Uh oh, just read that A123 systems battery manufacturer declared bankruptcy.
I’ve always been amazed by the punch the batteries deliver; they even can start a car. I don’t believe this will impact the flashlight community though.
Yep, read about that yesterday. It’s a shame. A123 has a facility about 10 miles from me, and it’s a hell of a facility.
This won’t affect the flashlight community at all.
A123’s aim was to secure automotive business. They tried and tried and tried to capture the Chevy Volt business. To my knowledge, they haven’t scored a single major automotive contract. That’s what forced their bankruptcy.
A123 can deliver huge current, but capacity is quite low compared to LiIon… I suspect that was the killer… They aren’t cheap either, and Automotive likes cheap.
And I literally did that one morning a few years ago using 2 A123 assembled 13.2v RC battery packs in parallel. The car battery was almost completely dead too.
Such a shame this news. Perhaps some other company will pick up their R&D.
same applies to the billions of dollars wasted on tax breaks for the oil and corn industries, or any other government incentive/ support an industry receives. Better to take a risk and it fail than to cede entire markets to other countries.
I’ve been using A123 batteries every day for about five years now. They are what started me down this slippery slope of batteries and flashlights.
I bought a Black and Decker VPX cordless screwdriver powered by A123s and was so impressed with the battery I started googling them. I spent about a month on RC forums reading about RC hobbiests harvesting A123 batteries from VPX and Dewalt battery packs. Which led to CPF and eventually here.
Here are a couple of videos touting the A123s safety. The first one is someone pressing a nail through a regular LI-ion.
And this one pressing a nail through a A123.
Yep, the government trying to pick winners again. |(