CATL becomes the first battery company to join all three Global Battery Alliance battery passport pilot waves

Battery maker CATL announced on 12 October 2026 that it is the first battery company to take part in all three waves of the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) Battery Passport pilot program. The company says it is the only battery company with passports published in every pilot wave.

• The GBA pilot is meant to give the industry a standard way to follow, measure and check the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of batteries across their life cycle. The GBA published its first Battery Passport proof of concept in January 2023.
• Cell makers in the 2026 pilot represent nearly 80 percent of global production capacity.
• In the second wave, CATL applied for separate passports for its Shenxing and CTP batteries and was one of the first companies to publish results validated by an independent third party.
• In the third wave, CATL's battery product had ESG data for every stage of the value chain: mining, refining, materials, cells and battery packs.

GBA Executive Director Inga Petersen said the alliance is getting ready to open the Battery Passport certification scheme fully in early 2027 and is shifting from trial runs to full rollout.

Why it matters

According to a timeline published on the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform on 9 October 2026, the EU Digital Product Passport Registry became operational on 20 July 2026. Passports will be mandatory from 18 February 2027 for electric vehicle batteries, batteries for light means of transport such as e-bikes and e-scooters, and industrial batteries above 2 kWh. For Turkish companies placing these types of batteries on the EU market, this date could serve as a reference point when preparing to collect data per product. The CATL case shows one large manufacturer working to make this data traceable from mine to pack.

For an example of organizing product data in a passport structure, see our digital product passport project.