Brush up on battery facts before you purchase an electric scooter.
Electric scooters are high power devices. They require constant power consumption to operate. Load and environmental resistance demand more power. As you continue to draw power out of a lead acid battery, the internal resistance weakens the voltage. The SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery cuts off at about 50% which is much sooner than you will expect it to. If you try and use lead acid batteries for high powered electric scooters, you will actually get less energy out of that battery which will result in less distance, frequent battery changes and much higher maintenance costs over a short period of time.
For 100% Electric Scooters, the battery is EVERYTHING!
Batteries do not store electricity. They store chemical energy required to produce the electricity. Lead acid batteries have the LOWEST energy density of any rechargeable battery. SLA batteries are incapable of storing enough chemical energy to perform high voltage operations for electric scooters. Triad does not use lead acid batteries. Triad introduced the Lithium battery to this class of electric scooter, and we continue to be the leaders pioneering electric scooter battery technology. Triad electric scooter batteries are state-of-the-art automotive grade batteries with an exclusive BMS (Battery Management System) including a Smart LCD digital touchscreen plus Bluetooth connectivity to any mobile device so you can monitor your battery 24/7 365. This one button solution only from Triad ensures ease of use, the highest safety and the longest battery lifespan possible.
With your Triad battery, you will enjoy the many benefits like faster charging, better voltage stability, more advanced safety systems, and reduced weight and size. These benefits and total costs make this a no-brainer. Nothing else even comes close.
Lead-acid batteries do not take advantage of any modern technology. Lead-acid batteries have been around since the mid-1800’s and they are over 170 years old. On the surface, for cost considerations, SLA batteries initially appear to be a good deal. But are they really? Because this does not take into consideration the load the battery is under nor the battery’s overall lifespan, nor the actual amount of energy you get out of SLA batteries. You will be wise to take all that into consideration BEFORE purchasing an electric scooter.
Its a fact: Lead-acid batteries are extremely cheap. Be absolutely sure that price is reflected in the purchase you are considering. Our advice to any one looking at our competitors' electric scooters is not pay over $900 for it. No matter what they look like, they all come with cheap lead acid batteries and the electronics inside are not built to function with quality batteries.
Sealed-Lead-acid (SLA) batteries are only capable of a 50% discharge depth, and each discharge significantly impacts the battery’s life.
The electric car of the early 1900’s used lead acid batteries and it did not survive the introduction of the fossil fuel powered internal combustion engine (ICE). Lead acid batteries do not have the energy capacity to operate efficiently. We are only now experiencing the paradigm shift away from ICE to BEV (Battery Electric Vehicles) because the battery is everything in modern electric cars.
SLA? Don’t make me Peukert (Effect)
When discharging at the high rate required for electric scooters, lead-acid batteries suffer from the Peukert effect. Triad batteries are NOT affected by this phenomenon. The Peukert effect is a mathematical law that states that as the rate of discharge increases, the battery's available capacity decreases. This means that you do not get all the energy out from the all the energy you put in. SLA batteries, plainly put, are not efficient in any way. They simply just waste energy.
With SLA batteries, as the current goes up under load, capacity for power goes down. Overcharging causes “gassing.” The battery releases hydrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen sulfide. This is a highly combustible as well. SLA batteries have no BMS to monitor these internal chemical or heat changes. SLA battery management is literally your nose. If you ever smell rotten eggs coming from a lead-acid battery, vent the area and disconnect it immediately.
SLA batteries have a much shorter life. Even if all parameters are kept perfect, the battery’s chemical processes break down quickly with electric scooters and rapidly degrade the battery’s capacity over a very short amount of time. With only 50% of the discharge capacity, you’re already working with half the power to start with.
Cons of Lead-Acid Batteries
Weight, Space, Charge Time, and Energy Density
Lead-acid batteries are very heavy. They also do not store significant amounts of power for their size. Electric Scooters need a lot of power, and SLA batteries do not hold much power, they take up a lot of space, and compared to your Triad battery, that means up to 10X more weight.
Lead-acid batteries can take a long time to charge because the charge cycle slows down as it gets closer to completion. The absorption charge cycle causes this slowing and its awful.
As you discharge a lead-acid battery, it also loses its ability to accept a charge, reducing its capacity. This damage is because the lead sulfate crystallizes and will no longer dissolve.
Environmental Impact of SLA batteries
The lead-acid battery is so widespread over the past 170 years that its disposal has put millions of metric tons of lead dumped right into the environment. Lead mines are also some of the most toxic and are known to poison groundwater. Long-term exposure to lead, even in minuscule amounts, can cause brain and kidney damage and learning problems. We are all sharing this planet. You can do your part to avoid toxic exposure to lead in our environment by not purchasing, or using SLA batteries in electric scooters.
Lithium-Ion Batteries
Lithium-ion batteries have become increasingly popular in recent years, and with good reason.
The chemical process within lithium-ion batteries during charging and discharging finds lithium ions moving between the positive and negative electrodes. When the battery is discharging, lithium ions move toward the positive electrode losing or gaining an electron in the resulting chemical reactions. These chemical reactions create a flow of electrons that produces an electrical current. The reverse occurs during the charging process.
Lithium batteries in electric scooters work better than SLA because they are more cost effective, last 24X longer, weigh 10X less, take up 75% less space and are safer for the environment overall. When choosing the Triad battery in your electric scooter, you overcome all the cons of lead-acid.
Weight, Space, and Energy Density
Lithium batteries have 10X higher energy density than SLA. The higher energy density is a huge benefit for electric scooters because space and weight are limited. Only 1 battery is needed. Lithium batteries store much more energy in the same amount of space and keep the weight down. The high energy density of your Triad battery makes it ideal for electric scooter power applications.
Charge and Discharge Characteristics
In assessing lead-acid, we find the voltage of SLA batteries to sag significantly under load and as they discharge. Your Triad battery experiences much less voltage sag and retains a higher voltage through its entire discharge cycle. Only your Triad battery provides all of the peak power needed and a higher voltage no matter what the load is. The higher voltage makes them much better for high-power applications like electric scooters.
Triad batteries also do not suffer from the Peukert effect explained above. Because of this, no matter how large the battery's load is, you will get the energy out that you put in.
One of the many pros of your Triad battery is it's capacity to accept a very high charge current. This high charge rate translates to a much faster charging time than with SLA batteries. Triad batteries charge in fractions of the time, even at mid discharge. Huge bonus!
The charging characteristics are not nearly as critical in a lithium-ion battery. You can start and stop the charge as needed with no impact on battery performance or lifespan. These charge characteristics mean no concern about getting through a long absorption cycle and make them much better for partial charge applications to recharge from short fast bursts of use on electric scooters.
Lifespan
Finally, lithium-ion batteries are better able to sustain deep discharges than their lead-acid counterparts. For example, if you discharge your lead acid battery to 50% or so routinely, that battery will likely give you around 150-200 cycles before it needs to get replaced. By comparison, a lithium-ion battery discharged down to even 20% is said to deliver around 800-1000 cycles. The extended lifespan of the lithium-ion battery is significant.
Lead Acid vs. Lithium-Ion Batteries: Which is Best?
In the battle over lead-acid vs. lithium-ion batteries, there is no question about it. Lithium Ion batteries are the best choice. Read more about Triad's exclusive Battery Management System and the crucial reasons why its necessary.