A sad day in history for all Eneloop fans... April 26 2013.......Eneloop gets a make-over

marcl · May 29, 2015, 10:49am

There is no need for Panasonic to do this, in fact I wonder if it is even legal! Is this not bait and switch on a corporate scale?

Marc.

veer · May 29, 2015, 11:01am

I dont know.

Frankly, if they dont give a crap about consumers(which they obviously dont, moving production to China), neither should consumers give a damn about them.

I expect to see flood of less than stellar reviews about Chinese Eneloops, Panasonic will have to swallow that ;)!

marcl · May 29, 2015, 11:16am

It’s a bit of an exaggeration I’ll admit. But what would we all think if Ultrafire bought the Panasoic name and re-wrapped their cells in Panny wrappers?

Marc

veer · May 29, 2015, 11:21am

End of the game for Panasonic and new era for Ultrafire :D!

marcl · May 29, 2015, 11:28am

Look out for the new enefire ultraloops! 6000mAh of course.

Marc

veer · May 29, 2015, 11:31am

Short self discharge, aka, venting with flames, feature.

ChibiM · May 29, 2015, 1:16pm

yes, Fujitsu can be found in (almost) every electronics shop.
And 9 out of 10, they are more expensive than eneloops.

ChibiM · May 29, 2015, 11:04pm

They are shipping Japanese eneloops to the USA.

This thread is of 2013, and 4th gen has been available in the US since about May 2014.and because nothing has changed so far, I assume you will keep seeing Japanese cells in the US.

accumulator · June 9, 2015, 11:12am

vēer:

Thanks for the review, Accumulator! Cheers & my pleasure.

What are those drops-spikes in graphs - did you do some refresh on those batteries to get back to normal capacity or was it some common glitch-occurence among those batteries and they jumped back up to normal after some cycles(ie, due to continuous charge-discharge they simply cycled themselves back up to normal)? I honestly dont know. I think it had something to do with the Cadex machine being turned on for Christmas and the cells having a break for a while. The machine also went off test a couple of times due to power failure. (We’re a battery company & the machine is NOT connected to a UPS! Disgraceful

Also, given that Panasonic bought only Eneloop branding and not the battery factory and technology itself, should we be worried that Panasonic will slowly shift towards China-only made Eneloops? I’ve no doubt if Panasonic want to make a lot more profit from the product however I’m told Panasonic Japan, Europe & USA are resisting strongly for now. If I was the boss in Japan I’m sure my shareholders would be saying to me “go for the profit and tell those regional bosses what to do if they wish to keep their jobs”. I mean lets face it, quality just like knowledge & experience seems to be less valued in today’s Bigcorp mentallity world. Besides what consumer is going to take Panasonic to task or even know they’re only getting 500 cycles as opposed to the claimed 2100 cycles? It’s just the fact they claim they’re just as good a battery when they clearly are not that really irks me. Like buying a car advertised as a V6 and finding only 4 cylinders under the bonnet

What will happen to Fujitsu factory and technology involved in Eneloops, willl they keep on selling Japanese made Eneloop-technology batteries under different brands or simply outsource battery production to China just like Panasonic might be planning to do and shut down their Japanese factory? No FDK are very proud to tell everyone their product is made in Japan & they dont outsource production. Panasonic didn’t outsource. They are outsourcing when they buy from FDK. They shifted some production to their own NiMH factory in Wuxi, Shanghai, China where they make Panasonic Evolta (same battery as China made Eneloop) and as well all the Panasonic industrial NiMH batteries range nowadays. FDK hold the largest slice of the global market share in both industrial and consumer NiMH batteries as a manufacturer so why would they shift production? FDK have no NiMH or lithium battery production facilities outside Japan & only offshore for primary alkaline and carbon batteries mainly based in Indonesia. That’s my opinion anyway!

Man, that would mean that for us, enthusiasts, the value of Japanese made Eneloops/their rebranded versions will spike and they will be worth a gold in coming years?! Happy that I bought 20 Japanese made Eneloops recently :D! You’ll still be able to buy them in the future. Just maybe not in the eneloop brand depending where you live, at least until Panasonic shift all their production to China.

Ejected_Filament · June 9, 2015, 1:01pm

Only a few smaller test markets are getting the Chinaloops, mine is one. If they dont notice a drop in sales in those markets, you can bet all will be soon enough though.

UliBär · June 9, 2015, 1:25pm

If genuine Eneloops will be replaced by inferior “copies”, it’s time to look out for Fujiloops from the genuine source:

http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Fujitsu%20AA%20HR-3UTA%201900mAh%20(White)%20UK.html
http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Fujitsu%20AA%20HR-3UTC%201900mAh%20(White)%20UK.html

veer · June 9, 2015, 2:03pm

Thanks, accumulator for write up :)!

Yeah, Fujiloops looks like the way to go, except that they dont seem to be as widely spread and thus are more expensive than even Japan made Eneloops now.

Datsun · June 9, 2015, 2:34pm

Any idea on where one could purchase a set of Chinese Eneloops for the sake of testing?

DavidEF · June 9, 2015, 2:39pm

China? :evil:

accumulator · June 10, 2015, 3:08am

I’d imagine online sellers including Ebay sellers based in S.E. Asia, Australia or New Zealand.

ChibiM · June 10, 2015, 12:10pm

In China they (also) sell Japanese made eneloops.