Will EFB or AGM Power Our Cars in the Future?

MAR.21,2023

The Green Drive: Eco-Friendly Driving Powered by Start-Stop Battery Solutions

The majority of contemporary vehicles on the road today are outfitted with absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries because they have long been recognized as the best choice for start-stop vehicles. AGM’s position in the American market, however, is about to be threatened by a recent entrant called Enhanced Flooded Batteries (EFB).

Infotainment, voice recognition, and anti-theft systems are among the modern conveniences that consumers demand from their vehicles, but their use can be particularly taxing on the batteries that must supply the necessary power. So, the correct battery choice is critical.

AGM batteries have been able to meet the demands made by contemporary cars, but according to recent study, EFB technology actually outperforms AGM products in important categories like battery life and heat tolerance, to name a few. EFB technology is also less expensive than AGM.

The Relationship with Europe

Although EFB may be fresh to the US market, it has been available in Europe since 2008. The moment for EFB to shine is now because the U.S. automotive sector typically lags behind its European counterparts by about ten years.

In order to power start-stop vehicles, European automakers primarily used AGM solutions up until 2008, when a change in strategy started to materialize, culminating in what is now an equal split between AGM and EFB. Currently, AGM batteries are used in about half of all cars in Europe, and EFB batteries are used in the other half, but EFB is gaining market share.

A Close Look at New Research

A study that was commissioned by Stryten Energy and carried out by an impartial third-party research firm and battery testing lab compared the efficacy of EFB technology to AGM batteries and produced some unexpected findings. In many areas, EFB matched the performance of AGM, which challenges the long-held belief in the United States that AGM is a superior choice. EFB also outperformed AGM in a number of other categories, including mid-depth cycling resilience, heat tolerance, and battery life.

In order to identify the causes of battery failure

In order to identify the causes of battery failure, battery returns are tracked every five years in the US. Each year from 1965 to 2010 saw a rise in the average battery’s life, but from 2010 to 2015, this trend started to reverse. Since then, the use of battery-draining electronic features in cars has increased by an average of 30%, which has directly contributed to a rise in battery failure with cycling in the U.S. market.

Discharge Test

The research used the industry-standard 17.5 percent Depth of Discharge Test, which gauges a battery’s capacity to function in a partial state-of-charge application, to measure mid-depth cycling resilience. This test is intended to ascertain the battery’s cycle-to-cycle recharge capability in addition to providing a straightforward assessment of the battery’s mid-depth cycling capability. Stop-start applications frequently use partial state-of-charge function. The total average capacity output of EFB over an 18-week span was 50% higher than AGM for a battery of the same size. This result shows that EFB can not only produce the same number of cycles as AGM, but also maintain a greater total capacity without degrading.

In temperature experiments

In temperature experiments, EFB significantly outperformed AGM. AGM batteries frequently exhibit a lack of heat stability, which reduces battery life in hot climates. So, as part of its AGM test requirement procedure, the U.S. Military has added an overcharge/thermal runway test. According to the latest research, an EFB battery can withstand a temperature rise of 50°C and can hold 52 percent more energy than an equivalent AGM battery. The conclusion is that an EFB will last 52 percent longer than an AGM battery in high-temperature environments when applied to an operational setting.

A battery's ability

A battery’s ability to accept a recharge after a discharge event is a feature with increasing importance in today’s market, as it is a gauge of how prepared the battery will be to support the next discharge cycle. Currently, a Dynamic Charge Acceptance test is used to assess this capability. It measures a battery’s charge acceptance capacity in normal operating conditions. The test revealed that the charge acceptance capability of EFB batteries is comparable to AGM batteries when simulating real-world start-stop utilization.

Driving Forward: Future Implications

EFB’s performance as an automotive battery is comparable to that of AGM, according to data from more than ten years of use in Europe and the most recent U.S. research. Most of the time, EFB is superior to AGM. But why would the American car industry go to the trouble of switching from using AGM to EFB if AGM and EFB are so similar? The easy solution is better battery performance.

While AGM remains the preferred battery for deep cycle applications, which is a specialized use of car batteries, EFB will offer a superior experience for most customers. Although it may be too soon to predict which technology will prevail in the U.S. car battery war, EFB is unquestionably a game-changer.

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