Bosch unveils lightweight lithium-ion battery

Bosch unveiled its next-generation lithium-ion battery with the 5.0 Ah model BAT621 in April. The company says the new battery delivers the longest runtime and lightest weight in 18-volt category and is compatible with all of its previous lithium-ion tools.

“One of the ways to think about the term amp hour is with a gas tank,” product manager Jason Feldner says. “The bigger the amp hour, the bigger the gas tank and the longer things can run and more work can get done. The biggest fear anybody has with cordless tools is just running out of power. Especially when they get to the point of being in the middle of doing some work.

“We’ve increased the overall capacity by 20 percent, but we have not increased the size or weight of the battery pack. We are able to take these exact same size cells as in our other batteries and put more energy into them as ever before.”

The new battery features the company’s patented CoolPack technology for longer recharge life.

“The CoolPack technology actually helps extract the heat from the inside of the battery,” says Feldner. “Heat is the No. 1 reason why a battery will fail. When heat builds up, things break down. And when they break down, the cells don’t hold the charge anymore and eventually the battery fails. It’s just not of any use anymore.”

The battery pack sells for $129 and will be available in certain combination kits with Bosch tools later this year.

For more product information, visit www.boschtools.com.

This article originally appeared in the June 2014 issue.