Hello again from MEGALiFe Battery Australia headquarters.  We’re online today to continue our quest in answering all the questions out there regarding lithium ion battery technology and how you can the most out of this modern day marvel in energy storage.

Having our origins in motorsport, we feel quite qualified to answer one of our more common questions received asking, can I use a lithium ion battery in my car’? (spoiler alert…..the answer is YES….but read on to find out how)

Let’s cover some basics on the current methods used to power your car and their functions.  The battery in your car has 2 main functions.  The primary function is to start the IC engine and then a secondary function to provide power for vehicle accessories (e.g. lights, radio) when the engine is not running.  Once the vehicle is started, almost all engine systems will have the ability to create an electrical current via an alternator or dynamo based setup.  This generated power is used to supply electrical energy for the engine to run (ignition, fuel pumps, ECU power, etc) as well as other systems on the car (lights, accessories, etc).  The surplus energy from the IC engine alternator/dynamo is then used to recharge the battery power consumed by starting the engine in the first instance.  In some cases, due to high system load or faulty parts, the battery may also become a buffer during times of peak load supplying additional power when the alternator/dynamo is not supplying a sufficient amount of current.

 The vast majority of cars on the road use a lead-acid based battery.  This can be in the form of AGM, SLA, flooded or many other common acronyms that are all derived from using lead and an acid based electrolyte to store and discharge electrical energy.  Standard lead based batteries comprise of 6 cells with a nominal voltage of 2.0v giving our most commonly known 12v system seen on cars, bikes, boats and many other internal combustion engine based vehicles.  The battery is kept charged by the use of an alternator which provides a rectified DC charging