The European Parliament has voted yes to replaceable smartphone battery legislation, putting Apple on a path to a second redesign just over a year after USB-C charging ports were mandated in the bloc.
Unlike the USB-C redesign, which has a 2024 deadline, the "portable battery" rule will come into play in 2027 at the earliest.
Smartphones designed by Samsung and most other makers on the market already include USB-C ports, but for almost all of them the battery news will mean a redesign and a look at how they're going to engineer connections and mounts internally when the unit is meant to detach.
Is it realistic, though? The statement from the Commission last week claims the new law takes into account technological developments and future challenges in the sector – but the sector has moved further and further into sealed units, especially Apple, which over the years has received criticism for being tricky to repair. The iPhone maker, we should note, now has a self-repair program – although it's Apple parts only.
Critics also claim that the water and dust resistance consumers have come to assume will be present in their mobiles will be hit hard – a sealed unit isn't just a deterrent for techies after all.
What do you think, readers? Good thing? Unintentionally bad thing?
We're quite sure sales of iFixit's spudger won't suffer as you've still got to prise the battery out with something, and that butter knife trick is how at least one reader's boss's efforts ended up being shared on techsupport subreddit in the first place, right? What! Sometimes one has to share the pain with someone.
The new rules approved by European Parliament last week also include a requirement for a "digital battery passport" for industrial batteries with a capacity above 2kWh and EV batteries; a due diligence policy for all economic operators, except for small and medium biz; and much stricter waste collection targets for portable batteries, ramping up to 73 percent by 2030. They'll also set minimum levels of recycled content from manufacturing and consumer waste for use in new batteries. Eight years after the regulations have come into force, the bloc expects 16 percent for cobalt, 85 percent for lead, 6 percent for lithium and 6 percent for nickel, with the targets rising after five years have elapsed.
Three and a half years after the legislation has become law, portable batteries in appliances must be designed so that consumers can easily remove and replace them themselves – with the best guess that this means around 2027 for the rules to come into action. That's if the major manufacturers don't apply to a extension on that deadline. We have asked Samsung and Apple if they plan to do so.
If the legislation does go through on the timeline envisaged, be ready to hear a certain vendor chime in with: "You're changing it wrong" if anything goes awry. We've asked Apple, Samsung, and iFixit for comment. ®
Source: The register