After USB-C, the replaceable battery: this is how the EU imagines the future of smartphones
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The European Council has voted on a new regulation on batteries this week. It consists of a series of amendments and repeals to the previous directives and aims to develop a circular economy for batteries, with rather ambitious objectives, especially for the disposal of exhausted ones (63% by 2027 and 73% by 2030) and the recovery lithium (50% by 2027 and 80% by 2031). Conceived above all to cope with the growing diffusion of electric cars, however, it concerns all devices equipped with rechargeable batteries. The approval process at this point provides for the ratification by the European Parliament, while the deadline for the entry into force of the new rules is 2027.
The analysis
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Technology and the law
As already happened with the adoption of the USB-C port for chargers, the regulation on batteries could also affect the way electronic gadgets and devices are designed and manufactured. The provisions of Brussels apply only to EU Member States, but it is clear that for companies operating on a global scale it would not be economically viable to produce products intended only for the European market, so the required specifications could become a widespread standard throughout the world. Let’s look at some of them in detail:
- Portable batteries in appliances must be designed so that consumers can easily remove and replace them themselves.
- Companies will also be legally required to accept and recycle old batteries.
- All battery waste for light electric vehicles, motor vehicles, industrial vehicles, but also current lead-acid batteries for use with thermal propulsion engines must be collected free of charge for end users, regardless of their nature, chemical composition, condition , brand or origin
- The batteries will carry labels and QR codes with information relating to their capacity, performance, life, chemistry, as well as disposal and recycling indications.
- Companies placing batteries on the European market, with the exception of small and medium-sized enterprises, will need to develop and implement a “due diligence policy”, consistent with international standards, to address the social and environmental risks associated with the sourcing, processing and trade of raw materials and secondary raw materials.
Definitions
The rulebook is 366 pages long and also hints at the possible ban on non-rechargeable batteries, without however providing indications on times and methods. On page 95, a “portable battery” is defined as a sealed battery, weighing 5 kg or less, which is not specifically designed for industrial use and which is neither an electric vehicle battery, an LMT battery, nor an SLI battery. The category is very broad: it includes smartphones, tablets, computers, headphones and gadgets in general, but also tools, appliances, medical devices, lamps, toys and much more. And also for these devices it is required that the battery be “easily replaceable” by the user. Here the text is less clear: on page 128 we read that “a portable battery is considered easily removable by the end user when it can be extracted with the use of commonly available tools, without requiring the use of specialized devices, unless they are provided free of charge with the product. No proprietary tools, thermal energy or solvents should be used to disassemble the device”.
The new rules provide exemptions for certain classes of medical devices, and perhaps also for smartwatches, to be considered as “equipment specifically designed to function primarily in an environment that is regularly subjected to water spray, stream or immersion in water and which are intended to be washable or cleaned with water”. Perhaps this category could also include blenders and kitchen utensils, and some toys, but a large part of consumer electronics would need to be completely rethought: in terms of design, construction procedures, functionality.
There has been a lot of discussion about how the new rules will have an impact on smartphones, and the finger has often been pointed at Apple, which has never adopted removable batteries on iPhones. But in reality, of all manufacturers, only FairPhone and, more recently, Nokia offer smartphones with user-replaceable batteries: the others, at best, allow replacement in points of sale and service centers, even if at often inconvenient prices.
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Right to repair
Driven by the demand of American consumers to see recognized the “right to repair”, Apple has introduced for some years a kit to allow users to intervene on their own on different products, from smartphones to computers. At the moment, however, the Cupertino-based company’s program still seems far from the EU’s requests: specialized tools and thermal energy are needed, and Apple itself says that before starting, you need to be “well aware of the complexity of repairing electronic devices”. In addition, the program is not free, but you pay for the rental of the tools necessary for the repair, which are exclusive to Apple.
What could happen then? Meanwhile, even if Apple felt it needed to change something in the design of its products, the EU legislation would not enter into force until 2027. Secondly, Tim Cook’s company could declare that it is already compliant with the new rules and, if the If the EU does not agree, a court will have to decide. This will drag this issue out for another few years. And finally, it could just make the repair tools free to use, and maybe introduce some minor design changes to reduce the 37 steps required today to remove an iPhone battery.
How Daisy works, the robot that recognizes iPhones and carefully disassembles them to recycle them
Contradictions
On the other hand, the internal design of products has already been moving in the direction of simpler repairability in recent years: and not only in the case of Apple, but also of other big names in technology, such as Samsung. The position of Chinese manufacturers, primarily Xiaomi and Oppo, is less clear, while Carl Pei, CEO and founder of Nothing, declared himself skeptical on the issue of repairability.
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And furthermore, if it doesn’t seem so difficult to imagine replaceable batteries in laptops (where they were very common until a few years ago, and Apple adopted them too), rethinking the design of devices such as true wireless headphones seems simply impossible without radically altering their dimensions and functionality. For smartphones, the task is less complicated, but the advantage may not be as great as it seems: beyond the larger dimensions and the extra weight that a rechargeable battery brings, it will not be easy to reconcile resistance to water and dust with the need of an “easily replaceable” battery, as the EU wants. And so perhaps more batteries will be recycled, but the phone will need to be changed more often.
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