Rayovac, another big American brand, has launched a new range of battery packs to keep phones and other gadgets topped up between recharges. Duracell has launched a “super-premium” battery with price to match, called Quantum in America and Ultra in most other markets. It is trying to wean consumers off the cheapest zinc-carbon batteries and on to alkalines, which are more powerful, durable and leak-free. Older consumers who remember their devices being ruined by leaky batteries are open to pitches about safety. Younger ones tend to be sceptical. The fastest-growing part of the market is disposable lithium batteries. These are powerful, light and do not fail in the cold. Their price is dropping. But they remain a niche.
Another option is to cut costs. Western battery manufacturers have shifted production offshore. The main companies no longer make zinc-carbon batteries, the cheapest type, in the United States.
With returns squeezed at home, Western firms are finding little comfort elsewhere. China is already the largest battery market, and demand is projected to climb faster there than anywhere else in the coming years. Competing against unreliable, leaky zinc-carbon products from local makers in emerging markets used to be easy. Not any more. Locally made alkaline batteries are now cheap and ubiquitous. So persuading consumers to pay over the odds for foreign brands is a struggle.
In the poorest countries the market for disposable batteries is being undermined before it gets going, as cheap wind-up, solar-powered and rechargeable devices proliferate. Producing power has never been easier. Making money from selling it in small tubes is getting a lot harder.
