No more Sony?

[Ed_C]

Just went over to RTD to see if they had the VTC5A's and read:

"This is our last shipment of Sony batteries. We will not be able to get anymore once these are sold out. Sony will no longer allow these batteries to be sold."

I know Sony has said in the past, that their batteries are not meant for vaping, but they have none the less, been available. Is this some sort of new crackdown on the sell of these?

 

[KenD]

Just went over to RTD to see if they had the VTC5A's and read:

"This is our last shipment of Sony batteries. We will not be able to get anymore once these are sold out. Sony will no longer allow these batteries to be sold."

I know Sony has said in the past, that their batteries are not meant for vaping, but they have none the less, been available. Is this some sort of new crackdown on the sell of these?

There are no 18650s meant for vaping. Sony's in no a special case. I have no idea what the reason for RTD not selling sony's anymore. Might be that they're simply too difficult to get a hold of.

Sent from my M7_PLUS using Tapatalk

 

[Ed_C]

Yeah I understand that. I was just wondering if Sony was just making more of a point of it. I know they issued a statement about this before.

 

[Baditude]

I don't have any more clue about this than anyone else. It could be that Randy's (RTD Vapor) source for Sony Vtc batteries has informed him that they can no longer supply him, and rather not risk finding a new source he has decided to just stop selling Sony to avoid getting counterfeits.

No vendors who sell batteries made by Sony, Lg, Samsung, etc are actually buying from those original manufacturers. They are buying from middlemen suppliers and distributors who can get their hands on overstock supplies meant for the auto or power tool industry. If a trusted supplier or distributor dries up, then there will be no reputable vendors to purchase authentic name brand batteries from. This situation (increased demand and limited availability) opens the door a bit wider for counterfeit name brand batteries to show up everywhere. Just my

 

[oplholik]

If this snowballs, we are in deep do do.

 

[Ed_C]

So I wonder, do the re-wrap companies buy direct or from a middleman as well?

 

[Baditude]

If this snowballs, we are in deep do do.

If it does snowball where Samsung and LG batteries become less available, then I agree.

Even if Sony VTC batteries become scarce AGAIN, we still have great battery sources of high quality, high drain batteries from LG and Samsung. I hate to see an entire line of batteries disappear from the market, but we've been through this before and gotten by.

 

[Baditude]

So I wonder, do the re-wrap companies buy direct or from a middleman as well?

I have a "feeling" that it can happen either way. And I bet that no one can say one way or another unless they actually work at the top levels of the battery industry. There are probably a lot of steps and change in hands involved between the original factory plant before they are offered to the public for sale.

AW allegedly sourced battery cells directly from Panasonic. Andrew Wan was a former executive of Panasonic and continued to have a good business relationship with the company when he started his own company. His company would test batteries he obtained directly from Panasonic, and sold only the top tier of batteries tested as AW brand.

Orbtronics admits that their house brand batteries are rewraps (mostly Panasonic cells) and Xtar admits their house brands include Sony cells. The other rewrappers will have you believe they manufacture their own batteries. To this day Efest claims they make their own batteries, when time after time independent researchers have proven that they are simply rebranding original manufacturer cells. Imren bought out MNKE (a trusted manufacturer) not too long ago. It's hard to tell if they are still rewrapping or making batteries in the MNKE plant because they are still over-rating the specs of their batteries.

 

[retired1]

I posted about this a few months ago.

No more Sony batteries

Sony has sold it's battery arm to another company.

 

[retired1]

From this point forward, I'd be somewhat hesitant to order from someone claiming they have Sony batteries, especially if they've been selling them like hotcakes in the past. With the sale of Sony's battery arm to Murata (due to be completed NLT March 2017 if not sooner), it's not known if those batteries will still be made available. The current market trend is now towards electric vehicles and the battery packs for those will be far different than what they have been in the past.

It's possible the 18650s will still be available from Murata as I'm sure they'll still make those for powering electronics (notebooks, power tools, etc.), but it'll be a wait and see game to see what comes out of the company.

 

[Marc411]

Illumn continues to have them in stock and have been a reliable source. The VTC4 is going for $4 for any of you folks that still have the VF DNA40