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Why deep cycle batteries? Aren't all lead-acid auto batteries the same?
Answer: No, 'fraid not. It's true that one battery looks a lot like any other battery, and they take up just about the same amount of space in your battery compartment (depending!), and they both make use of lead-acid chemistry to store electrical power. But that's where the similarity ends. Deep-cycle batteries vs. (SLI) batteries
Gas-gobblers have cranking automotive batteries, called SLI for Starting, Lighting, and Ignition, and is designed to deliver a lot of juice at once. It is intended to give up about 5% of its charge before charging back up again off the alternator. The electrolyte plates inside the SLI battery look like something like a large wad of foil which delivers a lot of surface area for the weight, but it's delicate.The ones you need for an electric car are deep cycle batteries, meaning they don't have any objection to being drained down to 20% of their full charge, and then recharged...over and over and over again. The electrolyte plates inside deep-cycle batteries are often solid metal, heavy but sturdy. If you put a bank of SLIs in your Xebra thinking you'll save yourself some money, you'll put them under extraordinary strain; that happy wad of electrolyte foil will soon be powder sediment resting on the bottom of Lake DieHard... ...and you'll be WALKING; ) Four basic categories of lead acid deep-cycle batteries
1) Industrial deep-cycle batteries that are not designed to be moved.These aren't going into your car; all the jostling and jolting will kill them prematurely. They're designed to store large amounts of energy (for instance, if you've got solar panels on the roof of your house, you'll need a group of these). An example of the industrial deep-cycle battery is the Concorde AGM Sun Xtender. 2) Large industrial deep-cycle batteries that ARE designed to be moved (like forklift or floor-sweeper batteries). Sturdy, but heavy. They offer long-term power for big electric gizmos and often have battery names beginning in FL for forklift or FS for floorsweeper. It's not unheard of for these to make their way into an electric car, but they're generally too big and heavy to be fleet of foot; ) 3) Marine "deep-cycle" batteries. I put "deep cycle" in quotes because they're not strictly deep cycle batteries, but rather a hybrid type battery that doesn't mind being deep-cycled. These are sometimes used in electric cars, and they're certainly better than ignition-type batteries, but overall, they're expensive per-cycle and don't last as long as the next type... These are the batteries most often found in electric cars and electric car conversions. There are now over 1200 entries in the Austin EV photo album, and of all these electric cars, tractors, bikes, and motorcycles that people have bought or converted, the most common battery type is the lead-acid "deep-cycle" EV battery made by Trojan (followed in popularity by Optima - yellow-tops, of course - then US Battery, then Deka). These come from a family of batteries commonly referred to as "golf cart batteries". These "golf cart batteries" are also a hybrid-type traction battery, but have a longer cycle life (number of times you can drain it and charge it before it dies) than marine batteries. Chances are, this is the type you'll be using, too. References:
Your website is EXCELLENT. I have been looking to find an informative (but not boring) website that displays all the current options for electric vehicles for consumers. Thanks for all your efforts!
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