• While the French buy 28 batteries on average per year, Duracell launches Optimum, a new battery announced as revolutionary.

  • Thanks to an ingredient kept secret, this battery would have a lifespan up to 200% longer than conventional batteries.

  • More expensive than ordinary alkaline batteries, Optimum wants to surf a market driven by the health crisis and increasing battery consumption.

Three times as long.

With its Optimum battery that promises 200% more life expectancy, Duracell wants to strike hard and distinguish itself from classic alkaline batteries.

Flashlights, instant cameras, toys, game controllers should gain in convenience.

While with the pandemic due to Covid-19, the electric battery market is not experiencing the crisis, how is the brand with the pink rabbit doing to go further than its competitors?

No change since 1992

It's called Optimum.

The box reads “Up to 200% extra life”.

In French: "Up to 200% additional life".

In other words, this new alkaline battery would run up to three times longer.

"We tried to change the paradigm of a market that had not seen any development since the introduction of the lithium battery in 1992", enthuses Arnaud Soury-Lavergne, Marketing Director France of Duracell.

Go beyond the physical limits of the stack

The Optimum battery looks like a regular AA / AAA battery in appearance. The difference is on the inside. According to Duracell, it took 10 years of research for a new recipe to be developed, allowing new performance to be achieved. Explanation: the engine of a battery is its cathode. This can be compared to a sponge which absorbs electrons during electrolysis. When the cathode of a battery absorbs more electrons, its life is improved. But that was obviously not enough for Duracell.

“We added a secret and new material to the cathode to go beyond the physical limits of what the battery can provide,” explains Arnaud Soury-Lavergne.

What material?

Despite the insistence of 20 Minutes, the marketing director does not let go, and takes refuge behind the 18 patents that have been filed around the Optimum battery.

We will not know more about the geographical origin of this ingredient and its

sourcing

...

200 more photos

The famous secret component of Duracell would thus make it possible to obtain better performance in some devices or a more lasting power in others. Duracell cites for example an improved experience with an Xbox controller, a screwdriver or an electric car. The manufacturer even touts a homemade experience with a Fujifilm Instax mini 11 camera. With a conventional stack, 500 photos could have been taken, compared to 700 with the Optimum stack. An experience that we could not duplicate.

Price side, we found the pack of six Duracell Optimum batteries at 10.99 euros at Darty (or 1.83 euros per battery).

In comparison, the store offers Duracell Ultra batteries (100% more Power) at 9.99 euros for six (or 1.66 euros per battery).

Darty also offers Philips Power Alkaline batteries in sets of six to 5.99 euros (or 0.99 euros per battery).

The Optimum battery is therefore twice as expensive as the Philips.

"A pile is not a pile, we want to get out of this trap," says Arnaud Soury-Lavergne.

An old ritornello at Duracell

The brand of which a pink rabbit has been a mascot since 1973, plays us a little music already known with its battery that lasts longer. Old advertisements found on YouTube bear witness to this. In 1982, a spot stated: "Depending on the toy, a battery can last 2, 3 ... up to 6 times longer". Forty years later, the discourse has hardly changed and the rabbit saga continues.

Still, Duracell is playing on velvet.

While the French buy an average of 28 batteries per year, the health crisis due to Covid-19 has boosted uses for a year, consumers having spent more time at home.

“They refocused on their passions,” explains one at Duracell.

And have consumed batteries.

Toys, household equipment (from kitchen scales to connected objects), but also self-medication and medical diagnostic devices are among the Top 3 products that require the most batteries.

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