The 2 kWh threshold does not apply to every battery
Which batteries the 2 kWh limit of the Battery Regulation actually covers, and why many manufacturers of e-bike batteries and home storage systems classify themselves wrongly.
- Battery passport
- Battery Regulation
“Our batteries are well below 2 kWh, this does not concern us.” That sentence comes up regularly in conversations about the battery passport, and in roughly half of the cases it is wrong.
The 2 kWh threshold in the Battery Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 is not a general de minimis limit. It applies to exactly one category.
What the threshold applies to
From 18 February 2027, three battery categories require a passport:
Electric vehicle batteries. No capacity threshold.
LMT batteries, meaning batteries for light means of transport. No capacity threshold.
Industrial batteries above 2 kWh. Here, and only here, the limit applies.
Portable batteries and starter batteries do not require a passport.
The confusion around the term
Part of the misunderstanding is self-inflicted. The German version of the regulation says LV-Batterien, while the English text calls the same batteries LMT, for light means of transport. Many German-language articles use both terms side by side without resolving them, and some list LV batteries in tables in a way that carries the 2 kWh figure down from the row above.
What is meant are batteries for pedelecs, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-mopeds and comparable vehicles. A 500 Wh pedelec battery therefore requires a passport, even though it reaches a quarter of the threshold that applies to industrial batteries.
The other direction: those who count themselves too small
The opposite mistake is at least as widespread. Many manufacturers never classify their product as an industrial battery in the first place, because the word sounds like a factory floor.
The regulation, however, knows no separate category for stationary storage. A home storage system is an industrial battery. A 5 kWh entry-level system is above the threshold, a 10 kWh system all the more so. In this segment the limit excludes practically no product on the market.
The same applies to traction batteries. A 48 V battery with 500 Ah comes to around 24 kWh, twelve times the threshold. Even small batteries for low-lift pallet trucks are above it. And because the regulation distinguishes by category and capacity rather than by cell chemistry, a PzS lead-acid battery is affected just as much as a lithium system.
Further cases that fall under industrial batteries and are frequently overlooked: UPS systems, batteries in cleaning machines and automated guided vehicles, marine propulsion, emergency power systems.
Why the classification matters now
Anyone who wrongly assumes they are not affected loses the lead time, which is genuinely short. The demanding part of introducing a battery passport is not the software but obtaining data from upstream suppliers. Carbon footprint of the cells, recycled content shares, material composition: this sits outside your own company, often across several tiers and frequently in Asia.
Experience shows that a supplier enquiry across two tiers takes months. Anyone who finds out in January 2027 that they are affected after all will no longer make the date.
The check itself costs half an hour: which category, what capacity, and do we place the finished product on the EU market ourselves?
For your segment
The basics on who needs a passport, the data points under Annex XIII and the three access levels are summarised on our battery passport overview page.
Last updated: August 2026. Editorial guidance, not legal advice. Only the respective legal act in its applicable version is binding.