The Battery Passport, usually likened to an Aadhaar card for batteries, is simply the tip of the iceberg, says Anil Radhakrishnan, the Chief Product Officer at Tata Elxsi, in an unique interplay with ETAuto at The Bharat Mobility International Expo 2025. It’s a part of a broader digital product identification initiative spearheaded by regulators and world organisations to boost knowledge transparency, safety, and sustainability throughout your complete automotive provide chain. Highlighting that the entire idea of Battery Passport is coming into India from the European regulation, Radhakrishnan explains that the Battery Passport serves as a singular digital profile for every battery, capturing essential knowledge factors equivalent to origin, composition, efficiency metrics, and lifecycle historical past. This not solely ensures compliance with evolving regulatory frameworks but additionally fosters round financial system practices by enabling environment friendly recycling and reuse methods. Whereas, at present it’s thought-about for electrical car (EV) batteries as it’s the costliest a part of the car with security considerations associated to it, he explains that it’s not going to be confined to simply EV batteries or batteries, however cowl a slew of different product components manufactured from supplies equivalent to plastic, metal, and rubber, to say. Empowering sustainable provide
With geopolitical uncertainties and uncooked materials shortages posing important challenges, digital product identification options just like the Battery Passport empower stakeholders to proactively deal with provide chain disruptions, guarantee moral sourcing and in addition meet stringent environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives. Furthermore, it additionally allows stakeholders to analyse materials efficiency and make required design and materials improvements to enhance product.
Radhakrishnan explains, “The complete journey of a battery—proper from its origin to its motion by the provision chain—must be traced and tracked. This contains essential knowledge equivalent to when was the battery produced, the place had been the cells manufactured, which car it’s utilized in, and when it will likely be or has been disposed of. There may be now a mandate to implement such monitoring, primarily as a result of the battery is the costliest element in an EV and, if not dealt with correctly, can result in hazardous incidents. Moreover, guaranteeing the reusability and recyclability of the supplies utilized in batteries is a key focus space, contributing to each value effectivity and environmental sustainability.”
He additional provides, “In EVs, the place you’re transporting 5 passengers, security is a essential concern—alongside value. Battery prices can considerably lower when extra recycled supplies are built-in into manufacturing. There are a number of dimensions to think about: the associated fee issue, the protection facet, and the sustainability angle, all of that are interconnected. This strategy can definitely be prolonged to different battery sorts, however by way of enterprise impression, EV batteries stay the first focus.”
Driving round innovation
Reflecting on Tata Elxsi’s MOBIUS+, a complete Battery Passport platform, Radhakrishnan emphasizes its potential to drive transparency, provide chain effectivity, and sustainability. He states, “India has set an bold Internet Zero goal for 2070.
To realize this, we should give attention to maximizing the reuse of recycled supplies in new batteries.” As an example, transitioning from utilizing a 100% virgin battery to incorporating 20% recycled nickel in new batteries might achieve higher prominence with such options that observe your complete battery lifecycle and supply in-depth evaluation of fabric well being and sustainability. Requested in regards to the challenges confronted in collating the information that at present resides in silos at numerous locations and resistance by stakeholders on sharing the information, Radhakrishnan, says, “The challenges we face revolve round knowledge availability and value. The readiness and cleanliness of knowledge are essential, and governance is essential—guaranteeing knowledge safety and sustaining competitiveness whereas sharing knowledge. The ecosystem in India must evolve, and we’re exploring collaboration with companies equivalent to WRI (World Assets Institute) and ThinkTanks to create a conducive setting with complete knowledge availability.”
“Everyone seems to be at present within the discovery part, exploring how a lot knowledge to share and what to maintain confidential. A key concern is guaranteeing that the uncovered knowledge stays safe and doesn’t fall into the arms of rivals. Whereas there isn’t any outright resistance at this stage, there may be important curiosity about how knowledge shall be managed and safeguarded. Resistance might come up provided that stakeholders determine touchpoints that would doubtlessly impression their enterprise. As of now, the trade acknowledges the need of such initiatives and is eager to know their implications.”
Optimising battery ecosystem Explaining the information classes concerned in creating a battery passport platform, Radhakrishnan highlights, “One set is upstream knowledge from mines, cell producers, and battery pack producers, whereas the opposite is car knowledge from the BMS (Battery Administration System) and related car methods. Bringing collectively these static and dynamic knowledge units unlocks invaluable insights. For instance, correlating failures to particular battery sources or supplies can present actionable insights and enhance total battery efficiency.”
He emphasizes that service centres can even play an important position by updating digital information every time a car undergoes upkeep, due to this fact making a shared duty throughout your complete provide chain to help the ecosystem’s progress. With growing software program integration in automobiles, battery passport options can additional improve battery administration algorithms, which will be up to date through OTA (Over-the-Air) updates. This additionally extends to V2G (Car-to-Grid) functions, enabling higher decision- making relating to battery deployment in grid providers.
“We don’t wish to confine this to regulatory compliance alone; it’s necessary and can occur. Nonetheless, our imaginative and prescient is to increase its worth past laws, benefiting customers, OEMs, and regulatory our bodies alike,” says Radhakrishnan. Tata Elxsi gives two options—an analytical resolution and a passport resolution—each of which will be tailor-made to stakeholder wants. “We aren’t pre-bundling them; reasonably, we offer a platform the place stakeholders can select and combine options as wanted,” he says.
The cloud-based platform incorporates AI and ML analytics, knowledge connectors to tug info from a number of sources, and blockchain for knowledge safety and immutability. These options finally assist OEMs enhance design, improve efficiency, and cut back vary nervousness by providing insights into battery lifespan and effectivity.
