Gasgoo Munich- With the mandatory implementation date for the EU's Battery Regulation (EU 2023/1542) looming, Chinese battery companies are facing an unprecedented compliance test.
The company established a dedicated battery passport team in November 2023. Working with strategic partners at home and abroad, it essentially completed platform development in two years. It is among the earliest Chinese enterprises to self-develop a battery passport platform.
Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery started with consumer batteries and now ranks in the global first tier for power and energy storage. Why did it bet two years early on a concept without settled technical standards?
Its execution path offers a reference sample for the entire industry.
A Call on "Shifting Competitive Tracks"
Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery decided to move "two years ahead" before EU regulatory details were settled. The basis was straightforward: it saw a shift in the dimension of competition.
"Competition in the battery industry is gradually shifting," a Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery representative told Gasgoo. "It is moving from product performance, manufacturing costs, and delivery capabilities to sustainable management across the full lifecycle."
As the new energy vehicle and energy storage industries globalize, battery products must do more than just meet safety, performance, and quality requirements. They now need to prove their raw material origins, carbon footprints, and supply chain responsibilities.
In 2023, the EU officially released its battery regulations, mandating battery passports for specific battery categories starting February 18, 2027. Although some technical standards and implementation details were not yet perfect, the direction toward transparent, digital, and traceable full lifecycle information was clear.
More crucially, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery judged that the battery passport was not something that could be handled as a last-minute task.
Image Source: Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery
"The battery passport is not a simple software project. It is a complex system engineering task integrating R&D, manufacturing, procurement, quality, sustainability, and IT." Specifically, supply chain data collection requires long construction cycles. If companies wait until all regulatory details are released to start, they will face significant time and implementation pressure.
Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery formed a special team in 2023. It synchronized regulatory research, technological development, and business scenario verification. This approach gradually builds data management capabilities covering the battery's full lifecycle.
"We hope to turn external regulatory requirements into an internal management mechanism that operates continuously," Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery stated. In its view, this improves future compliance response efficiency. It also provides customers with more transparent, trustworthy, and traceable product information. Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery considers this a core competitive advantage for its future products.
Notably, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery's focus extends beyond the digital passport itself. "In the long run, we focus not only on establishing a digital passport but also on forming product data governance capabilities," the representative emphasized. "These capabilities support global business development."
After 70% Automated Collection, What Remains Difficult?
With the judgment made, the next step was verification. Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery chose to use international frameworks to benchmark its performance.
In 2024, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery's LFP battery passport project with DianLian Tech and SAIC Maxus was selected for the Global Battery Alliance's (GBA) top ten pilots. Another LFP project with Li Auto was also selected, making Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery one of only two companies with two projects chosen. In 2026, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery participated in GBA battery passport operational trials. It formed two consortia with Li Auto and Voyah to push solutions from concept validation toward real-world business scenarios. In June of that year, its battery passport platform completed system-level docking with the EU CirPass pilot registration environment. It passed tests for identity authentication, data submission, and registration verification.
These two rounds of practice led to three key realizations for Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery:
Battery passports must be built on authentic industrial chain scenarios. Data credibility is more important than data display. Cross-enterprise collaboration is key to implementing battery passports. Manufacturers, automakers, raw material suppliers, and tech service providers must establish collaborative mechanisms. These mechanisms must cover data standards, information sharing, and permission management while protecting sensitive commercial information.
Image Source: Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery
On the technical front, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery's platform revolves around three main lines. First, an AIoT platform enables intelligent full lifecycle data collection and calculation. It captures carbon footprint parameters in real-time and supports dynamic battery health updates. Second, it leverages open standards and interoperability protocols. These are compatible with EU and domestic data spaces like Catena-X for trusted cross-platform data exchange. Third, it uses blockchain for data storage. Hashing and timestamps ensure immutability, while zero-knowledge proof and encrypted storage protect sensitive data. A consortium chain architecture supports compliant cross-border data transfer between China and Europe.
Currently, the platform's intelligent data collection coverage exceeds 70%. The remainder is filled through supplier coordination, manual review, and third-party verification.
Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery admits data acquisition becomes harder further upstream. Multi-tier supply chains, limited visibility into indirect suppliers, uneven data management capabilities, and commercial secrets pose challenges. Its response focuses on establishing clear data responsibilities and trusted sharing mechanisms rather than centralizing all data. This pushes the industry from obtaining data to continuously obtaining trusted data.
Facing dual rules from the EU's CFB methodology and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's carbon footprint declaration, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery proposed a solution. It involves establishing a unified data base and adopting corresponding calculation methods for different regulations. This achieves data synergy, rule adaptation, and result traceability, avoiding duplicate data collection by supply chain enterprises.
In Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery's view, the true "last mile" is not completing a system connection. It is embedding compliance requirements into the complete business flow, from design to usage. Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery hopes the battery passport will evolve from a compliance cost into a digital service capability. This capability should create long-term value for clients.
"2027 is not the finish line for battery passport construction," Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery stated. "It is a new starting point for full lifecycle digital management. In the future, companies must not only prove they can manufacture high-quality batteries. They must also demonstrate the sustainable performance of their products throughout the full lifecycle, continuously and credibly."
