Apple - How many lithium-ion batteries does a M1 MacBook Air (2020) have?

The answer is zero batteries in the adapter and the assembled laptop qualifies as UN 3481 product for shipping purposes.

The M1 Air has a built-in 49.9‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery, so it falls under UN 3481, Section II IMP:ELI

To elaborate, you are shipping a computer (portable electronic equipment) that contains one battery with multiple cells and this assembly is regulated differently than loose batteries included in a box (or spare parts for repair of an Air).

Here is the relevant section from a 30 page guide from UPS. Ask your carrier how they define portable electronic equipment if you are not sure if the shipping standard I have quoted doesn’t govern EMS website or staff.

  • https://www.ups.com/media/en/lithium_batteries_guidance.pdf

enter image description here


From the iFixIt teardown of the new Air, it looks like there's 2 li-ion batteries, one on each side.

enter image description here

When I look at the Apple technical specs, it states:

Battery and Power

  • Up to 15 hours wireless web
  • Up to 18 hours Apple TV app movie playback
  • Built-in 49.9‑watt‑hour lithium‑polymer battery
  • 30W USB-C Power Adapter

I take this mean there's a single battery as it's written 'battery' and not 'batteries'. Maybe this is just one battery that's split in two, I don't know. Maybe others here who are more knowledgeable on this can edit this answer to add that info. Either way, I'm sure these are built in such a way as to be shippable to South Korea by major carriers.

I can't find any info on a battery in the power adapter. My guess is that there isn't a battery in there.