Before you buy
Do RC cars come with batteries?
This is the question that ruins Christmas morning, and the answer depends entirely on which half of the hobby you are buying from.
By Ryder M. · Published October 4, 2026 · Last reviewed
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Sometimes. Toy-grade RC cars almost always include a rechargeable battery and a simple charger, and many include two packs. Hobby-grade cars usually do not — Traxxas, ARRMA and Redcat mostly sell the car alone, and the battery and charger are a separate purchase that typically adds $100 to $150. There are exceptions in both directions, and if the car is a gift you need to know which one you are buying before it is wrapped.
Short version: toy-grade, yes. Hobby-grade, usually no. The reliable exceptions are the Traxxas LaTrax Rally and the Traxxas TRX-4M, both of which include a battery and a charger, and the DEERC 9206E, which includes two. Almost every other hobby-grade car needs both bought separately.
What is in the box, by type of car
| Type of car | Battery included? | Charger included? | What you still need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toy-grade, under $50 | Yes, usually built in or one pack | Yes, a simple wall or USB charger | Often AA batteries for the transmitter |
| Toy-grade, $50 to $100 | Yes, often two packs | Yes, though slow | Transmitter batteries |
| Entry hobby-grade with a complete package | Yes | Yes | Transmitter batteries, and a second pack eventually |
| Most hobby-grade, $200 and up | No | No | A LiPo pack, a balance charger, transmitter batteries |
| Kits, as opposed to ready-to-run | No | No | Electronics, radio, battery, charger — sometimes everything |
Why hobby-grade cars leave them out
It looks like a cost-cutting trick and it mostly is not. Hobby-grade buyers tend to own batteries already, often several, and they have strong preferences about capacity, cell count and connector type. Shipping a pack most of them will put in a drawer raises the price for everybody. There is also a practical reason: lithium packs complicate shipping and storage, which is why an empty box moves more easily than a full one.
For the gift buyer, though, the result is the same — the headline price is not the price. A brushless 1/10 truck advertised at a certain number cannot be driven on the day it is opened unless you also bought a battery and a charger. That is the single most common unpleasant surprise in this category, and it is why we flag it on every product card on this site.
The cars that do come complete
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Traxxas LaTrax RallyWaterproof, four-wheel drive, and it comes with a battery and a charger — the friendliest way into the real hobby. | A family's first hobby car | 8.8 | |
| 2 |  Traxxas TRX-4MThe small Traxxas crawler that arrives complete: battery, charger, waterproof electronics and a licensed body. | Crawling, complete in box | 9.0 | |
| 3 |  DEERC 9206E 1:10 Monster TruckA full 1:10-size truck at a price that usually buys something half the size — and two batteries again. | A big truck, small money | 8.0 | |
| 4 |  Gens Ace 2S LiPo batteryThe brand most people settle on once they have been burned by a cheap pack that puffed after a month. | The reliable default | 8.7 |
Illustrative photo — not this exact model.
#1 · A family's first hobby car
Traxxas LaTrax Rally
Waterproof, four-wheel drive, and it comes with a battery and a charger — the friendliest way into the real hobby.
8.8/10our score for this use
A 1/18 rally car from Traxxas, meaning it is about half the size of the trucks you see at a track but built by a company with parts in real hobby shops. Traxxas lists waterproof all-weather electronics, a 6-volt NiMH battery and a wall charger in the box, and a speed control with drive profiles that include a training mode.
- Size:
- 1/18
- Drive:
- Shaft-driven 4WD
- Motor:
- brushed motor
What it does well
- Battery and charger are included, so the gift works the day it is opened
- Waterproof electronics — wet grass and puddles are genuinely fine
- A training mode that limits the power, then full power later, so the car grows with the driver
- Traxxas parts are stocked by hobby shops and easy to order
What it does badly
- The NiMH battery it ships with is slower and heavier than a LiPo, so the first upgrade is obvious
- Low-slung rally body grounds out on thick grass — it prefers gravel, dirt and pavement
- Costs noticeably more than the toy-grade cars it sits beside on a search results page
Specifications from the Traxxas LaTrax Rally product page.
Illustrative photo — not this exact model.
#2 · Crawling, complete in box
Traxxas TRX-4M
The small Traxxas crawler that arrives complete: battery, charger, waterproof electronics and a licensed body.
9.0/10our score for this use
A 1/18 scale trail crawler eleven inches long, built on a steel ladder frame with solid axles and a four-link suspension — the layout of a real truck, shrunk. Traxxas fits its waterproof ECM-2.5 module with Sport, Trail and Crawl modes, and the box includes a 7.4 volt 750mAh LiPo and a 2-amp USB charger, so nothing else is needed on the day.
- Size:
- 1/18 (11 inches long)
- Drive:
- Solid-axle 4WD
- Motor:
- brushed motor
What it does well
- Battery and USB charger are in the box, which almost nothing else in the Traxxas range can say
- Waterproof electronics and LED lights, so wet grass and after-dark driving are both fine
- Small enough for a living room, a rockery or a stack of books — no field required
What it does badly
- Crawlers are slow by design. If the recipient wants speed, this is the wrong shape entirely
- The 750mAh pack is small; a second battery is the first thing most owners buy
- The licensed bodies are ABS plastic and will scuff on rock
Specifications from the Traxxas TRX-4M product page.
Illustrative photo — not this exact model.
#3 · A big truck, small money
DEERC 9206E 1:10 Monster Truck
A full 1:10-size truck at a price that usually buys something half the size — and two batteries again.
8.0/10our score for this use
1:10 is the size most hobby cars are: roughly 17 to 20 inches long, big enough to see across a yard and heavy enough that grass does not throw it around. DEERC quotes around 48 km/h — roughly 30 mph — and includes two batteries.
- Size:
- 1:10 (about 17-20 inches long)
- Drive:
- 4WD
- Motor:
- toy-grade motor
What it does well
- Proper 1:10 size, so it works on real ground instead of only on a driveway
- Two batteries in the box, and around 40 minutes of combined run time
- Some versions include a second body shell
What it does badly
- Not hobby-grade: spares are DEERC-only and thinner than Traxxas or Arrma
- Heavy for its build quality — a bad landing bends parts a hobby chassis would shrug off
- The stock tires wear quickly on asphalt
Specifications from DEERC's own store listing.
Illustrative photo — not this exact model.
#4 · The reliable default
Gens Ace 2S LiPo battery
The brand most people settle on once they have been burned by a cheap pack that puffed after a month.
8.7/10our score for this use
LiPo is the standard rechargeable battery chemistry for RC cars: lighter than the older NiMH type and it holds its power right up to the end of the run rather than gradually fading. 2S means two cells — the size most 1/10 cars take.
What it does well
- Consistent pack-to-pack quality, which is the whole argument for paying more for a battery
- Holds voltage under load, so the car feels the same on lap ten as on lap one
- Sold in all the common connector types and sizes
What it does badly
- Costs more than the budget brands for capacity you can measure but may not notice
- Like all LiPo packs it must be stored at partial charge, not full, or it degrades
- Needs a balance charger — it cannot be charged with the wall plug from a toy car
Brand by brand
- Traxxas — mostly sold without, but the LaTrax Rally and the TRX-4M both include a battery and a charger, and some models are offered in complete bundles. Check the specific listing rather than the brand.
- ARRMA — mostly sold without. The Mojave Grom is the notable exception and is sold as a complete package.
- Redcat — mostly sold without, though the ready-to-run crawlers are often more complete than the bashers.
- Losi and Axial — varies by model; the small-scale cars are more likely to include a pack than the full-size ones. The Axial SCX24 is a complete package.
- Budget brands such as DEERC, BEZGAR and MJX — almost always include at least one pack and often two, which is a genuine part of their value argument.
What to buy if the box is empty
- A battery that matches the car's cell count. Most 1/10 cars take a 2S or 3S LiPo. Check what the car supports first — 2S vs 3S LiPo explains which to start with.
- A balance charger. A LiPo pack cannot safely be charged by the little wall plug from a toy car. A charger with a built-in power supply is the one to get.
- The right connector. Getting this wrong is the most common ordering mistake in the hobby. RC battery connector types is the page that prevents it.
- A LiPo-safe charging bag. Inexpensive, and the one safety item we treat as required rather than optional.
- AA batteries for the transmitter. Easy to overlook, and the reason more than one brand-new car has sat still on a birthday morning.
How long the included battery lasts
Shorter than you would like, usually. The packs that come with entry cars are small — the TRX-4M ships with a 750mAh pack, for example — and the chargers included with them are slow. Expect 15 to 25 minutes of driving followed by one to three hours of charging. That ratio is the single biggest reason an RC car ends up in a cupboard, and a second battery is the cheapest fix available. How long RC car batteries last sets out the real figures.
How we assessed this
By reading what each manufacturer states is in the box on its own product page, rather than what a retailer's listing implies. The cars named above are from this site's registry and each one's included equipment is sourced to the maker's own page, linked below. Contents do change between model revisions and between regional versions, so treat the specific listing in front of you as the authority — and our methodology page explains how we handle that.