Hilti launched 2 new Nuron 22V cordless power tool batteries, and from all the advertised features it looks like they finally got their hands on tabless Li-ion battery cells.
They’re late to market, following competing professional tool brands by nearly 2 years.
Hilti doesn’t say these Nuron batteries have tabless cells, which is the latest high performance cylindrical Li-ion cell technology, but we know of no other path towards delivering the claims they’re making.
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There are two new Hilti Nuron batteries:
- B 22-195 (9Ah)
- B 22-290 (13.5Ah)
Although Hilti has lagged behind numerous competitors in introducing tabless cells – Bosch, Dewalt, Milwaukee, Makita, and even Ryobi beat them to market – it is notable that they seem to be using 4.5Ah battery cells.
This would explain how the 6S2P battery, B 22-195, has 9Ah capacity, and the 6S3P battery, B 22-290, is rated with a 13.5Ah capacity.
I don’t believe any other brand currently offers “2P” or “3P” battery packs with such charge capacities, pushing Hilti ahead. Sometimes it pays to sit back and wait for a little.
In addition to delivering higher power and of course longer runtime, the new batteries are said to operate at a lower running temperature.
Hilti also says they charge up to 50% faster, although they don’t explain whether this is with existing or new chargers.
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The new Hilti B 22-195 (9Ah) looks to be the same size as the 12-cell B 22-170 battery (8Ah).
The B 22-290 (13.5Ah) looks to be the same size as the 18-cell B 22-255 (12Ah).
It is not clear whether Hilti did anything besides populate existing battery packs with new higher capacity cells.
For example, when Milwaukee introduced M18 FORGE batteries with tabless Li-ion cells, they described the numerous and significant improvements they made to the entire package, such as in cooling and durability. Milwaukee didn’t just take the newest battery cells available from their supplier and pop them into the same battery pack.
The new batteries look identical from the product images, aside from the new model numbers (and approximate watt-hour ratings) molded into the sides.
Hilti says these new batteries deliver “higher power,” but has not quantified this claim. When Bosch and Makita launched higher performance batteries, they detailed specific improvements to application speed or power that users can expect to see from different tool and battery pairings. It’s disappointing that Hilti has not done the same.
The new batteries launched in Europe and Asia earlier this year. USA availability has not yet been announced, but we expect the batteries to launch here soon.
Aside from all the questions I have for Hilti, here’s the big one: when are other brands going to move to 4.5Ah cells? It’s good to see Hilti taking the lead for once, but it might be short-lived.
Jared
Is 4.5ah the highest capacity tabless cell? Are all the tabless cells the same physical size?
Stuart
There’s typically some variation in cell size, but most adhere to the nominal form factor.
21700 means a 21mm diameter and
700mm70mm length.Bosch has a new 15Ah battery – https://toolguyd.com/bosch-expert-18v-batteries-chargers/ – but it’s not clear how many cells are used to achieve that.
I don’t know about the highest capacity tabless cells possible, but 4Ah cells have been adopted by most brands. It will take some higher level engineering discussions for me to hope to understand the potential limitations for tabless Li-ion tech.
4Ah tabless cells deliver more power and operate cooler than non-tabless 4Ah cells. What happens when you increase charge density? I can tell you what happens for standard Li-ion tech, but don’t have a deep enough understanding to answer that for tabless cells.
Matt_T
70.0mm length. 700mm is over two feet.
Stuart
Oops. I make the same mistake every time!
Joe
I believe Hilti has a big product release next Friday (10/25/2025) so I wouldn’t be surprised if they release it then. While they may be slightly late to the game, Bosch still hasn’t released the tabless in the USA…..
TomD
A 12.5% upgrade (12ah to 13.5ah) is nothing to sneeze at. A 13.5ah FORGE would certainly get me to upgrade.
Jason
More so for me, a 4.5 AH compact Forge 😍 maybe in the minority but I’m a bit fan of the 3.0 compact high output for pistol grip tools
Not sure it could handle the draw or what the amp maxes are of these where the breakeven is between pouch/tabless. Dewalts 3.5 are pretty tiny IIRC
Stuart
The idea of a 4.5Ah FORGE was the takeaway for me too.
I think that could be pouch cell territory, although I think pouch batteries have been eclipsed by tabless cylindrical. Pouch was a good stop-gap.
Given all of the clearances we’ve seen on Dewalt PowerStack batteries, presumably because they’re dumping old inventory (given the date codes I’ve seen people complaining about) or because of the XR branding changeover, I wonder if people care much more about battery pricing than size and weight savings.
Big Richard
The discounts are almost entirely on the 5Ah PS, I think they are more or less aiming for the 4Ah PowerPack to replace that. The 1.7Ah and 3.5Ah PowerStacks should still stick around, as you can’t get packs that small with these powerhouse tabless 21700 cells.
And tabless 18650s, like the 3000mAh Ampace JP30, could make a nice 3Ah 1P pack, but I don’t see them besting something like the 3.5Ah Powerstack for performance.
Big Richard
There’s some pretty hot 5000mAh cells out there now, like the EVE 50PL that is good for 50A continuous discharge or an absolutely bonkers 125A continuous discharge with 80C cut off. That is miles better than something like the Samsung 50S that DeWalt put in their current 2p 10Ah pack. I think we will see some more 5Ah, 10Ah, and 15Ah packs in the near future.