Yesterday, in a comment to our post about the new Bosch 18V 5.0Ah battery, Cody mentioned having spotted a Dewalt 12V Max/10.8V 2.0Ah battery pack.
We did a bit of digging, and saw that Dewalt has a few D2 cordless kit product pages that reference a new 2.0Ah battery pack. Dewalt’s current 12V Max and 10.8V cordless kits have S1 and S2 prefixes and come with 1.5Ah batteries, but following the convention used with their 18V kits, the D2 prefix is used to convey that a kit comes bundled with two 2.0Ah batteries.
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Additionally, we caught a glimpse of the 2.0Ah battery pack in a video by ITS, a UK-based distributor, where they discuss Dewalt’s USB power adapter (the same one that is bundled with Dewalt heated jackets). You can get a good look at the battery pack at the ~2-minute mark.
(In the image, the battery pack is shown attached to the USB charger.)
Since it’s not very nice to grab the image without showing the video, here’s ITS’s video of the DCB090 USB charger:
While we’re happy to see Dewalt come out with a higher capacity 2.0Ah Lithium-ion battery, we’re also hoping to see a new 4.0Ah battery pack. Not because we want the extra runtime, but because a potential 4.0Ah battery pack would open the door to further 12V Max and 10.8V product line expansion. How about a circular saw? Band saw? Rotary hammer? Milwaukee currently leads the 12V-class cordless tool market by a huge margin, but Dewalt certainly has the potential to catch up if they really wanted to. A 12V-class 4.0Ah battery pack might help start the process.
The seemingly late release does make us a little curious. Why now and not a year ago when the 20V Max/18V 2.0Ah and 4.0Ah were released?
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Note: 12V Max and 10.8V is the same thing. Dewalt 12V Max tools operate at a nominal voltage of 10.8V. The difference is only in how the tools are labeled and marketed in North America vs. in Europe and the rest of the world.
Right now we have no information as to when the new battery pack might be released in the USA. All of the information we’ve seen indicates that it is at least coming to the UK and Europe soon.
Update: A pre-order page for the 2-battery bundle has just been added to Amazon, indicating that the 12V Max XR 2.0Ah Li-ion battery packs will be coming to the USA.
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Hang Fire
One of the things I love about my Dewalt 12V 3-tool set (impact driver, screwdriver, drill/driver, and I added a flashlight) is the balance. I kind of figured that was the market for 12V, handy people with smaller hands and/or weaker wrists, or factory workers that would be unnecessarily fatigued by an 18V tool more powerful than necessary. A bigger battery would throw off balance and increase weight and fatigue. Just get more batteries- I have 4!
More selection of tools 12V would be nice, though.
Matt
Usually, when an updated battery is released, Dewalt makes sure there is no noticeable increace in weight. I’ll use dewalt’s 20v 1.5 battery to the upgraded 2.0 battery as an example. When it comes to 4ah batteries however, you may be more correct. a 4ah 12v max battery may be a little heavier, since the number of cells would probably have to double. I’m sure dewalt is working to make that minimal, and I want to see the tool line expand also, like yesterday.
Matt
Dewalt has a trend with tools showing up in the UK before they are available here. It’s like a proving grounds I suppose.
Stuart
I didn’t mean to suggest that Dewalt should replace the 1.5Ah or 2.0Ah batteries with 4.0Ah ones.
Larger battery packs typically allow for greater power draw, which is why you often see heavier duty tools bundled in kits with higher capacity battery packs. When using a compact battery with a heavy duty tool, you will sometimes see a drop in performance.
If Dewalt *does* ever come out with a non-compact 12V-class 4.0Ah or 5.0Ah battery pack, then it would be as the spearhead of a product line expansion that could include some of the types of tools currently unique to Milwaukee’s M12 product line.
joe
Is not just the 12v line the 20v max too. Dewalt has the best ergonomics and fastest 3 speeds in their drills drivers to date. IMO.
My DCD980 has better ergonomics than my DCD950…the recent m18 has worse ergonomics than my DCD950 in my opinion.
I actually did the math…dewalt drills have better lighting, better clutch, better chuck, and better ergonomics…the only thing lacking is brushless line expansion….if they expand their line, they are golden.
Tomas
I agree, I picked up the Dewalt 12v set over Milwaukee and other brands because of the great balance, including the fact they can stand up on their own. Also I’ll just mention that my set came with the flashlight which I originally didn’t care much about but after using it for a few months I’ve found it’s MUCH more useful then I thought, mainly because it can stand up on it’s own so I’m not holding it like a regular flashlight.
jay kay
Why do certain things happen in Europe and not in the U.S. Are the markets that different?
Stuart
I wish I had an answer to that as well.
Hang Fire
I can only conjecture… a smaller scale product launch that isn’t nationwide (US lower 48) would be poorly received, with a lot of accusations and recriminations flying around about why certain areas of the country isn’t being served.
Seth
I believe the answer to your question is excessive bureaucracy. You can’t do or sell anything in the US without approval from x number of redundant agencies. This often involves expensive, redundant testing by one or more gov’t approved agencies that (often more competent) company engineers have already performed. This creates exactly the type of product release delays that you are referring to. It’s even worse for Californians. We often never get certain products that the rest of the US has.