The European Union It is a political and economic space that has tended to approve regulations that are quite favorable to consumers. After the mandatory use of USB Type-C as the only interface for all mobile devices, something that Apple did not like at the time, now the supranational entity has proposed new rules that force device manufacturers to facilitate access and battery replacement.
In order to advance environmental protection policies, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement last Friday to review the rules around batteries and take into account technological advances and future challenges. Future standards would cover the entire life cycle of batteries, from design to end of life and would apply to all batteries sold within the European Union. The devices to which the possible future regulations would apply would be laptops, SLI batteries, batteries for light transportation (which provide energy for the traction of wheeled vehicles, such as electric scooters and bicycles), electric vehicles, and industrial batteries.
A maximum CO2 limit would also be established for batteries that would take effect from July 2027. When that happens, batteries must use recycled materials with the following minimum percentages of metals: 16% cobalt, 85% lead, 6% lithium and 6% nickel.
As far as consumers are concerned, the new rules of the European Union will provide them with better information about the batteries they buy through labels and QR codes that allow them to know the capacities, performance, durability, chemical composition and a separate collection symbol.
The European Parliament, through a press release, has explicitly said that, “three and a half years after the entry into force of the legislation, portable batteries in household appliances must be designed so that they can be easily removed and replaced by consumers”.
It’s important to note that this is, for now, an interim agreement, but for now everything seems to indicate that the European Union will move towards legislation that will force device manufacturers to facilitate battery replacement. Some media have been quick to point out Apple and the iPhone, which have been “damaged” by the imposition of USB Type-C, however, it would be interesting to force manufacturers to make laptop batteries removable from the outside again in order to facilitate the assembly of said equipment as a desktop and supported by a UPS (the UPS is a recommendation, obviously).
