The government has introduced new legislation that makes it illegal for members of the public to purchase motorcycle batteries that come with a separate acid pack.
Only holders of a valid EPP (Explosives, Precursors & Poisons) will be able to purchase acid separately. These changes are due to the reclassification of sulphuric acid which is now classed as a regulated substance. This applies to all packs of acid that have a concentration of 15% or more. The concentration of acid supplied with Motorcycle batteries is typically 38%.
In order for us to continue selling these batteries to members of the public, we are required to fill and seal the batteries before despatching them.
For More information please see the Government article here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supplying-explosives-precursors/supplying-explosives-precursors-and-poison
My last bikeAGM battery that I bought from you, your own brand, was pre-filled with electrolyte and fully charged ,but the likes of Yuasa, Varta, etc are different. Will this mean that there will be an additional charge for filling or will we need to purchase only those that are until these makes catch up?
That’s a good question! As you say, our own brand products are all factory filled as we sell so many and the turnaround is so fast; so there’s no chance that they will discharge before being sold.
For the other brands, we have been told that they have no plans to modify their products as their argument is that they currently supply all of the EU, so why should they modify their products for one ‘small’ market. A fair point – the whole acid attack issue is a London-centric problem so we can’t foresee other countries applying a similar regulation.
As we have our own in-house IT team who look after our website and internal systems, we have been able to develop an advanced bespoke system which queries data from sales over the last three weeks, and historical data from previous years for the next three week period to determine the number of each SKU that we’re likely to sell over the next three weeks, and we have built a battery filling station to pre-fill (and rest) a stock level to satisfy the demand.
We implemented the system a week before the July 1st deadline and we’ve been very happy with the results. We’ve contacted customers who’ve purchased these products to get their feedback, and the overall response is very positive!
What a stupid regulation. If one was so motivated, one could easily drain a battery for the acid anyway. Ridiculous knee-jerk regulation. Good work in finding a solution Tayna and still providing the service.