[gvanman]

>>Exide was bought out by Yuasa
This was the industrial battery sector - not the Automotive division which supplies the batteries to 1st.

Gary Dillard wrote:
>>gvanman, we've contradicted each other in similar threads on this before, and I don't know what they sent you, but the batteries we received in the kit this year were marked EX. We got some spares from Exide directly and they look and behave identical except they say ES. But it doesn't matter if they are identical, FIRST has ruled that you must use the ones sent in the kit for competition, and according to the kit of parts (and what we received) that is the EX 18-12.<<
Gary and all - It is as confusing for me as well!
I got involved at the beginning of February after getting a call from a Canadian team who had spent 10 hours on the phone trying to find replacement batteries. I could have just told them that I did't work for the Automotive division and that would have been the end of it - instead, I looked into the problem and got the team supplied with replacement batteries.
After checking out various websites relating to the competition, it became obvious that there were lots of teams in need of batteries so I started digging and found - utter confusion!!
To cut a long story short - Exide supplied 1st with the EX 18-12 for last years competition and did the same again for this years as well. Both times, these batteries were EX 18-12 and were a special batch with this designation. This year the number of teams has increased and the EX 18-12 batteries supplied to 1st has all but been exhausted. Dilemma - what to do now? There are no more EX 18-12 available (1st may still have a few, I don't know). I have tried to make sure that I am not breaking any rules by informing teams that the EX and ES are the same batteries. I finally got to speak to 1st about this and they were more than happy that I was helping out and told me to carry on. I would still like to see an official ruling that says the ES is acceptable for the competition, especially when some teams have damaged their original batteries and the only replacements available are the ES.
There are local competitions in Ypsilanti, MI on Saturday and I will be going to see 'what it's all about' and also to see what happens to teams using the ES batteries.
Up to this point, I have helped maybe 35-40 teams to locate replacements and would not want them to be penalized because there are no EX available.
Good luck to you all in the competition!
Cheers.