EUROBAT, the Association of European Manufacturers of automotive, industrial and energy storage batteries, published yesterday its position paper on labelling of Automotive SLI Batteries and cold cranking current of lead-acidĀ batteries, in view of the European Commission first proposal to review the Battery Regulation EC 1103/2010.
EUROBAT Position Paper on labelling of Automotive SLI Batteries
Specific features of automotive SLI (starting-lighting-ignition) lead batteries are the capacity, which represents the maximum amount of energy that can be extracted from the battery under specific conditions (in Ah) and the cold cranking current (CCA), which is the ability to start the internal combustion engine at cold temperatures. In view of the European Commission first proposal to review the Battery Regulation EC 1103/2010, EUROBAT proposes the following recommendations on the labeling of the capacity and the cold cranking current on such batteries:
The currently Regulation mentions +/-10% accuracy on the labelled Cold Cranking Current (CCA) and the Capacity (Ah). This is far too large for this application as cars could be equipped with batteries that are too weak at replacement, which affect the reliability and lifetime of the batteries. For that reason we strongly recommend that new proposal should increase the accuracy of the Cold Cranking Current (CCA) and the Capacity (Ah) as follow:
āŗĀ EUROBAT requests that the new Regulation would refer to the European standard EN 50342-1 (latest version published in 2018).Ā The Commission supported our position in 2014 and updated the current Regulation-FAQ-document[1].
The current Regulation does not cover motor cycle batteries, as confirmed by the European Commission. The European Industry (Cenelec TC21x) developed a strong standard on motor cycle batteries, which is now published under theĀ EN 50342-7 to bring a solution.
āŗEUROBATās requests to include motor cycle batteries in the scope of the new Regulation by referring to the new standard.Ā This standard includes alsoĀ a chapter on the specific accuracy on CCA and Ah for motorcycle batteries.
The current Regulation refers to both the European and the International standard families EN 50342, respective IEC 60095. Although there is a lot of alignment between both families, there are also some important differences. Due to this, it is possible to have similar labels on batteries that are actually very differently designed, which is misleading for the consumers.
āŗEUROBAT requests that the new Regulation would refer to one single standard family, preferable the Cenelec EN 50342, and to delete the reference to the IEC 60095 in order to have a unambiguously labelling.Ā The concerted European Standards have specific features to serve the European markets specifically (European OEMs are using this standard).
Last but not least, EUROBAT requests that all legislation on mandatory labeling requirements on batteries (such as chemicals color codes standard, the mandatory safety and environmental pictograms etcā¦) would be included into one single Regulation.
[1]Ā Frequently Asked Questions on Directive 2006/66/EU on Batteries and Accumulators and Waste Batteries
and Accumulators,Ā https://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/batteries/pdf/faq.pdf, page 16.