I said "if" earlier because it was in doubt through much of last year, but the reality is they are back in production (I believe). How much though? Don't know.
But the consensus is that that during the hiatus they were heavily counterfeited.
Supply never ceased, though production did.
Thank you very much for raising that matter as i only use these Sony VTCs thinking without doubt they were genuine based on Source and Performance i am getting them from, voltage drops seems to match what would be expected from a genuine battery and they do LOOK genuine .. as in having all the right "markings"
This is not an issue to take lightly given the safety implications, so i sent a few emails to the stores i have been getting these from for comment, i just have a gut feeling that production has resumed because these batteries are lately being offered by almost all the reputable retailers in the business, which i don't think will risk their name selling a fake battery with so much other alternatives out there, also the manufacturer's recommendations must be founded,
I also saw a post somewhere "just some user like us in another forum, not an authoritative source" that Efest buys ALL Sony Energy's supply of VTCs that is not being sold directly to Tesla or HP .. etc for resale to consumers because Sony does not want to be selling these directly to end-users AT ALL, so Efest buys from them as an organization and then reselling them taking full responsibility for that activity.
The Efest information seems to make sense, if you buy the cells from Efest directly (which is the only source available for end-user purchase) then they MUST be genuine and directly from Sony Energy Plants ...
We will what kind of responses i receive from the vendors ...
that is a store in Europe, i can't remember if they said Efest or another company, but just that Sony Energy was sold to some company and that they are buying directly from that new owner, you made me very curious to ask them for more details!
