TL;DR
- The European Council has ended its adoption procedure for rules related to phones with replaceable batteries.
- By 2027, all phones released in the EU must have a battery the user can easily replace with no tools or expertise.
- The regulation intends to introduce a circular economy for batteries.
I agree with you entirely. Maybe not so much on EVs, but my only real gripe with them is the battery, which would be solved if we standardised battery sizes and engineered some sort of solution which allowed for “swapping stations” to automatically swap out batteries. It would require makers to design and engineer their cars around these swappable batteries but I think that’s the way to go.
The way it’d work today is if some manufacturer implemented this, it’d be some sort of proprietary BS thing and it just wouldn’t work in practise. Legislating a standard for all the manufacturers to adhere to is the only real workable way of doing something like that.
Yes, I think that would eliminate a lot of the problems we face. Also, there are batteries not made of rare earths. They just dont get funded as much as they are not as cheap as exploring 3rd world countries.
I think its very easy. The manufacturers get a vote based on their sale volume (you make good cars, you make decisions). They vote on the best design to implement as standard and it immediately loses its patent.