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Fast freight chief calls for coherent approach to battery rules

[ February 28, 2024   //   ]

Klaus Rud Sejling, chief executive of urgent freight company Danx Carousel has called on the European Union to standardise regulations on the transport and storage of electric vehicle batteries to reduce supply chain costs and the risk of incidents.

Danx Carousel is a major EV battery logistics and storage in the Nordic region.

“Approved in July 2023, the new EU battery regulation (Regulation 2023/1542) was created with the aim of harmonising legislation for the sustainability and safety of batteries,” said Sejling. “But there remain many disparities from nation to nation within the EU that add to costs and add confusion with a product that can be very dangerous.”

While Sejling praised many aspects of the new regulation, such as individual battery e-passports that offer transparency along the supply chain, he questioned why discrepancies in interpretations and practices were allowed to remain between EU member states.

“The lack of clarity over which battery is waste and which is recyclable and how they should be kept doesn’t make things easier with something that, if it is not well controlled, is much more risky than an internal combustion engine.

“Danx Carousel has committed significant investment in researching best practice in this area and has great experience, but with the trend to store batteries closer to end users, regulatory standardisation can only help avoid further incidents.”

Danx Carousel has moved well over 20,000 batteries in the Nordics, each of them weighing an average of 500 kg. It is currently adding battery storage facilities in Germany and France to accommodate expected increases in demand.

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