Are Sony Batteries out of production?

Sony has NEVER listed VTC batteries on their web site, which does not mean that
they never existed, or were never made by Sony; rather that they were and still
are made by a wholly owned subsidiary called Sony Energy Devices (link to their
website at the bottom of this document). Even they don't list them on their webs
ite, because you don't buy these by the dozen with PayPal - you buy them by the
hundreds of thousand. As a result, if you do wish to make a purchase, a very nic
e sales rep takes you for an exorbitantly expensive lunch over which you nail do
wn a price. The VTC line was never a consumer product, hence why they're devoid
of fancy wraps - the end user is never meant to see the cells what with them bei
ng buried within a sealed and separately protected battery pack.
Rumours are abound that all VTCs were out of production years ago, and that all
we have are leaky duff old batteries that have sat around for ages gathering dus
t, before someone decided there was a shekel or two to be made selling old stock
to vapers. Not true; the line is still a flagship product, and very easy to buy
if you're in that industry. What did happen was that after Fukushima, SEP decid
ed to consolidate it's production into a new facility, which has caused a slight
drop in the quantity being made. This hasn't effected people who buy them in mi
llion dollar batches at all, but has fueled the perpetual vape rumour mill resul
ting in panic buying and inflated prices. Of course, the real nail in the coffin
of this tired internet rumour, is the fact that Sony has just launched the VTC5
A, which boast similar specs to the original VTC5, but with a 35A constant disch
arge. What's more, that will soon be joined by the VTC6 (3000mAh), and VTC7 (350
0mAh), which will also boast the new increased constant rating. Provisional spec
s for the 5A are already in this drop box, and will be replaced with factory spe
c sheets as they become available to me.
The official line from Sony is that they're pissed people are using their produc
ts in a fashion they feel is outside what they're intended for - and in all fair
ness, I get that. Give it time though, and as vaping grows, they may have to ret
hink this strategy to keep up with an expanding and lucrative market. That said,
I think we're more likely to see fewer VTC4/5/6/7/whatever being sold in their
plain green wrappers, and instead more appearing as rewraps under names such as
Xtar, Keeppower, and Vamped. My feeling is that this will be the way Sony enters
the vape market, in a way that distances themselves from directly endorsing the
activity that many people view as being contentious when it comes to various as
pects of safety, and which brings the threat of litigation if an idiot blows up
a cell.
If you're still not convinced about Sony batteries NOT having being discontinued
sometime during the first Punic War, then one could possibly receive some reas
surance from reading the date code printed on each battery in the last five char
acters on the second row:
Character 1 is the year: U=2012, v=2013, w=2014, x=2015, etc.
Character 2 is the month: A=Jan, B=Feb, etc.
Character 3 and 4 are the day
Character 5 is the 'electrode history', though I confess that I have no idea wha
t that even means.
There is some variance here and there, as they possibly sometimes change formats
to foil counterfeiters. I think the capacity code (first two characters) is som
ewhat less static, and might well change with tiny variances in production metho
ds that really don't effect us as users, but mark a difference between seemingly
identical capacity batteries that differ in ways that only Sony and BLF members
 would care about.
The following is the official website of SED, and a link to a third party site t
hat has pictures of Sony's battery manufacturing facility, along with some detai
ls of what they do there.......which is 'manufacture batteries'......obviously.
http://www.sonyenergy-devices.co.jp/index.html.en
http://www.pref.tochigi.lg.jp/kogyo/english/voice/058.html

Nymza Vril 2014