Battery Passport for SMEs & Small-Batch Manufacturers

EU battery passport rules don't include a small-business exemption. If your 200-person factory or 20-person startup places batteries on the EU market, you need passports — same as CATL or Tesla. The good news: SME battery passport compliance doesn't require enterprise PLM budgets.

SME-Friendly Approach

• Start with one SKU — your highest-volume EU export product
• Use dashboard entry — manual form fill is fine for <500 units/month
• PassCell Pilot ($199/mo) — 500 passports included, full QR registry
• Graduate to CSV/API — when volume exceeds manual workflow

What SMEs Can Skip (For Now)

• Custom MES integration — use CSV until 2,000+ units/month
• Dedicated compliance hire — platform + consultant for initial LCA is enough initially
• Multi-jurisdiction field mapping — focus on Annex XIII for EU first

What SMEs Cannot Skip

• Valid UID and live QR registry for every EU-bound unit
• Carbon footprint declaration for EV class batteries
• Supplier composition data from cell vendor
• Pre-shipment scan test on every batch

Small batch is not a regulatory category — it's a volume description. Compliance is identical; only the workflow scale differs.