{"id":3566,"date":"2015-12-31T21:50:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T02:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2015-12-31T21:50:47","modified_gmt":"2016-01-01T02:50:47","slug":"lead-acid-batteries-for-an-ev-not-cost-effective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/lead-acid-batteries-for-an-ev-not-cost-effective\/","title":{"rendered":"Lead Acid batteries for an EV: Not cost effective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20_golf_cart_batteries.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3567\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-3567\" src=\"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20_golf_cart_batteries-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"20_golf_cart_batteries\" width=\"584\" height=\"779\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20_golf_cart_batteries-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/20_golf_cart_batteries-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/24\/electric-pickup-truck-cost-of-ownership\/\">first pack of Sams Club lead acid golf cart batteries<\/a> only lasted 2.75 years and 4861 miles. Total cost per mile was 67 cents including electricity, batteries, and maintenance. The battery replacement cost accounted for 65+ % of my cost of ownership over that time. \u00a0 My second set of Interstate golf cart batteries were even worse, lasting only 2 years and 2870 miles at 85 cents per mile. \u00a0 (I paid $277 for electricity for the truck over those 2 years, so 88% of the cost was the battery purchase price.)<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, from a cost per mile perspective, this is more expensive than gas unless your car is a real lemon (needs lots of maintenance) or a real gas guzzler (Like a hummer). \u00a0 I&#8217;ve reciently replaced them with the battery pack from a salvaged Nissan Leaf. \u00a0 Because I put in a lot of sweat equity to retrieve the batteries and lower my costs by selling off the rest of the car, I was able to purchase my 3rd pack for $1200, which is amazingly inexpensive if you compare them to &#8220;new&#8221; Li-Ion batteries, or even lead acid golf cart batteries.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/leaf_pack_packaged.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3378\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3378\" src=\"http:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/leaf_pack_packaged-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"leaf_pack_packaged\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/leaf_pack_packaged-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/leaf_pack_packaged-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, my total upgrade cost was closer to $4000, as I had to buy some hardware to mount all those Leaf modules, as well as upgrading my battery charger to make use of them. \u00a0 However, when I go to replace them, all I&#8217;ll need to do is purchase a wrecked Nissan Leaf and swap the modules out, so I expect the replacement cost could easily be in the $1500-$2000 range.<\/p>\n<p>And, they should hopefully last a lot longer than the lead acid batteries they are replacing (reports in the 1000-3000 cycles instead of 300-600 cycle range&#8230;.). They certainly offer better performance! (More available power, lighter weight, etc I&#8217;m very happy with the upgrade.)<\/p>\n<p>In summary, I can&#8217;t recommend lead acid batteries for any EV that isn&#8217;t a golf cart, and even then a LiIon upgrade would probably be worthwhile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first pack of Sams Club lead acid golf cart batteries only lasted 2.75 years and 4861 miles. Total cost per mile was 67 cents including electricity, batteries, and maintenance. The battery replacement cost accounted for 65+ % of my &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/31\/lead-acid-batteries-for-an-ev-not-cost-effective\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","tag-etruck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3568,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions\/3568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}