The EU’s Batteries Regulation is shifting from law to operational systems in 2026–27, and Romania’s car industry must be ready. The Commission made the Digital Product Passport (DPP) Registry operational in July 2026 and the regulation requires a digital battery passport for electric‑vehicle batteries placed on the EU market from 18 February 2027.
What firms must actually do
The law makes the economic operator that places the finished battery on the Union market responsible for creating and maintaining the passport and for the conformity documentation that underpins it. Batteries in scope must be accompanied by a QR code and an evolving electronic profile holding model‑level and restricted data, plus traceability and safety information. The Commission’s registry rules and the first set of harmonised DPP standards (six EN 18xxx standards) were published in July 2026 to support implementation.
Compliance uses the Batteries Regulation’s conformity modules: for serially manufactured batteries manufacturers can use Module A (internal production control) or Module D1 (quality assurance of the production process); for one‑off units Module G (unit verification) applies. Crucial sustainability requirements — carbon‑footprint declarations and, later, recycled‑content reporting — require third‑party verification under the Regulation and are being phased in by delegated acts. A draft methodology for recycled‑content calculation was published for consultation in August 2026 and foresees staged declaration and mandatory target dates from 2028–2031 onwards.
Implications for Romania’s industry
Romania’s vehicle ecosystem — anchored by Automobile Dacia’s Mioveni operations and an extensive supplier network — will face three visible impacts. First, original equipment manufacturers and importers must embed battery‑level data flows into their IT and quality systems so each vehicle leaving a plant can be linked to a passport record in the EU Registry. Second, suppliers of cells, modules and recycled materials will need to deliver verifiable data (chemistry, origin, recycled content, performance and lifetime metrics) to their OEM customers. Third, conformity and sustainability checks will increase demand for notified‑body services and audit capacity.
The timetable tightness matters. The DPP Registry is live and the passport becomes mandatory on 18 February 2027; supply‑chain due‑diligence and some verification deadlines have been pushed later (due‑diligence obligations were moved in Commission texts to 18 August 2027 for certain provisions). Producers therefore face overlapping implementation tasks across late 2026 and 2027.
What this means for the market
Short term, OEMs and large tier‑1 suppliers in Romania must budget for IT integration, data‑management staff and notified‑body fees; SMEs in the supply chain risk disproportionate cost and administrative burden if they cannot supply certified data. The Commission’s own assessments of EU conformity‑assessment systems show that notified‑body capacity and designation timelines are recurring pinch points — meaning a potential bottleneck for verifications if demand spikes.
Medium term, the passport system also creates an asset: better traceability and verified recycled‑content data can raise the value of local recycling, remanufacturing and second‑life battery services if Romanian firms invest in verification, labs and IT. Public procurement or national support that helps smaller suppliers meet documentation and testing costs would lower the risk of supply‑chain churn. The phased nature of recycled‑content and carbon reporting (with formal targets from 2028–2031) gives a short runway for firms to plan, but requires urgent action now.
For policymakers in Bucharest the priority is twofold: ensure domestic notified‑body capacity, test environments and guidance are available and help smaller suppliers fund the data‑collection and lab work needed for compliance. For vehicle buyers and fleet managers, the battery passport promises more transparent lifecycle and origin data — but those benefits will arrive only after industry invests in the traceability and verification chain now being mandated.
B2B vehicle marketplace on WorldTrader24 →
Sources: European Commission, EUR‑Lex (Batteries Regulation), Regelex/APA Engineering
