EV batteries remain mysterious or even suspect for many consumers, including people leery of buying used EVs due to battery-life concerns. Regulators also need to know what’s inside cells: The Inflation Reduction Act requires automakers to source a growing percentage of batteries and even minerals from North America to be eligible for up to $7,500 in consumer tax credits. If that’s not complicated enough, battery materials such as cobalt and nickel are being scrutinized to ensure they’re ethically and sustainably produced.
As a passport opens access for travelers, Volvo and the London-based tech startup Circulor have designed a “battery passport” to open-access the materials’ supply chain for stakeholders. The Volvo EX90 SUV that began rolling off a South Carolina assembly line in June features the first supply-chain tracker in a production EV. The AI-based system can track the Volvo’s battery life cycle, prove the origin of battery materials, and show its carbon footprint and recycled content.
Instead of kicking tires and other guesswork, battery passports could give used-car shoppers more reliable data to help guide decisions.
The European Union will require these electronic passports on all new cars beginning in 2027. The U.S. has no pending regulation for passports. But the Biden Administration’s demand for domestic EV and battery production—with 100-percent tariffs and other barriers on Chinese EVs—has sparked a potential trade war. It’s also forcing automakers and suppliers to document the source of materials, down to the rocks that first contained them.
Tracing to broaden the marketplace
Volvo Cars spokesperson Kristin Boldemann Wester said the passport is key to boosting transparency around its EVs, including consumer concern over the source of battery raw materials. The passport will monitor the EV battery’s state of health for 15 years.
“This added transparency could help boost the global adoption of EVs,” Boldemann Wester said.
Circulor and Volvo have been developing the battery passport for the past six years. Doug Johnson-Poensgen, chief executive of Circulor, told the Wall Street Journal that the passport is akin to a cake: Each ingredient identified and sourced, along with its environmental cost.
“Supply chains are not static, so this is a continuous process of engagement.” —Kristin Boldemann Wester, Volvo
“The main driver is to effectively shine a light into the deeper parts of a supply chain that were previously pretty opaque,” Johnson-Poensgen said of the system, which uses blockchain technology to create a digital ledger.
“Car manufacturing has never been about which rock went into which component and which got connected to which car,” he said. “It’s taken a long time to figure that out.”
Circulor says it is already working with 52 percent of global cell manufacturers (by production volume), and has collected over 20 billion traceability data points on 150 million battery cells. That data informs “Material Traceability” and “Emissions Tracking” modules on its platform.
After EX90 delays due to software development issues, customers will begin taking delivery of the flagship, three-row SUV in the second half of this year, from the Sweden-based automaker owned by China’s Geely. EX90 buyers will be able to scan a QR code on the driver’s door frame to access passport data, or via an app. Regulators will access a more-detailed passport. Initially, Volvo Cars said, the data will include the battery’s technical specs, including place of manufacture, chemistry type, capacity and warranty; the CO2 footprint of the complete pack; the country of origin and production journey of materials in individual car batteries; and the amount of recycled content for lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite.
Volvo goes all-in, all the more
Where some legacy automakers have reversed course on plans to go all-electric by 2032 or 2035, Volvo insists it remains committed to a pledge to build EVs exclusively by 2030. With hundreds of suppliers providing components for each car model, the passport can piggyback on production systems, and calculate a carbon footprint from parameters that include manufacturing energy inputs.
Only the most enviro-conscious car buyers might care about that insider data. They most certainly care whether their EV is losing substantial range as it ages, and how much a battery might cost to replace. A survey by YouGov Realtime Omnibus suggested only one in three American consumers would consider buying a pre-owned EV or plug-in hybrid (PHEV). Nearly half said they would not buy a used EV or PHEV. Experts note odometer mileage alone isn’t the best clue to how much life a battery has left; it’s more about how many deep charge-and-discharge cycles it’s undergone. Instead of kicking tires and other guesswork, passports could give used-car shoppers more reliable data to help guide decisions.
EV sales growth is stalling in the U.S., and experts say a robust used market is critical to sustained growth. Used cars outsell new cars by more than 2-to-1. Americans only bought about 176,000 used EVs in 2023, according to Cox Automotive data, about two percent of a total 35.9 million used models. Yet Americans bought 1.2 million new EVs last year, and millions of used EVs will begin hitting the market as leases expire and owners trade in cars. Mannheim estimates used EV sales rose nearly 50 percent in the first quarter this year, to nearly 60,000 retail units.
Volvo isn’t the only company hoping to take some of the mystery out of EV battery lifespans. The Seattle-based Recurrent has recruited more than 20,000 drivers, of 66 EV models, to share data that includes charging activity, EV battery level, range estimates and odometer readings. Recurrent CEO Scott Case estimates that the used EV segment will grow 10-fold over five years.
Boldemann Wester said connecting granular battery data to an individual car at the factory required a rethink of production management. Each supplier in the chain must provide ongoing data to the traceability platform to underpin a reliable chain of custody for parts that end up in a finished battery.
“Supply chains are not static, so this is a continuous process of engagement,” she said. “We are working alongside our main suppliers at all tiers of the supply chain to improve data quality.”
Volvo confirmed the passport would be steadily expanded to every company model by 2027. Unless the EU allows extra time for compliance, every automaker that hopes to sell cars in the European market will need to follow suit.
UPDATE 14 June 2024: The story was updated to correct a typo. Volvo’s parent company is Geely, not Neely as a previous version of this article had stated.
Lawrence Ulrich is an award-winning auto writer and former chief auto critic at The New York Times and The Detroit Free Press.
