Today at the World of Concrete Bosch launched their new CORE 18V battery with a rated 6.3Ah and claiming 43% more power (per cell) for the packs 10 cells, than the Milwaukee 9.0Ah or Dewalt FlexVolt 6.0Ah which each use 15 battery cells. The result is more power from a battery pack that is 35% more compact and 24% lighter than either the larger Milwaukee or Dewalts. The new Bosch CORE GBA18V63 ($149) is also claiming to be the Fastest charge time at 8 minutes per amp, faster than Makita, FlexVolt or Milwaukee Rapid Charger. All with 100% Bosch 18V Tool forwards & backwards compatibility.
The Bosch CORE batteries are using the new battery cell technology 18650 vs 20700 cells we saw from the Metabo LiHD and FlexVolt 9.0Ah now. These cells allow more energy storage, build up less heat and have a higher capacity of flow in/out, Peak Watt Output jumps from 800 watts with current Bosch 6.0Ah to 1440 watts with new CORE. This is a very big deal for developing more powerful coredless tools moving forward. Bosch is also able to get the price down to $149 which is the other big part of the equation to get mass adoption. The market shift is making these cells much more economical as Elon Musk ramps us the GigaFactory to build these cells for his electric cars everyone benefits.
Bosch is the market leader for cordless tools in many parts of the world which is hard to imagine in the US where they make up less than 10%. One of these days if they wanted to they may decide to flex their muscles and really get into the game on brushless tools for saws (like new recip GSA18V-125), grinders, rotary hammers GBH18v-26K24 ($549 with 2x CORE18V) and new things we’ve never seen in cordless. Is this new CORE18V battery the start of that revolution? We look forward to these cells hitting shelves in the next month or two!
