We had installed a lightweight Lithium battery in our Project Evo a couple of years ago and it bricked while we were storing the car during the rainy season, despite being on a battery tender designed for lithium batteries. As we wanted to drive our car, we replaced the battery with one that we have had good luck with its durability, even in long-term storage, the AntiGravity ATX-30. The ATX-30 has been our project car go-to battery over the years thanks to its amazingly light weight and durability, especially in storage. Of course, we used our go-to in safe battery mounts from MeLe Design Firm to secure our batter in our original in the truck location.
The AntiGravity ATX-30 battery has a whooping 880 cranking amps, this compares to the 697 cranking amps for the battery that was in the car. The capacity of the battery is 32 amp hours which is pretty generous for a lightweight racing battery and plenty for a mixed use car like our Evo.
The ATX-30 uses Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry. This is a variant of the common Lithium Cobalt Peroxide lithium-ion batteries found on nearly anything that needs a rechargeable battery. Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry offers many advantages over other batteries including other types of lithium-ion batteries. It has a longer cycle life than most other batteries. It has a very constant discharge voltage, meaning its voltage will stay high and stable until the battery is totally exhausted. It has a higher peak power rating than other chemistries. It can also charge quickly. Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries have a very high power density and the ability to take multiple charge cycles.
The ATX-30 uses prismatic/pouch cells, this sort of cell construction is found on high-end batteries that require a lot of energy density. This is a departure from a plastic case packed with cylindrical cells that other cheaper motorsports lithium batteries typically have. The prismatic/pouch cells allow for more cell density and thus more capacity can be packed into an equivalent-sized case.
The ATX-30 battery has AntiGravity’s restart technology. If your car has a dead battery because you forgot to turn the lights off or something, you can push the restart button and it will activate a reserve circuit that has enough power to start your car. For long-term storage use, the first-world problem of having too many cars, the restart battery has internal circuitry to prevent the vehicle from draining the battery below 12 volts over time. This is good for preventing “parasitic drain” issues that many newer cars have. The circuitry prevents the vehicle from draining the battery below 8 volts during cranking. This prevents it from being used in an application with too much power demand for what the battery is intended for. The circuity also protects against occasional spikes in voltage beyond 14.8. This does NOT include when a regulator has failed and allows system volts to constantly rise above 14.8.
We wanted a sanitary mounting solution for putting the battery into our car. Since our battery was trunk mounted we felt that a mount that could provide some protection against getting knocked about was desirable. We decided to use a mount from MeLe Design Firm. The MeLe mount is made of strong and corrosion-resistant 5052 aluminum that totally encloses the battery for protection. 5052 is used instead of the typical 6061 because it forms better and much of the MeLe mount’s construction is press-bent. What isn’t press bent is tig welded. The mount comes in a durable and attractive crackle powder coat finish.
3 comments
The trunk has a much more hospitable climate than the engine bay for a battery. It’s also easier to hook up amps and inverters from the trunk.
Hi Mike,
What do you think about all the issues surrounding Lithium batteries? This is a replacement so it seems you’re happy enough with the technology and the product, but do you believe there’s a greater risk in using these batteries over lead or agm batteries?
Do you take into consideration that the battery is for more of a track car than a DD? Or that it spends more time in storage vs being driven/outside?
Haven’t had any problems with these. I think the BMS and pouch cells make the difference.