Starting out
What else do you need with an RC car?
Four things turn a good RC car gift into one that is still being used next year. Everything else on the accessories shelf can wait.
By Ryder M. · Published September 27, 2026 · Last reviewed
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Four things: a second battery, a proper charger, a fire-resistant charging bag, and a set of hex drivers. Together they cost a fraction of the car and roughly double how much it actually gets used. Everything else is optional.
The four that matter
- A second battery. The highest-value addition, full stop. One pack means twenty minutes of driving then a long wait; two packs means an afternoon.
- A proper balance charger. Faster than the charger in the box, and it looks after the batteries you already paid for. See our charger picks.
- A fireproof LiPo charging bag. Cheap, and it removes the only genuine hazard in this hobby.
- Hex drivers. The folded keys included with the car round off screw heads within a few uses, turning a simple repair into a difficult one.
The four accessories
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  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 | $49.99View on Amazon #ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026 |
| 2 |  HOTA D6 Pro chargerTwo channels, plugs straight into the wall, and fast enough that charging stops being the bottleneck. | The one to buy once | 8.8 | $109.99$119.99(8% off)View on Amazon #ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026 |
| 3 |  Zeee fireproof LiPo charging bagThe cheapest sensible thing you can add to any gift that includes a LiPo battery. | Charging safely | 8.5 | $12.74$13.49(6% off)View on Amazon #ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026 |
| 4 |  HobbyPark 6-in-1 RC driver setThe L-shaped keys in the box round off after a few uses. A proper driver set is the first upgrade nobody thinks of. | Fixing it yourself | 8.3 | $25.97View on Amazon #ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026 |
Product photo via Amazon.
#1 · 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
#ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026
Product photo via Amazon.
#2 · The one to buy once
HOTA D6 Pro charger
Two channels, plugs straight into the wall, and fast enough that charging stops being the bottleneck.
8.8/10our score for this use
A balance charger looks after each cell inside a LiPo pack individually, which is what keeps the battery healthy and safe. The D6 Pro has a built-in power supply — no separate box to buy — charges two packs at once, and around 1.6A of balance current per cell, which is why it finishes noticeably faster than the pocket chargers.
What it does well
- Built-in AC power supply: it works straight out of the box with no extra purchase
- Two independent channels, so a second pack charges while the first is in the car
- Higher balance current than the small chargers, so charging is genuinely quicker
What it does badly
- Overkill if there is only ever going to be one small battery
- The menu system takes an evening to learn
- It is another box on the bench with its own fan noise
#ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026
Product photo via Amazon.
#3 · Charging safely
Zeee fireproof LiPo charging bag
The cheapest sensible thing you can add to any gift that includes a LiPo battery.
8.5/10our score for this use
A fire-resistant pouch that the battery sits inside while it charges. LiPo batteries very rarely fail, but when they do they do it energetically, and every experienced owner charges inside a bag or a metal tin. Zeee lists a fireproof inner fabric, a flame-retardant interlayer and a PVC outer, rated to insulate up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, in a 8.5 x 6.5 x 5.7 inch bag big enough for a stack of packs.
What it does well
- Costs very little and reduces the one genuine hazard in this hobby
- Doubles as somewhere to store and carry packs between uses
- Fits any battery, any brand
What it does badly
- Not a magic shield — Zeee itself says the bag cannot contain a fire above 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, and a charging battery still needs to be attended
- The cheap ones have flimsy zips
- One more thing to remember to use
#ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026
Product photo via Amazon.
#4 · Fixing it yourself
HobbyPark 6-in-1 RC driver set
The L-shaped keys in the box round off after a few uses. A proper driver set is the first upgrade nobody thinks of.
8.3/10our score for this use
Hobby-grade cars are held together with small hex screws and nuts, and the folded metal keys included in the box are made down to a price. This set is one magnetic aluminum handle plus 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0mm hex bits, a 7mm nut driver, a Phillips bit and a small wheel wrench — HobbyPark lists titanium-machined alloy steel bits over 60 hardness, and names Traxxas, Arrma, Axial, Losi, Redcat, HPI and HSP as fits.
What it does well
- Makes repairs quick enough that they actually get done instead of shelving the car
- Hardened bits, so screw heads stop being rounded off by a badly fitting key
- The four hex sizes and the 7mm nut driver cover every brand on this site
What it does badly
- Not an exciting thing to unwrap on its own
- A single handle means swapping bits rather than picking up the next driver
- No metric nut sizes beyond 7mm, so a big 1/8 truck may want one more driver
#ad — how we earn · price as of November 12, 2026
The thing everyone forgets
AA batteries for the transmitter. Most hobby-grade cars need four, and they are almost never included. A transmitter with flat batteries looks exactly like a broken car to a child, and it is the most common failure on the morning a gift is opened. Buy rechargeable ones and a charger, once.
Worth buying eventually
- A set of front suspension arms. The part that breaks first, so a spare set means an evening's repair instead of a week's wait.
- A car stand. Holds the car with its wheels off the ground for maintenance. Trivial until the first time you need one.
- A soft brush and compressed air for cleaning grass out of the gear mesh after each session.
- A spare body shell, if the car is going to be crashed a lot. Cosmetic, but it is what makes a car look tired.
What you can skip
- Aluminum upgrade parts, at least at first. They often move the breakage to a more expensive component rather than removing it.
- Higher-C-rating batteries. For bashing, 25C and up from a reputable brand is plenty — see battery types.
- A more powerful motor, until the driver has outgrown the current one. That takes longer than people expect.
- Tire additives and racing accessories, unless the car is actually being raced.
Two related pages: do RC cars come with batteries tells you which of these four you will have to buy, and gifts for RC car lovers ranks the same accessories as presents for someone who already owns a car.
How we assessed this
From what genuinely changes how much a car gets used, rather than from what accessory shelves are full of. We do not test accessories first-hand — see our methodology page.
Two things on this list are not objects. Where to drive RC cars covers finding somewhere the car actually works, which decides more than any accessory, and do RC cars interfere with each other answers the question that comes up the moment a second car arrives in the house.
The lists that save you the extra order
- RC cars that include a battery and charger — cars that include a battery and a charger
- The best RC battery brands — the battery brands worth buying