Mavic Air Batteries and DJI Planned Obsolescence

[barraboy]

I bought a Mavic Air for personal use about 24 months ago. I now need two new batteries, however, DJI informed me they no longer make them. wtf?! I cant find any in Australia from 3rd parties either. I was looking at purchasing the MATRICE M300 RTK for business use. With drone, camera and batteries weighing in at around $30k AUD, I want it to last. I am concerned that DJI's business plan is to force model redundancy after 2-3 years by ending the manufacture of critical components. Can anyone shed light on how DJI do business? Also, can anyone recommend a high-end drone manufacturer that provides better support through ongoing component availability?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

..
Battery obsoletion is a very annoying trait of DJI's, and a pattern that's been emerging since the Spark, then M1P / MPP, Air.
What's next ?

Perhaps they think 5 - 7 years is enough for a drone life, but people still buy these models well after release.
I feel it's more of a cash grab, as these are not cheap items to buy (drones or batteries).

I think I searched for aftermarket for Air batteries the other day (another thread in similar vein) and couldn't find anything made.

Good luck with the search, perhaps try some resellers.
I picked up 2 new M1P batteries a year or so back from a retailer in SE Qld, was lucky.
I had 4 good batts still (even now) but saw they were virtually getting like hens teeth and grabbed another 2, put into the rotational order for flights straight off.

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

It's not just DJI with the batteries, Autel pulled the same thing with the X-Star and now there's rumors that the same thing is going to happen with their Evo I. Every manufacturer seems to think their drones won't be viable after a certain time period. The dumb thing is I can get all kinds of spare parts, but no batteries.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

It's not just DJI with the batteries, Autel pulled the same thing with the X-Star and now there's rumors that the same thing is going to happen with their Evo I. Every manufacturer seems to think their drones won't be viable after a certain time period. The dumb thing is I can get all kinds of spare parts, but no batteries.

Yes, as frustrating as DJI seems, I can imagine the smaller drone makers would be doing this as bad or worse.

 

[Paulpoels]

No more drones for me until manufacturers change their strategy and become user friendly in spare parts.

 

[dirkclod]

In the US on Amazon but still see them there.

Not cheap though

 

[EpicFlight]

There's a market for refurbishment, maybe someone will take it up? Replacing the lipo cells with new ones would do the trick. Done right with properly selected cells, they could be every bit as safe.