It's funny to hand someone one of these batteries and they are expecting twenty pounds. It's like the battery case is empty it's so light.

 

The AGM battery that came out was 34 pounds, and the battery that came out of the rear of my old C6Z was even heavier (plus another 5 pounds) - the lithium battery is like picking up a small bag of sugar.

 

Do these actually hold more total charge?
Are they any more reliable or longer lasting?

I would gladly pay $400-$500 for something that is a fraction of the weight of a standard battery, holds more charge, cranks more readily, and that is more reliable and longer lasting.

 

I’ve been running lithium powersport batteries in parallel for probably 5 years already. I did this bc they are cheap and can easily get you to 700cca with two 350cca batteries.

these batteries tend to last about 10years depending on use they say. My 5 yr old lithiums are still working just fine in a rear battery setup. They charge find between 14.1-14.8v and with a higher resting voltage they actually reduce the amps running through to the starter etc. as voltage increases amps decrease. So a battery putting out 11v at startup (typical lead aside 12.7v batt) the lithium will usually put out 12.5 or higher voltage at the same load. They are also more efficient at supplying voltage so they have less internal
resistance allowing higher inrush currents. They also don’t have to be as big as lead acid and have 80-90% capacity for usage vs 30-50-% of lead acid.

lithium with internal BMSs are critical unless your very careful and they will save you and your car. You need a specific lithium 12v charger which are less than $50 on Amazon and don’t get anything less than 4amps charging. I have been replacing lead acids every 2-4 years even on daily drivers. I now have 4 lithium powered vehicles and they have been great. Ionic lithium batteries is the newest one that I got that has a restart feature (saves 25% for a emergency start) a led voltage marker and a Bluetooth app that you can see individual cell voltages as well as shut the battery off via the app like a manual switch.

 

this is true, they have a max charging amps and max/min voltage. I had someone bring up “well what if the battery is almost dead and you start the car won’t thr alternator overcharge and trip the BMS?” Well I didn’t test a dead ish battery but the lithium I did was on a car with charging issues (regulator crapped out after a short on the road) and the battery had 5 long cranks on it and it was running on just the battery. I swapped alternators and put a meter on the power cable going to the starter and the alternator charging wire connects to that. On start I saw a max of 262amps (small block LS with stock gear reduction starter) and a min of 84 amps. After the initial spike of 262 and dropped to 200-150 or so while cranking (continuously) and then. The alternator was charging at 9.6amps back to the battery and then 22.2amps when the fans kicked on. These particular NOICO powersport batteries are 500amps each for cranking and 40 amps continuous so in a pair your double that. Well within the ratings for these batteries but never tested a basically dead battery and how the BMS would regulate or shut off if the alternator tried to push 100amps back through it (if it’s even capable of doing that at idle).

 

Since you've mentioned experience with the brand 'Iconic' they've (13) 12V options. Suggest based on your knowledge a suggested buy for a C4 that uses a a Group 75 battery:

https://lithiumhub.com/shop-lithiumh...ilter=12-volts

 

You’re not going to get a drop in replacement. Pick the size with right specs and adapt it to fit your space. You can pick up adapters for terminals and battery trays or mounts for batteries to hold them down. I tend to make my own battery leads from OFC welding cable and solder on my own ends to fit the mount. The 1100 amp CA is more than enough for even a 521BBF which I had.

I recommend this battery https://lithiumhub.com/product/lithi...arter-battery/

I’ve used these for side mount terminals
https://www.crutchfield.com/S-PFSGrQ...RoCcN8QAvD_BwE

 

Is that battery basically plug and play in terms of electronics?

Anyone got any new write ups on this? I think I need a new battery I really don't want to spend $200 for another old style one when there is weight savings and better performance to be had from the new chemistry technology...

I am surprised no one packages these newer technology batteries in retrofit cases that physically plug and play into factory mounts and cables for automotive applications...

 

I think Antigravity makes a Group 75 battery, it's $700. Would need to bolt on the side terminal adapters or come up with a different termination perhaps.

 

No real market for it. Think of the customer base... generally older and not fond of newer technologies. There is a hazard factor (much more power dense and requires different charging parameters) but you are seeing it more and more. Antigravity and a few brands have them but your talking $700+.

 

Nothing is ever "plug and play" on a Corvette. Even stuff advertised as plug and play.
As soon as you change anything on a Vette you face a challenge of some kind. Having said that on a scale of doing stuff, putting a small battery in is fairly straight forward.

 

Update - first serious hitout for the new battery at first round of hillclimb.
The car does double duty with 2 drivers, so it's on the go most of the day being run, driven back, turned off, swapped over, started again. Quite often turned back off in staging lane and then re started again.
It performed faultlessly, it was a warm sunny day and it cranked the engine over super fast each time, super easy to start.
It also had to cope with running the big main fan on manual switch (and front thermo fan) most of the time to keep coolant temps around 170F.
When the car came home I checked the battery voltage and it was at 13.9 volts.