High Temperature Application Accelerated Cycle Life Test for 12 Volt Lead-Acid SLI Automotive Storage Batteries

The lead-acid battery industry in North America has recognized that there are limitations with the use of current SAE accelerated life tests. The SAE J240b test, when run at 75 °C, produces an accurate correlation between cycles completed on test and mileage accumulated in a test vehicle run in a high temperature climate for certain battery design technologies.

However, a universal test for all lead-acid technologies does not presently exist. The SAE Automotive Storage Battery Standards Committee commissioned a Task Force to evaluate alternatives to the current standard. The work reported in this paper is unprecedented in that the top four battery producers in the U.S. combined resources to conduct a study involving laboratory and fleet testing of 10 different lead-acid designs and/or technologies. The results indicate that a universal test with correlation to the fleet is achievable.