SB615 - Vehicle traction batteries.

Amended IN Assembly August 20, 2026 Amended IN Assembly July 01, 2026 Amended IN Assembly September 02, 2025 Amended IN Assembly July 07, 2025 Amended IN Senate May 23, 2025 Amended IN Senate April 07, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Senate Bill No. 615 Introduced by Senator Allen (Coauthor: Assembly Member Bauer-Kahan) February 20, 2025 An act to add Article 4 (commencing with Section 42451) to Chapter 8 of Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code, An act to add Part 11 (commencing with Section 44480) to Division 26 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to vehicle traction batteries. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 615, as amended, Allen. Vehicle traction batteries. Existing law requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to convene the Lithium-Ion Car Battery Recycling Advisory Group to review, and advise the Legislature on, policies pertaining to the recovery and recycling of lithium-ion vehicle batteries sold with motor vehicles in the state. Existing law also requires the advisory group to submit policy recommendations to the Legislature aimed at ensuring that as close to 100% as possible of lithium-ion vehicle batteries in the state are reused or recycled at end of life in a safe and cost-effective manner. Existing law designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with coordinating efforts to attain and maintain ambient air quality standards and to regulate emissions from motor vehicles. Existing state board regulations require certain new motor vehicles to be equipped with specified traction battery labels. This bill would require a battery supplier, as defined, to be responsible for, among other duties, ensuring the responsible end-of-life management of a vehicle traction battery for which notice is given and reporting information to the department, as provided. The bill would impose related duties on a secondary user, as defined, and a secondary handler, as defined, including, among other duties, ensuring the responsible end-of-life management for a vehicle traction battery or returning a vehicle traction battery to the battery supplier, as provided. The bill would also require a remanufacturer, as defined, and a battery recycler, as defined, to conduct various activities regarding a vehicle traction battery, as provided. require, commencing July 1, 2028, a battery supplier, as defined, to equip a new vehicle traction battery sold in the state with a permanent label containing only specified information, as provided. The bill would require a remanufacturer to rebrand and relabel a remanufactured vehicle traction battery, as provided. The bill would require each battery supplier and remanufacturer, no later than 90 days after the chaptering of the act, to register with the state board and provide the state board with specified information. The bill would require those entities to update that registration and information annually and upon request of the board, as provided. The bill would require the state board to adopt regulations no later than July 1, 2031, to implement and enforce these provisions and would require the state board to determine the most cost-effective means to accept required electronic submissions, as provided. This bill would require the battery supplier to pay the department’s actual and reasonable regulatory costs to implement and enforce these provisions. battery suppliers, beginning July 1, 2029, and annually thereafter, to pay the state board a fee sufficient to cover the state board’s full personnel, administrative, regulatory, and loan and interest costs related to implementing and enforcing these provisions. The bill would require the state board to create a tiered fee schedule based on each battery supplier’s share of total in-state vehicle registrations with vehicle traction batteries 10 years prior, and would exempt establishment of and updates to that schedule from the Administrative Procedure Act. The bill would establish the Vehicle Traction Battery Recovery Fund (fund) in the State Treasury and would require the department the state board to deposit all fee moneys received from the battery supplier into the fund, as specified. Moneys in the fund would be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, only to implement and enforce these provisions. provisions, and to reimburse specified loans and interest. The bill would authorize, upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Director of Finance to make a loan from an unspecified fund to the fund to meet regulatory and startup costs of the department’s state board’s activities pursuant to these provisions. The bill would require, upon appropriation by the Legislature, moneys in the fund to be expended to reimburse loans made from other funds for those purposes. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2030, and every 5 years thereafter, to conduct a survey on the functioning of the program, as provided, and post a summary of the survey findings along with other specified information on its internet website. The bill would authorize the department to impose administrative penalties for a violation of these requirements. The bill would require that all reports and records provided to the department pursuant to these provisions be provided under penalty of perjury. By expanding the scope of crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would restrict public access to certain information collected for the purpose of administering this program. The state board’s duties under the bill would be contingent upon an appropriation for these purposes. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following: (a) As the State of California continues its commitment to decarbonizing the on-road transportation sector, and as electric vehicles become more cost competitive and popular with consumers, the state will see an increase in the number of vehicle traction batteries. (b) A vehicle traction battery that is no longer useful in a vehicle can be repurposed for another application, remanufactured, or recycled. Given the growth expected in California’s electric vehicle market, the value inherent in the material used to manufacture vehicle batteries, and the potential hazard posed by these batteries if handled improperly, California has an interest in creating a coherent state policy designed to ensure all vehicle traction batteries are reused, repaired, repurposed, remanufactured, and eventually recycled. (c) The Legislature passed and the Governor signed Assembly Bill 2832 of the 2017–18 Regular Session, calling for the formation of an advisory group of experts to develop policy recommendations aimed at ensuring that as close to 100 percent as possible of electric vehicle traction batteries in the state are reused or recycled at end of life in a safe and cost-effective manner. This advisory group published a report in March 2022 summarizing their work, detailing barriers and opportunities for improving management of these batteries, and presenting policies designed to further the currently developing circular economy, avoid adverse impacts to public health and the environment, and to keep these batteries out of the waste stream. (d) One key recommendation of the advisory group was to create a program that would require those involved in the production and use of electric vehicle traction batteries to take responsibility for the product’s end of life. The report articulated different approaches to accomplishing this goal and underscored the need to specify which entities should be responsible for coordinating and covering the costs associated with management of the batteries when those costs present a burden for the vehicle owner and the need to mitigate barriers that currently inhibit the reusing, repurposing, and recycling of these batteries. (d) Proper labeling of vehicle traction batteries is crucial for secondary handlers, such as automobile dismantlers, to identify the batteries and determine their disposition for potential reuse, repair, remanufacturing, or repurposing; for the safe handling and transport of the batteries; and for recyclers to properly recycle the batteries for efficient critical mineral recovery. SEC. 2. It is the policy of the State of California that any program designed to ensure proper end-of-life management of vehicle traction batteries first strives to reuse, repair, repurpose, or remanufacture vehicle traction batteries when possible. When a vehicle traction battery is no longer used in any application, the program shall ensure the vehicle traction batteries are recycled. Disposal of these vehicle traction batteries should be discouraged and ultimately eliminated in support of achieving a circular economy. SEC. 3. Article 4 (commencing with Section 42451) is added to Chapter 8 of Part 3 of Division 30 of the Public Resources Code , to read: 4. Vehicle Traction Batteries 42451. SEC. 3. Part 11 (commencing with Section 44480) is added to Division 26 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: PART 11. Vehicle Traction Batteries 4448 0. For purposes of this article, part, the following definitions apply: (a) “Automobile dismantler” has the same definition as in Section 220 of the Vehicle Code. (b) “Automotive repair dealer” has the same definition as in Section 9880.1 of the Business and Professions Code. (c) (a) “Battery cell” means the basic electrochemical unit of a battery that consists of an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte and is used to store and release electrical energy. (d) “Battery management hierarchy” means a hierarchy of battery management wherein the entity in possession of the battery shall first strive to reuse, repair, repurpose, or remanufacture the battery when possible and cost effective. When that is not possible or cost effective, that entity shall ensure the battery is recycled. (e) (b) “Battery module” means an array of multiple battery cells connected in series or parallel and encased in one structure. (f) (1) “Battery recycler” means an entity or facility that abides by all applicable federal, state, and local laws, and does either of the following: (A) Refines the components of an end-of-life vehicle traction battery’s materials, such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, graphite, iron, lithium compounds, manganese, and nickel, back to usable materials suitable for reintroduction into battery manufacturing, or other industrial supply chains. (B) Extracts and separates materials from end-of-life vehicle traction batteries, including metals, compounds, and intermediate fractions and sends the materials for further processing or refining to another battery recycler. (2) The term “battery recycler” does not include either of the following: (A) Entities or facilities that are only engaged in the collection or logistics of moving materials for recycling. (B) Household hazardous waste collection facilities or solid waste enterprises that are only engaged in the collection and transportation of vehicle traction batteries for subsequent reuse, processing, recycling, or disposal. (g) (c) “Battery supplier” means all of the following: (1) A person who initially sells, offers for sale, or distributes a vehicle traction battery into the state, including a vehicle manufacturer licensed pursuant to Section 11701 of the Vehicle Code, or a vehicle traction battery manufacturer, who sells, offers for sale, or distributes a vehicle traction battery in or into the state under the person’s own name or brand. A vehicle manufacturer shall be considered a battery supplier with respect to vehicle traction batteries included in its vehicles that are sold in this state and with respect to replacement vehicle traction batteries provided, directly or indirectly, by the manufacturer to dealers in the state. (2) If there is no vehicle manufacturer licensed pursuant to Section 11701 of the Vehicle Code, or no other person in the state who is the battery supplier for purposes of paragraph (1), the battery supplier is the owner or exclusive licensee of a brand or trademark under which the vehicle traction battery is sold or distributed into the state, whether or not the trademark is registered. For purposes of this subdivision, an “exclusive licensee” is a person holding the exclusive right to use a trademark or brand in the state in connection with the manufacture, sale, or distribution for sale in or into the state of the vehicle traction battery. (3) If there is no person in the state who is the battery supplier for purposes of paragraph (1) or (2), the battery supplier is the person that imports the vehicle traction battery into the state for sale, distribution, or installation. (4) If there is no other person in the state who is the battery supplier for the purpose of paragraph (1), (2), or (3), the battery supplier is the distributor, retailer, dealer, or wholesaler who sells the vehicle traction battery in or into the state. (5) For purposes of this article, the sale of a vehicle traction battery shall be deemed to occur in the state if the vehicle traction battery, or the vehicle containing the vehicle traction battery, is delivered to a licensed dealer, as defined in Section 285 of the Vehicle Code, or to the consumer in the state. (6) “Battery supplier” does not include either of the following: (A) A secondary handler who sells, offers for sale, or distributes a vehicle traction battery in or into the state. (B) A person that sells a used vehicle into the state. (1) The vehicle manufacturer of the vehicle containing the vehicle traction battery, unless the vehicle traction battery is an aftermarket part. If a vehicle’s vehicle traction battery is replaced with an original equipment manufacturer’s vehicle traction battery, the battery supplier is the vehicle manufacturer. (2) If a replacement vehicle traction battery is not an original equipment manufacturer’s vehicle traction battery for the vehicle but instead an aftermarket vehicle traction battery, the entity that owns or licenses the trademark of the replacement vehicle traction battery is the battery supplier, if that entity is i [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]