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Copied from Reddit:
TL;DR: Sony is not discontinuing VTC5's and is, in fact, increasing production. Fukushima hit and caused a factory shutdown, but it took this long for the shortage to trickle down to us. It's temporary and Sony has already opened a new factory in the Philippines and is back to around 100% production capability for VTC5's.
So for anyone who didn't catch the /r/plumesofhazard show last night (and if you don't watch it, you should. Because it's awesome, that's why!), they had on Mike, the maker of the Ranger OKR box mods. Mike works closely with Illumn.com (Illumination Supply), and recently they sat down for a meeting with a Sony senior international sales manage for two hours...and he confirmed that Sony is not discontinuing the VTC line of batteries. In fact, the VTC line has long been a major staple of Sony Energy, and they're actually increasingproduction on them.
Anyway, what happened is that the Fukushima disaster caused Sony to close down one of their battery manufacturing facilities. Given that we seem to get these things after their other main industries (electric cars, laptop batteries, etc), it just took a while before the shortage trickled down to us. But Sony has opened a new manufacturing facility in the Philippines and are finally back at 100% capacity, so our shortage should be fairly short-lived.
Here's a link to the Youtube video, relevant part starts at 1:05:00:
I'm always late to the party so.....
TL;DR: Sony is not discontinuing VTC5's and is, in fact, increasing production. Fukushima hit and caused a factory shutdown, but it took this long for the shortage to trickle down to us. It's temporary and Sony has already opened a new factory in the Philippines and is back to around 100% production capability for VTC5's.
So for anyone who didn't catch the /r/plumesofhazard show last night (and if you don't watch it, you should. Because it's awesome, that's why!), they had on Mike, the maker of the Ranger OKR box mods. Mike works closely with Illumn.com (Illumination Supply), and recently they sat down for a meeting with a Sony senior international sales manage for two hours...and he confirmed that Sony is not discontinuing the VTC line of batteries. In fact, the VTC line has long been a major staple of Sony Energy, and they're actually increasingproduction on them.
Anyway, what happened is that the Fukushima disaster caused Sony to close down one of their battery manufacturing facilities. Given that we seem to get these things after their other main industries (electric cars, laptop batteries, etc), it just took a while before the shortage trickled down to us. But Sony has opened a new manufacturing facility in the Philippines and are finally back at 100% capacity, so our shortage should be fairly short-lived.
Here's a link to the Youtube video, relevant part starts at 1:05:00:
I'm always late to the party so.....
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