Lenovo exec promises 80 percent of its devices will be consumer-repairable by 2025

At first, Lenovo only seemed casually jealous of Framework’s modular repairable laptops — first it sent a cease-and-desist over a Framework power button, then it unveiled its own modular concept laptop dubbed Project Aurora with no promise to actually build such a thing.

But it looks like the ThinkPad and Motorola owner might actually be serious about ramping up repairability. “More than 80 percent of our devices will be able to be repaired at the customer,” Lenovo executive Luca Rossi told the Canalys EMEA Forum 2023, according to The Register.

“Batteries, SSD, many things will not any longer be sealed into the product but will be available for the customer to be to repaired on site and then save a lot of waste,” he reportedly said.

Lenovo is just one of many companies that have suddenly increased their efforts on repairability and sustainability, and it isn’t coming out of the goodness of companies’ hearts — the economic and political climate has swiftly changed.

Apple went from vehemently and sneakily lobbying against right-to-repair bills to suddenly supporting those efforts. Prominent right-to-repair advocates told me in 2022 that Samsung and Google were convinced when they saw a shift in consumer behavior combined with the imminent threat of legislation.

In 2023, it’s no longer just a threat. The European Union has recently shown that it has the power to force companies to change their products — it’s the reason we now have a USB-C port on the iPhone 15. Next, it may force smartphone manufacturers to make their batteries easier to replace. Wouldn’t that be interesting?