That’s more than three times the starts you’ll get out of a conventional battery.Īnd AGMs recharge faster than typical batteries. Over the course of their lifespan, AGM batteries can start an engine more than 60,000 times. Special valves protecting the battery's lifespan.Why? What’s the big difference between AGMs and a standard, flooded battery? What’s the difference between an AGM and a regular car battery?ĪGM car batteries have unbeatable advantages over standard, flooded batteries: Now, they’re showing up in everyday cars and trucks. Their use expanded over the decades to include motorcycles, military, aircraft, submarines and power banks for offices. Enter the absorbed glass-mat (AGM) battery.ĭeveloped in the late 1970s, AGM batteries mostly served as backup power for telephone boxes and early computer rooms. However, a standard, flooded battery can’t run a light bulb for more than a couple hours in one stretch. Lead-in-acid batteries used to fit the bill for cars because they can throw a lot of electricity into a starter in a short burst. Here’s the problem: Planté’s lead-acid battery can’t handle all those power needs for long. Bluetooth-enabled sound systems to play music from your smartphone (which you barely use for calls anymore. Satellite-connected radio and wireless-fidelity internet connections. Backup cameras with calculated guidance routes. Remote starting, even phone-operated starting. Vehicles capable of fuel economy fuel economy in the high 20s to mid-30s. Autonomous driving. Artificial intelligence-assisted driving. What sparked the next generation of car batteries?ĭriving in 2019 just isn’t the same experience it was in 1969. He might be surprised how little the lead-acid battery changed in 160 years.īecause everything else has. Some are even sealed so you don’t need to add water.ĭespite these tiny developments in across a century and a half, French physicist Gaston Planté could step out of a time machine and still recognize his invention in 92.4% of the US automotive market. It’s still thin lead plates, sulfuric acid and water (plus a durable, polypropylene case.) Small tweaks and adjustments played out over the years. Since it was invented in 1859, the same 160-year-old technology still starts your car and nearly every car around the world, with minor changes here and there. The lead-acid battery hasn’t changed much in 160 years.

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