[retepsnikrep]

Thought I better start something off to document these in UK.

1st one I did was in my wifes car which has been working fine since I did the swap about a month ago now.

Just finished 2nd one today for Ian, he drove away from mine with a smile on his face anyway!
I've asked him to post on here after a few days to let us know how he is getting on with it.

Another two sets of cells on order and another UK customer on standby!

I'm going to keep a built pack in stock as well to make it quicker for people wanting an upgrade/rebuild without the lead time.

 

[Mark Elvin]

This is great news Peter as now the gearbox is going back together tonight I'm hopefully very close to getting my car on the road, then I'll see if there are any battery issues.

What's the cost of the new ones?

 

[retepsnikrep]

Depends a lot on exchange rate, customs and vat charges etc.

Cost is approx $1800 + shipping + above + my build/test/charge and install fee.

£2000 ball park all in approx. That's about 2/3 the price of a new one + fitting from Honda UK.

Mark. You would be very wise to grid charge you car if it has stood for any length of time.

 

[ozzies]

Well it has been nearly a week since I drove away from Peter's with a smile on my face. I still have one!

There have been no technical issues at all ,if not for the increased performance there would be no way of telling.

I have done about a 150 miles at the end of a 580 mile tankful so changes in the mpg are minimal. The big differences that I have noticed is the increased performance at low throttle inputs, the car is just "friskier" probably 10-15%.Another is in the city or hilly driving (I live on the Pennines) the overall mpg drops slower. It is still very early days and it will be interesting to see results over a tankful of petrol

All in all I am more than satisfied cf. to my 11yr.old battery.

Ian

 

[ozzies]

Another week gone by and I am pleased to say everything is excellent. No problems of any kind.

I have started a new tank doing the journeys I normally do ie. local and drives of 20 miles or so. It is very hilly (on the pennines) and motorway to leeds or sheffield.

Before I had to work hard to get around 61 - 62 mpg. Now it is 70-72 mpg with less effort and faster overall speed. It's subjective but 10-15% faster.

I feel there is room for further improvement of the figures as is but I would love to fit a IMAC&C , as having experienced Peter's the gains would be huge.

Ian

 

[ozzies]

Peter has asked me to give the UK owners an update.

As usual when there is nothing wrong you forget about it. The BB's are great -

no issues or problems at all !

MPG as reported is consistently up 12-15% and the one long journey I have

managed to do I got a personal best of 91.7 mpg. I am not a hypermiing

enthusiast by the way.

If you are needing new batteries BB's are the way to go.

Ian

 

[UK_MJN]

Another UK install

I'll back that up with our experience - completely fit and forget. No recalibrations and Assist never yet throttled back due to low SoC.

Peter also took our car round a local test route to give it the once over (and 95 mpg) - valuable help and advice for new owners.

Of course I'm also keen to support anyone building up the necessary expertise to keep the I1 running properly over the next 10 years, so buying a BB is also an investment, IMHO.

 

[Willie Williford]

When you BB users give updates, please also indicate the total miles since installation.
(Some of us rely on those figures more than time. (Especially Old Farts.)

Willie

 

[ozzies]

" you people " ?


approx. 2000 miles.

 

[UK_MJN]

Us people

Approx 2,250 miles.

With full battery function/assist, the car's ability to drive up 10% grades in third gear continues to amaze. It's quite a magic carpet when you judge it right!

 

[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]

Better Battery pack

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]

Two more ordered.

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]

My Better Battery Is In

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]

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.