Varta Introduces Three-Tier Battery Range

Varta Automotive Batteries is launching a new, three-tier product structure, aimed at making it easier for the trade to specify the correct battery for every age and complexity of car. The Blue Dynamic range, which provides 80 per cent replacement battery coverage of the UK car parc, is now joined by a Silver Dynamic product for the latest high specification models and a Black Dynamic battery targeted at cars over seven years old.

The restructured range is being launched through Varta’s extensive network of UK agents and uses calcium silver technology to ensure compatibility with batteries fitted as OE by most vehicle manufacturers since the late 1990s. A new trade catalogue will guide suppliers to the correct battery to fit vehicles of a given age. SMMT figures reveal that there are more than six million cars aged between six and nine years old in the UK car parc and a further seven million aged between three and six years.

Batteries in the Black Dynamic range are typically compatible with OE batteries supplied by Varta to European car manufacturers in the mid 90s – for example, the 063 battery provides 360 amps starting power to supply the lower power requirements of older vehicles.

By the end of the 1990s, Varta had significantly enhanced the specification of batteries supplied as OE. This, says Varta Product Manager Tony Miller, “was to cope with a higher level of electrical consumers such as air conditioning, electric seats and more powerful sound systems which were by then being fitted as standard.”

He continued: “Our Blue Dynamic range is built to the same spec as those products we originally supplied as OE, so this is the battery the trade needs to fit to most cars manufactured since the end of the last decade. The Blue Dynamic 063 battery provides 440 amps starting power to match these vehicles’ increased power requirements.

To simplify stocking, Varta calcium silver batteries for Far Eastern cars – previously branded Asia Dynamic – are being incorporated into the revamped Blue Dynamic range.

As each succeeding generation of cars brings even more sophisticated electronics to the market place – adaptive vehicle control, electric power steering, satellite navigation and idrive systems, for example – Varta is advising the trade to replace the original battery with its Silver Dynamic range. The 063 battery provides 520 amps starting power, suitable for high-end premium vehicles and those retro-fitted with aftermarket electrical equipment, such as portable SatNav and DVD players, plus diesel models.

Varta claims a more than 60 per cent share of the European OE starter battery market and thus, says Tony Miller, “is better qualified than any other manufacturer to exactly match the specification of its aftermarket products to current and anticipated replacement demand.”

The revised product structure is supported by new marketing literature and point-of-sale material in order to increase trade awareness and strengthen the sell-through message to consumers.