Business, Innovation, Technology

Battery Drama Remains

pollywannamath

In 2004, Demetri Martin observed that batteries are “the most dramatic object.”

They’re either working or they’re dead.

Looking back, I wish this joke did not age as well as it has. Why, when I go to the the store, do I still see disposable batteries as the primary option?

In 2004, we were using a mix of rechargeable AA and regular alkaline AA batteries to power our household accessories. Now, my devices either have an internal lithium-ion battery that I can recharge, or I pick up a disposable AA battery at the store and replace the battery when needed.

In 2004, my family and I were not trying to reduce our use of single-use plastics. My body wash had microbeads that polluted the great lakes. Telling people that you recycle was a liberal status indicator. Our lights were incandescent. But in 2004, we had rechargeable alkaline batteries to power our digital camera and TV remote control. These rechargeable batteries were easy to find, they were sold along with single-use batteries at our local grocery store.

When I go to the stores near my home, I see only single-use alkaline batteries on the shelves. Ideally I would have an analysis of the cost differences per milliampere hour and the environmental impacts of the primary battery technologies available:

Unfortunately, I cant find consistent data that would make that analysis possible for me, and I don’t know enough about battery technology to create a model for the environmental and cost outcomes that would be necessary without the observed data.

Without that model, I’m forced to make an assumption. At least one of the rechargeable battery options above are cheaper to use and better for the environment than disposable alkaline batteries. The New York Times agrees with this assumption as well. So why am I not buying AA lithium-ion batteries?

My inability to escape alkaline batteries isn’t unique to me. An analysis from 2006 (nearest to the 2004 date above) projected that Alkaline batteries would retain market dominance through 2015 at minimum and that the battery market would continue to grow. That analysis proved correct. An analysis that covers 2018-2023 (gated) appears to forecast continued market dominance of disposable alkaline batteries over rechargeables.

I think there are a few likely causes, convenience and market concentration being the two primary.

  • When I need a battery, I need it urgently. I probably am not willing to wait for overnight or two-day shipping from Amazon to find lithium-ion AAs. I may not even be willing to wait through the charging period (I know, I’ll work on it). Disposables are more convenient.
  • I would not be shocked to learn that the best and most innovative brands in lithium-ion batteries are not the household battery companies. It might also be true that none of the best lithium-ion (or similar) companies would be strategic acquisitions for the known battery companies. If either of these things prove true, I should expect that it will be hard to find good rechargeable batteries at the store.

Hopefully, by 2025, batteries will have caught up with other household good, or that all new household accessories will have long-lasting internal batteries that recharge. But in 2004, I would not have assumed that AA batteries would have regressed by 2020.

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