The European Union's (EU) battery passport regulation is set to reshape the competitive landscape in Europe’s battery market, potentially giving Korean manufacturers an edge over Chinese rivals with weaker supply-chain transparency, experts and industry officials said Monday. Starting from Feb. 18, 2027, a new EU law will require batteries on the European market to carry detailed digital information covering their identity, technical characteristics, performance, durability, sustainability and recycling-related data. The policy is designed to improve transparency across the battery’s entire life cycle, from production and use to reuse and recycling. The upcoming rule comes at a critical time, when Korean battery firms are rapidly losing shares in the global electric vehicle (EV) battery market due to the rapid rise of Chinese manufacturers. According to recent data by SNE Research, battery usage for EVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles outside China reached 269 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the first half of this year, up 26.3 percent from a year earlier. However, the c