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Bosch has announced AMPShare, a “shared battery system that lets you run many tools from many pro brands with just one battery.”
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They advertise: “Many brands. Many tools. One battery system: AMPShare: A new era has begun.”
Does this mean they’re launching a new universal pro cordless power tool system?
No. It turns out, this is just their 18V cordless system alliance, revamped with new “founding brands” and a fresh name.
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One battery system? Oh, no. There’s AMPShare, formerly their 18V Professional System Powered by Bosch, and their separate Power for All 18V Alliance.
It seems that AMPShare is just the new name of their 18V cordless power system alliance, and with a few new partners.
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More than two years ago, Bosch promised there would be many brands, many tools, one battery system.
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Back in 2020, Bosch had only partnered with a couple of tool brands.
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Now, they have many more partnering brands.
Looking at the list of partnered tool brands, I have more questions than there seem to be answers right now.
Fein has their own 18V cordless power tool system. What happens now? Is Fein switching over to Bosch’s 18V cordless power tool system exclusively?
What does this mean for existing Fein cordless power tool users?
A reader (thank you Matt!) wrote in about Bosch marketing materials that were sent to him as a customer in the UK. Matt wrote:
The interesting thing to me is that they listed one of the included manufacturers as Rothenberger who make plumbing tools – Rothenberger are part of Metabo’s competing “Cordless Alliance System” of 18V battery sharing, and indeed all of the tools on their website show Metabo-style batteries. As far as I’m aware Bosch and Metabo are not compatible…
That’s right, Rothenberger is part of Metabo’s CAS cordless power tool battery system.
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On their website, Rothenberger seems to be all-in with the Metabo CAS platform. How will AMPShare impact this?
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Rothenberger is still promoting CAS system cordless power tools and equipment on their website
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Rothenberger even touted the maximum compatibility of the CAS system with their recently launched cordless press tool.
Rothenberger is (was?) a CAS system partner. Now it’s a Bosch 18V pro system – AMPShare – partner? I’m sorry – they’re not a partner, it turns out they’re the “second founding member of AMPShare.”
What about their existing tools? What about existing tool users who bought Rothenberger’s CAS system tools? Does this mean existing users will have to buy into AMPShare, a completely incompatible system, when the brand launches new tools or technologies?
Rothenberger shared news about their AMPShare involvement on social media, but it doesn’t look like they answered any of their users or followers’ questions yet.
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The Metabo-powered Cordless Alliance System, not to be confused with Bosch’s revamped cordless alliance, mentions Fischer, a fastening company, as a member.
But now Fischer is a Bosch AMPShare member? Does this mean they will be replacing their CAS system-compatible products?
Many brands, such as Mafell, are NOT participating in Bosch’s AMPShare project.
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Metabo’s CAS system – “The battery pack for your trade.”
AMPShare – “the 18V battery system you can build on.”
“Battery alliances” have potential, but not when they’re inconsistent and confusing like this.
Professional, tradespeople, and consumer tool users want batteries they can use with ANY brand or alliance cordless power tool.
Barring that, how about some consistency?
If you’re interested, following is Bosch’s full 16+ minute announcement, where executives announce the “new” AMPShare alliance, which is basically the 18VPro alliance with revamped branding.
There are interesting parts to it, but for me the “new era” simply looks to create more questions than solutions.
