cheap, light-weight EV battery?
 

I just researched the "Braille No Weight Racing Battery" as a very lightweight battery to start an ICE car. I found it to be a re-badged and over-priced Deka, made in Reading, PA, normally sold as a motorcycle and ATV battery. Deka is evidently leading the battery industry in power/weight ratio, and "Big Crank" (bigcrank.com) claims that this is a "deep cycle" battery. While it is conventional lead-acid, it uses "absorbed glass mat technology" so it can be discharged completely hundreds of times without damage, and can also be recharged rapidly, etc. Its specs are fantastic. For example, the ETX 14 weighs only 11.5 lbs and is only about 6" X 4" X 6" and yet the guys on VWVortex.com say it starts their cars in cold weather with no problems! And the Deka ETX 14 sells for only $60 on Bigcrank.com !! So if it can indeed also be used on electric and hybrid cars as a deep cycle battery, why isn't everyone using it? It would save hundreds and hundreds of pounds, take up far less space and is cheap! Am I missing something here?

Not really.

http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...=3701#post3701

14 amp hour battery, you would need a lot of them to get anywhere!

Lesse, at ~.1kWh usable per battery and 11.5lbs per battery, a 10kWh pack would weigh ~1150lbs, last about 8000 miles, and cost about $5000 at $50 per battery. Right now LFP group buys are around $350/kWh, so $5000 will get someone at larger ~14kwh pack that weighs about 300lbs, and will last at least ~90000 miles. Lead acid is fine as a starting battery because it's mature and what people know, but the way things look other chemistries like LFPs may even take that title from LAs.

I'm very noobish but the one thing I've found that EVERYONE in the EV world agrees on is that there is no such thing as a cheap good battery. And the second thing everyone agrees on is that the battery is the most important part of the parts list.

I would love something cheaper but I'm willing to spend the money upfront to keep from having to do it several times from trial and error.

those batteries could be good for drag racing, as they might last a quarter to half mile.