It is clear that RC tool manufacturers are using the Gillette credo: Give the razor away for free, and make all your money back on blades.
The problem is the 'name brand' or OEM packs are overpriced by about 3x to make this economics work. And ofc, I can buy pin-compatible packs for all the name brands from China for a fair price. And how will the tool makers defend themselves?
Case in point: I only buy lithium tools without the included packs (usually for half the MSRP), and then only put chinese packs on them. And never had a problem. After all, the cells the OEM packs have come from china anyway, IMO the only US part in the $$$ packs is the sticker on the outside.
If the Bolt was using a pack that cost 3x on a $/kWh basis than an identical pack from China (or, um, Korea), ofc there would be a booming business of swapping out those packs, and GM would have some fancy encypted handshake that would force us to use the GM OEM pack.
But they're not.
