model-specific.
2. Give a deadline that sits well before your own placing-on-the-market date, because some figures take time to produce.
3. Ask for the evidence, not just the numbers, so each declared value is defensible.
4. Say what it is for. Framing it as EU battery passport data, referencing Annex XIII, tells a capable manufacturer exactly what you need.

When a supplier only sends a spec sheet

Some suppliers will respond with a datasheet rather than the structured data you asked for. That is common, and it does not have to stop you. A spec sheet is a starting point you can build on, and turning one into passport-ready data is a workflow in its own right, which we cover in a dedicated guide later in this series.

In short

Most passport data comes from your manufacturer, so send one structured request for the full Annex XIII set per model: identity and chemistry, carbon footprint, recycled content, performance and durability, hazardous substances, and supporting documentation. Ask per model, set an early deadline, and ask for the evidence behind each figure. Raise it during purchasing, not after.