New regulations confirm the direction that digital battery identity is taking in China. China Daily summarized the detailed document in an article on January 15, 2026. Every new EV battery in China will have its own unique digital identity from now on. This is considered essential for recycling these batteries in a coordinated manner.
Digital Identity Enabling Lifetime Battery Supervision
This new move tackles the vast numbers of EV batteries awaiting recycling in China, and promotes a standardized approach. A veritable tidal wave is building in the background, and something must be done urgently.
This escalating volume could reach one million metric tons by 2030, according to China Daily citing government sources. The head of the Energy and Comprehensive Utilization Department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Wang Peng explains:
- The digital identity / unique battery code will track a battery’s life cycle from production to closure.
- Details will be available at every step of its journey, including replacement, recycling, and final use.
“This represents a significant institutional innovation,” Wang Peng enthuses. “Applying digital technology will enable us to trace the entire life cycle of power batteries.” Having digital battery identification in China has become an urgent necessity.
Why The Critical Need for Digital Battery Identities?
Electric vehicle sales – or new energy vehicle sales as China calls them – are soaring in the vast Asian country. This is in sharp contrast to the situation in the West, where they are leveling out.
Thoughtless handling after battery retirement poses environmental and safety risks. Whereas professional reprocessing enables recovery of valuable materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, for reuse.
China is already making good progress with re-using its spent new energy batteries. The nation succeeded in recycling over 400,000 tons of the product in 2025, but the backlog is still building.
Key critical success factors to this venture include using authorized recyclers, operating inside the regulated system. And avoiding informal ‘backyard businesses’, operating beyond the new digital battery identity system in China.
More Information
Tracking EV Batteries for Recycling
