Passport-support evidence must remain findable after the sales conversation ends. Retention records explain which lithium files are preserved, which versions changed, and which limits apply. 1
This spoke belongs to the Battery Passport Lithium Vault pillar at /battery-passport-lithium-vault/.
Retention as verifier infrastructure
Lithium documents may be needed long after upload: during customer review, audit, market surveillance, warranty analysis, recycling review, or internal due diligence. A retention record should state the file category, version history, current status, archival note, and relationship to passport data. It should avoid promising permanent legal retention unless the customer’s policy and platform terms support that claim.
Version and withdrawal notes
If a file is superseded, corrected, withdrawn, or restricted, the record should say so. Silent replacement destroys evidence continuity. A better model is to preserve the prior hash and add a new record or note explaining the new file. This is especially important for carbon, origin, recycled-content, and supplier declarations.
What retention does not do
Retention does not make a document true, sufficient, certified, or official. It makes the evidence chain reviewable. The operator still controls the underlying compliance program and must decide which records meet legal, commercial, and contractual retention requirements.