Will removable batteries requireed by EU hit the sale of mobile phones?

Recently, with 587 votes in favor, 9 votes against, and 20 abstentions, the European Parliament passed an agreement with the European Council (the EU’s highest decision-making body) on the “New Battery Law”.

It is reported that the “New Battery Law” was proposed by the European Commission in 2020 to regulate the entire life cycle of all types of batteries sold in the EU, including design, production and recycling .

One of the electronics measures mentioned in the bill has received widespread attention, that is, the batteries in all household appliances and consumer electronics should be easily removed .

The measures of the bill will mainly affect portable electronic products such as mobile phones and tablet computers , because the batteries of these products are closed and cannot be easily disassembled by consumers. Products such as desktop computers already have better removable battery designs, so the impact is less.

However, in the eyes of industry insiders, it is not easy for this measure to be widely promoted.

The battery becomes easy to disassemble, which will definitely increase the cost of the product and the difficulty of maintenance.

For example, if the battery is removable, it needs to be well protected, and the corresponding cost will increase.

Previously, the European Union has required major mobile phone manufacturers to use the more common USB-C interface for mobile phones sold in the EU market. This move has effectively promoted the unification of the interface.

Require mobile phone battery to be easily removed

The EU’s implementation of this regulation is first of all out of environmental considerations.

In the era of feature phones and early smartphones, almost all phones used a removable back cover design to allow users to replace the battery.

“Big Brother” Motorola 8000x is designed with a removable battery.

In recent years, in order to pursue the characteristics of lightness, portability, compact design, safety, and waterproof, smart phones, tablets, laptops and other devices on the market have adopted the design of built-in batteries.

Later Android manufacturers quickly followed up and set off a wave of non-removable batteries.

In order to improve the utilization rate of the internal space of the fuselage, thereby facilitating the thinner and lighter design of the fuselage, the battery of the mobile phone has long been designed in a form that is inconvenient to replace.

However, on the one hand, it is inconvenient to disassemble. On the other hand, for battery recycling, a large number of discarded electronic products will damage the environment, bring challenges to environmental protection, and easily cause waste.

So at the end of last year, the European Union reached an interim agreement on a “new battery law”.

According to the latest announcement on the official website of the European Parliament, the new law reached this time requires the design of portable batteries in electrical appliances so that consumers can easily remove and replace them.

Rapporteur Achille Variati said: “For the first time, we have enacted circular economy legislation that covers the entire life cycle of products, an approach that is good for the environment and the economy.

Our overall aim is to create a stronger EU recycling sector, and a competitive The industrial sector of the battery, which will be crucial for our energy transition and strategic autonomy in the coming decades.

These measures could become a benchmark for the global battery market.”

The relevant agreements of the “New Battery Law” passed by the European Parliament still need to be formally approved by the European Council and will be published in the official announcement of the European Union.

The European Council is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission.

It is the highest decision-making body of the European Union and determines the overall policy of the European Union. Once the full version of the “New Battery Law” comes into effect, battery manufacturers, will be subject to stricter environmental and due diligence if they want to sell batteries in the European market .

The reporter noticed that as early as 2018, Washington State of the United States planned a repairability legislation specifically for electronic products, requiring mobile phone companies to ensure that smartphone batteries are detachable. The bill emphasizes that the mobile phone battery is glued to the motherboard, artificially increasing the difficulty of disassembly and maintenance, which does not comply with the principles of environmental protection and reuse, so the battery must be detachable and replaceable.

How will it affect the global consumer electronics industry?

According to the latest announcement on the official website of the European Parliament, the “New Battery Law” reached this time mentions that portable batteries should be designed in electrical appliances so that consumers can easily disassemble and replace them. “Easy” undoubtedly points to the fact that it is easier to use without using special tools.

At present, when there are problems with the batteries of many mobile phones, computers and other electronic products, consumers can only choose to send them for repairs in most cases.

Taking Apple mobile phones and laptop products as examples, it is not easy for consumers to replace batteries by themselves. An Apple after-sales service person once pointed out to reporters: “If consumers don’t know how to disassemble it, it’s useless to buy accessories back.” During the replacement process, the position of the cables and buttons connected to the main board was handled carelessly, and the main board was scratched, which ultimately outweighed the gain. In addition, the official repair price of its battery is expensive. It costs 600-700 yuan to replace an iPhone battery, and 1200-1900 yuan to replace a MacBook battery. Even for old models, the battery price is not discounted. .

It is not easy to disassemble, which not only increases the difficulty of maintainability of battery products, but also increases consumers’ maintenance costs.

After the batteries in electronic products can be easily and freely replaced, it is undoubtedly more convenient for consumers to purchase accessories for replacement, but at the same time, some disadvantages will reappear, which will also affect the interests of terminal manufacturers.

After it becomes easy to replace the battery, the weight of the mobile phone may increase again, and the dustproof and waterproof performance may deteriorate. Frequent disassembly by users also increases the risk of corrosion of circuit components.

This bill will have an impact on manufacturers who originally had closed battery designs.

These manufacturers need to change their designs to meet the requirements, increase design difficulty and cost, and may affect their profits.

Due to the current Batteries in most mobile phones, personal computers and tablet devices are not easily removable, which may affect the interests of some manufacturers after the European Union reached an agreement on the easy removal of batteries.

“The new regulations require that portable batteries in electrical appliances will be easier to replace.” A mobile phone engineer pointed out to reporters that batteries in consumer electronics products will age, and users can easily replace batteries to extend the service life of mobile phones, which will undoubtedly make mobile phones last longer. , For manufacturers, to a certain extent, it is also not conducive to user replacement and new machine sales.

At present, there is a lack of innovation in smartphone products, and the replacement cycle of mobile phones has been extended to 43 months.

For this reason, from the perspective of the industry, it is quite difficult to promote the new bill on easy-to-remove batteries among all manufacturers.

It is very difficult to promote easy-to-disassemble batteries. Market demand and technical cost are both challenges. In addition, the design of difficult-to-disassemble batteries also has significant advantages.

Some people in the industry also analyzed to reporters that in order to adapt to the relevant regulations of the European Union, manufacturers may also make trade-offs and design mobile phone styles for European users, but this will also increase the production costs of manufacturers.

There is also a view that manufacturers are unlikely to create individually designed products specifically for the European region. For example, in response to the European Union’s push to standardize the USB-C connector, Apple has compromised.

TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that the launch of the iPhone 15 series in the second half of 2023 will abandon Lightning and switch to USB-C instead of producing USB-C iPhones exclusively for Europe.

However, European Union’s requirement for easy battery removal is different from Apple’s compromise in adopting USB-C. USB Type-C has gradually become a common interface standard.

The unified conversion interface is the general trend, and how much impact will the easy battery removal measure have? It remains to be seen, at present mainly the EU region, not necessarily other regions.

The Western European smartphone market data released by Canalys in the first quarter of 2023 shows that Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, OPPO, and TCL rank among the top five in the market.

In response to this policy, how do mobile phone brands view it, and how will they respond? To this end, the reporter contacted and interviewed some mobile phone manufacturers.

As of press time, OPPO only told reporters, “The battery law has not yet come into effect, and the detailed regulations and details are yet to be observed. OPPO is also following up and studying the above regulations, and preparing for business compliance.” Comments on the EU bill.