18650-21700.com Origins

Introduction

Hi I'm Austin Marhold,

In 2024 I formalized 18650-21700.com in response to the new Li-ion cells becoming available.  Before that I had been doing cell sales privately direct to customers I had met personally or were introduced to by mutual friends.  I always found the structure of battery wholesale frustrating, how suppliers often won't serve small qty orders when that's precisely what's required to foster growth.

Battery Related Background

I'm new to cell wholesale, but I've been deeply involved with Li-ion technology since 2014 when I first traveled to China.  During my time there, I met with some of the cell suppliers in person, developing relationships that I'm now leveraging through this site.

I've considered doing cell wholesale for many years and had already researched many factors before finding the JP40.

Tangent Industry experience

Over the last 10 years, I've designed over 200 packs with unique and challenging constraints, mostly focused on compactness and peak performance.

Some of these packs were designed but never produced, more than half of them.  This is because I'm passionate about design optomization and want to offer the best solution even if it takes multiple revisions before prototype.

I've worked with a multitude of battery management systems (BMS), commissioning custom BMS from suppliers and even assembling a team to develop a modular 7s to 32s BMS (more on that in a future post).

I've developed my own AC based cell welder with an estimated 10,000a power delivery featuring closed loop ms reaction times to ongoing weld performance (prototype in refinement stage).

The JP40

The JP40 (also know as LT 22710a, 21700a) was a unique opportunity.  A new cell that performed better than my expectations.  So I reached out to Jane, my strongest contact from my time in china.  She agreed to join my team to handle logistics and in person factory inspection.