A couple of months ago, Bosch announced a new 18V 6.3Ah battery pack for the European market, the EneRacer.
Today, Bosch announced the new CORE18V Li-ion battery pack, which will be coming to the USA. They are saying that it will:
set a new global standard for power and runtime in power tools.
Here are some of the things they’re saying about the new 18V 6.3Ah cordless power tool battery pack:
– Delivers up to 80% more power than previous generation Bosch batteries.
– CORE18V cells are laser-welded and rail-connected for higher efficiency, for battery performance than competitive batteries.
– [Competitive batteries] weigh up to 24% more and are up to 35% larger.
– Completely backwards compatible with ALL Bosch 18V Li-ion tools and chargers.
– Bosch is developing high-power tools to take full advantage of CORE battery technology.
– Delivers up to 20% longer runtime than previous-generation Bosch 6.0 Ah batteries and up to 50% longer than 5.0 Ah cells in extreme applications.
In the press materials, Bosch specifically mentions Dewalt FlexVolt 6.0Ah and Milwaukee 9.0Ah battery packs as competitors’ offerings.
Well, what about the new Dewalt 20V Max 6.0Ah Li-ion battery pack? Or Metabo’s 6.2Ah battery pack?
The new Bosch CORE18V 6.3Ah battery pack has a build-in fuel gauge and can operate in temperatures as low as -4°F.
Price: $149
First Thoughts
Bosch is the latest tool brand to move towards larger Li-ion cells for their highest capacity battery packs. Dewalt has recently done the same, with their 20V Max 6.0Ah and FlexVolt 9.0Ah battery packs.
Ridgid has done the same, with their 5.0Ah packs.
The move is logical. 3.0Ah per 18650-sized Li-ion cell seems to be the upper limit of what current battery tech can support. 2.5Ah seems to be the sweet spot.
There are 2 ways to go about increasing battery pack charge capacity. You could add more cells to the pack, which is what Milwaukee has done with their High Demand battery packs, or you could go with larger cells.
Dewalt, with their new 20V Max 6.0Ah and FlexVolt 9.0Ah battery packs, went with a 20700 battery cell size form factor. It’s likely that Bosch has also went to this size form factor, although they have not shared any specific details about this.
Bosch has said all kinds of things about how compact their CORE18V battery pack is, compared to Milwaukee and Dewalt offerings that have 1.5X the number of cells, and while they said these new batteries are fully compatible with all Bosch 18V tools, there has been no information about how much larger and heavier they might be.
This is Bosch’s second push towards CORE branding, the first being over 4 years ago when they teased about new cordless brushless tools.
How long will the new battery take to charge? Will there be a compact battery pack using the same technologies – perhaps 3.1Ah? What about a wireless battery pack to fit their inductive chargers? We’re waiting to hear back.
While it might seem like minor news, I’m very excited about the new release, especially the part where they say this new battery will work with all Bosch 18V stuff, and where they say that new high-power tools are on the way.
Hopefully the new high-power tools will work with all of Bosch’s 18V tools, but that remains to be seen. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here.
What types of high performing tools would you like to see come to Bosch’s 18V lineup? I’d think a big rotary hammer might be all but guaranteed, and would love to see a cordless miter saw and a cordless table saw.