DHL Group is expanding a global network of more than 20 specialist battery logistics sites as electrification pushes handling requirements beyond conventional automotive freight into manufacturing, industrial equipment, energy storage, mining, and grid infrastructure.
The network combines activities from DHL Supply Chain, DHL Global Forwarding, and DHL Express, linking inbound production logistics, dangerous-goods transport, warehousing, technical battery services, aftermarket handling, returns, and recycling preparation across several regions.
DHL describes the locations as electric-vehicle and Battery Centers of Excellence, although the business now extends well beyond passenger cars. Utility-scale energy storage, industrial electrification, renewable-energy projects, and high-capacity equipment are increasing both the dimensions and weight of battery shipments, with some systems exceeding 50 tonnes.
Those products create logistics requirements unlike conventional automotive parts. Batteries store substantial electrical energy, can suffer internal damage without obvious external signs, and are governed by dangerous-goods rules that vary according to chemistry, state of charge, packaging, transport mode, and whether the unit is new, damaged, defective, or moving for recycling.
Warehouses therefore require more than pallet space. Battery facilities may need fire-detection and separation strategies, temperature controls, charging capability, quarantine areas, trained personnel, diagnostic equipment, and procedures for handling packs whose condition is uncertain.
DHL is adding technical services at several sites, including battery diagnostics, testing, charging, conditioning, repair, reverse logistics, and recycling preparation. The logistics provider is consequently moving further into the operating lifecycle of the product rather than limiting its role to transport between factory and customer.
That lifecycle is becoming longer as battery packs retain value after their first installation. An electric-vehicle battery removed because its remaining capacity no longer meets vehicle requirements may still be suitable for stationary storage, while damaged or end-of-life packs can contain recoverable lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, aluminium, and other materials.
Determining the correct route requires information about state of health, chemistry, damage, ownership, transport classification, and local regulation. A logistics network capable of inspection and conditioning can influence whether a battery is repaired, redeployed, recycled, or moved under more restrictive dangerous-goods provisions.
DHL has recently made 13,000 square metres of battery-ready warehouse space available in Halle, Germany, and is preparing another specialist facility in Hungary for operation in 2027.
Those locations sit close to major European vehicle and battery manufacturing corridors where cell, module, pack, and finished-vehicle production are becoming increasingly interconnected.
Asia remains a major centre of battery manufacturing, creating long-distance flows into Europe and other consuming regions. Raw materials, cathode and anode products, production machinery, cells, modules, packs, and complete storage systems can all follow different logistics routes before a battery reaches final operation.
Manufacturers are simultaneously trying to localise more production near vehicle and energy markets. New gigafactories reduce some finished-battery transport but create additional inbound movements of chemicals, materials, capital equipment, and production components.
DHL sees these flows as new trade corridors rather than a temporary extension of automotive logistics. The network has to work in both directions: supplying factories while later handling replacements, damaged products, returns, second-life batteries, and recycling streams.
Project logistics introduces another layer. During the first half of 2026, DHL says it delivered more than 1,100 battery energy storage units worldwide.
Large BESS projects can require heavy-lift transport, coordinated delivery sequences, cranes, route planning, and temporary storage in addition to conventional freight forwarding. Individual systems may arrive as complete containers or large cabinets whose delivery has to be coordinated with civil and electrical works.
A grid-storage project can involve hundreds of units that have to reach site in the order required for installation. Arriving too early creates congestion and storage risk; arriving too late can leave contractors waiting for equipment.
Customs and classification are equally important when batteries cross borders. Regulations can differ between jurisdictions, while documentation errors can delay high-value shipments whose replacement lead times may already be measured in months.
DHL Express is using dangerous-goods capability across air and European road networks for time-critical battery movements, while the group’s project-logistics operation deals with larger infrastructure equipment.
Combining those modes gives customers more flexibility than treating every battery movement as either a parcel or a conventional container load.
The group has designated New Energy as one of its growth sectors under Strategy 2030, covering wind, solar, electric vehicles and batteries, BESS, charging, grid infrastructure, hydrogen, and alternative fuels. DHL is targeting €3 billion of New Energy revenue by 2030.
Battery logistics is likely to account for a growing share because the product sits across several of those markets. Electric vehicles, charging systems, renewable integration, backup power, and grid balancing all depend on batteries whose manufacturing and end-of-life routes remain increasingly international and regulated.
For DHL, the opportunity also creates operating liability. A global network can standardise training and procedures, but dangerous-goods compliance ultimately has to work at individual warehouses, airports, ports, roads, and customer sites under local rules.
Expansion beyond 20 specialist locations therefore matters less as a headline site count than as evidence that battery handling is becoming a dedicated logistics discipline. As electrification spreads through factories, data centres, transport, and electricity networks, moving batteries safely is becoming almost as specialised as manufacturing them.
