UK BetterBattery Upgrade Thread

[Mark Elvin]

Looking forwards to getting the message from Peter saying my better batteries are in.....

[retepsnikrep]

There are four BB fitted in UK at present, and I'm waiting for one more update to this thread from the other owner on how he is getting on.

My wife's car has one of the BB fitted so I disqualify myself from reporting on that other than to say she hasn't reported any issues and it's much better than the one I took out

I have two more BB on order should be arriving early Feb with luck, one is spoken for (Mark) and one is spare at present.
First person to pay the £1000 deposit gets the reserve on the spare.

I will be ordering two/four more as soon as these arrive as demand / enqs are comming in almost daily!! The three + month lead time from the US is ludicrous though Nothing whatever I can do about that.

Price at present is ~£2000 inc fitting at my place and 2 year rtb warranty.
Price is subject to change without notice due to vat/customs duty and exchange rate fluctuations.

[The Citrus Smoothie]

Peter, in the unlikely event no-one else says it, I would like to pass on a collective thank you from UK Insight Owners for taking on the Better Battery supply and doing such a great job in keeping our fantastic cars in good shape. Thank you.

[John Seymour]

Peter replaced my battery pack a few months ago and I can thoroughly recommend this if your batteries are old and tired. Mine were 10 years old. Peter is both friendly and efficient, as well as being a source of lots of useful advice.
There is a small gain in mpg - I'd guess 5 mpg or more, but a big gain in acceleration, if and when you need it. I'm really pleased I decided to get it done, the car feels so much better.
I'd also like to say a thank you to Peter on behalf of us all for the service he provides.
John Seymour

[retepsnikrep]

As deposits have been paid the next two batteries to arrive shortly in UK are now spoken for.

Lead time for further batteries still remains at 3 months+ If you want one you need to order it asap and bear in mind the horrible lead time which is totally out of my control. The batteries are covered by 2 year RTB warranty if fitted by me at my place in Yorkshire.

As soon as the two batteries arrive with me I will be ordering more, but this may be affected by the enqs being made by another member on here who posted recently after offering his car for sale who has contacts within Honda UK, and is persuing a possible cheaper price for UK Insight owners. Can't find thread at moment. If the price is competitive and available to all then I obviously won't be ordering any more BB. I encourage this approach to Honda as it's a scandal we got shafted by the warranty here compared to the US, plus I have loads to do and the BB take up a fair bit of my limited spare time.

[retepsnikrep]

I have ordered two more batteries for stock first to pay the depsoit to me gets reserve on those. e-mail me if you want to reserve one. I have had at least three enquiries about UK cars with failing batteries this week alone!! I can see I will have to get half a dozen in stock.

[bigjim56]

Interesting thread. My current battery seems to be very healthy, and I want to breed the most out of it, but it's nice to know that an upgraded new battery (BB) would add crisp new ZIP to the G1. I was leaning towards the BB over the other options, but following this thread, it makes it seem a no brainer.

Thanks for the info.

bigjim56

[Mark Elvin]

Firstly I'd like to say thanks to Peter for sorting this out, without owners like him out Insights would slowly be heading to the great scrapyard in the sky.

The whole battery change over took about an hour from time of arrival to engine restart with two of us working on the car.

My initial impprssions on the 250mile drive home were favourable. Crusing at about 70-80mph I was seeing the SOC remain between 3/4 & 2/3 full, the assit seamed for eager (possibly a placebo effect however), the biggest difference I noticed was the fact that I really had to try to deplete the SOC on the new cell. At no time could I get the guage below 50% indicated.

Had to pop out to the local DIY warehouse in the evening, a dual carrigeway run broken by many roundabouts, this is where I have noticed a massive improvement, the car is more eager to assist, but also the battery accepts charge way more readily, as if the internal resistance were lower, (this may be the case, I don't know for fact). A typical journy to the afforemention DIY shop sees the SOC go from full to 50% in one round trip, the the Better Battery it went from 3/4 full to full.

I will report back further after I have driven the car more.

Oh, and I can recommend a trip to Peters, even if it's just to pop to the cafe for a breakfast (I have fallen a little bit in love with the waitress too)

[Hybrid-Battery-Repair]

Originally Posted by Mark Elvin

the car is more eager to assist, but also the battery accepts charge way more readily, as if the internal resistance were lower, (this may be the case, I don't know for fact).

That is exactly the "Better" in BetterBattery. The lower internal resistance results in a higher voltage under discharge and a lower voltage under charge, and that results in a more efficient charge and discharge and also higher maximum wattage to the electric motor and cooler running cells (at the same load).

Try it on a hill to see the largest difference from the stock battery - more power.

[Mark Elvin]

Couple more days in & I've noticed that SOC is raraely 100%, 80-85% is the highest I usually see, equally I'm noticing it rarely drops below 60% & whereas I used to get as recal the second I hit traffic, I've not had a single one yet.