DENSO and TÜV Rheinland Japan Confirm the Practicality of Battery Passport for AESC’s Energy Storage Product Using Actual Data

DENSO CORPORATION
TÜV Rheinland Japan Ltd.
AESC Group Ltd.

DENSO CORPORATION (Headquarters: Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture; President: Shinnosuke Hayashi, hereinafter referred to as “DENSO”) and TÜV Rheinland Japan, Ltd. (Headquarters: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture; President: Kunihiro Okamoto, hereinafter referred to as “TÜV Rheinland Japan”) have conducted a joint validation of battery passport for an energy storage product of AESC Group Ltd. (Head Office: Yokohama, Kanagawa; CEO: David Wan; hereinafter “AESC”), using actual data from AESC’s ESS^*1 business. In this validation, DENSO, in collaboration with the relevant parties, was responsible for building and providing the technological foundation for battery passport, and TÜV Rheinland Japan, as the independent third-party certification body, have verified that the product complies with the EU Battery Regulation^*2 and is both practical and feasible for real-world use. This achievement lays a solid foundation for AESC’s energy storage products to enter the EU market.

■Challenges and Background
In recent years, societal expectations have increasingly called for achieving carbon neutrality and transitioning to a circular economy that enables resources to circulate within the economic system. As a result, efforts to develop sustainable products have accelerated. In Europe in particular, Digital Product Passport (DPP)^*3 is being introduced to digitally manage and present product traceability information. Under the EU Battery Regulation, a battery passport will become mandatory from February 2027 for batteries used in automotive, industrial, and other applications.

At the same time, key challenges in addressing the Regulation include preparing data derived from actual data, operating the required systems, and ensuring overall practicality and feasibility, including third-party verification.

■Overview of the Validation
Against this backdrop, DENSO and TÜV Rheinland Japan entered a memorandum of understanding in September 2025 to advance the Digital Product Passport^*4. Under this partnership, the two companies conducted a validation of a battery passport using actual data from AESC’s ESS batteries for the European market, with AESC serving as the data provider, to verify the practicality and regulatory compliance of battery passport under the EU Battery Regulation.

DENSO provided a service to support the generation and management of battery passport in accordance with the EU Battery Regulation. Based on standards established by the Battery Pass Consortium^*5, the service generates a battery passport for each product and enables access to battery information via a QR code affixed to the product. The service also includes an access-rights management function that controls information available for viewing depending on the user’s role, ensuring data security while respecting the data sovereignty of each stakeholder and supporting regulatory compliance.

As manufacturer of energy storage products, AESC prepared the necessary data for compliance with the upcoming battery passport mandate and provided data from its existing ESS business, while taking into account future exports to Europe and customer requirements.
In preparation for full compliance with the upcoming battery passport mandate, AESC has implemented comprehensive sustainability and compliance measures across its value chain, extending beyond the specific data scope of this validation. The company deploys systematic supply chain oversight to enforce compliant practices and rigorous quality control. To support long-term sustainability, AESC has estSSablished, through the use of digital battery passport solutions, a closed-loop circular economy framework for battery recycling and reuse.

As a third-party certification body, TÜV Rheinland Japan verified the data handled by the battery passport service based on the EU Battery Regulation and standards such as DIN DKE SPEC 99100^*6.

■Results of the Validation
Through validation using actual data, the companies identified the data preparation and operational challenges associated with the EU Battery Regulation’s requirements in a real-world business environment. The validation also confirmed that DENSO’s battery passport service extends beyond meeting formal regulatory requirements and represents a highly practical solution that can be integrated into real-world business processes. In addition, the verification conducted by TÜV Rheinland Japan, as a third-party certification body, verified that the battery passport is effective in both regulatory compliance and data reliability.

Based on this validation using ESS battery data, DENSO and TÜV Rheinland Japan will expand their efforts to include AESC’s automotive traction batteries and jointly advance the practical implementation of battery passport across a broader range of applications. Through these initiatives, they will advance regulatory compliance not only in Europe but also in global markets, support value creation for customers such as automakers through resource circulation and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.

^*1 ESS: Energy Storage System—a system designed to temporarily store electricity and supply it when needed, with the aim of balancing electricity supply and demand.
^*2 EU Battery Regulation: A regulation that entered into force in Europe in August 2023 to promote the production and use of sustainable battery products.
^*3 DPP: A collective term for digital credentials in which a wide range of information—such as the manufacturer, materials used, recyclability, and disassembly instructions—is recorded to ensure traceability across a product’s lifecycle and substantiate its sustainability.
^*4 DENSO and TÜV Rheinland Japan Sign Memorandum of Understanding to Realize Sustainable Product Development and to Promote Digital Product Passport | Newsroom | News | DENSO Global Website
^*5 Battery Pass Consortium: A European public–private partnership established to develop the framework and implementation tools for the battery passport mandated under the EU Battery Regulation.
^*6 DIN DKE SPEC 99100: A specification issued by the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (DKE). It defines requirements for the data attributes to be included in a digital battery passport; mandatory items include battery manufacturer information, material composition, and the CO₂ footprint.