Too early to give a long-term review since it's only been installed for about 72 hours... but I'm running an Antigravity Battery, a lithium ion battery that only weighs 5.75 pounds. This one is the ATX-30 model with Re-start technology, and at about $400 it ain't cheap but they run occasional sales (and signing up on their site gets you a 12% off coupon code). It was a complete drop in and fits perfectly, nothing else needed besides installing the included stands on the bottom to give another inch or so of height and buying the brass posts (I think $14?). Pay no attention to the Battery Tracker gizmo seen, as I'm sure I don't have it installed correctly. Car lights right up immediately. Hopefully it lasts!

 

If weight saving is your goal, another option is to build a super capacitor boost pack. On YouTube you'll see people make them with 6 cells in series. Pair it with a lightweight motorcycle type battery for more battery capacity and extra cranking amps. Fit's engine is already small though and doesn't much current to crank over as compared to let's say a full size sedan.

 

Good info, Dan. Keep us updated on your progress with that battery set-up.

 

25 lb weight reduction tho!

https://www.insightcentral.net/threa...2#post-1420089




(that guy's build is worth a read! he k24 swapped his 1st gen insight, and gave a sweet list of things to buy)

 

I actually went this route because I had been looking at a supercapacitor setup, and when done pricing it out the cost (assuming legit Maxwell supercaps) was nearly the same as this, without the added complexity or worry that drove some to add small batteries to their setups.

The weight savings is nice, but wasn’t the prime driver. If I wanted real weight savings, I’d get off my ass and drop the 50 pounds I need to shed! 🤪. It was more I wanted a high quality battery, and many reviews seemed positive, and I figured this would be a nice experiment for the FF community since I don’t think anyone here is running one. Spent some time on a Mustang forum where these are well received (although the funky charging system in new Mustangs apparently presents problems for specific variants of these batteries), and the owner of the company is very responsive to feedback.

So far, so good! Continues to start almost instantly.

 

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...batteries.html

I use a Shorai LiFePO4, 2 lbs.

 

Thanks for being the pioneer tester of this option.
But I would need more benefit for cost to justify making this purchase. At $400, if you wanted a "High Quality" battery, you could of bought just about ANY normal battery you wanted.

Outside of being smaller and lighter what is the advantage? Is it expected to last longer? I would think I would absolutely want it to last longer, if life span is equal or even shorter than other regular 12 volt battery options, then it really isn't worth it to me.

I would expect my vehicle to "Start almost instantly" if I installed any fully charged and functioning battery.

Anyway, thanks for being a early adopter, and tester but at this point I need more reason why it might be worth $400.

 

Figured I'd add an update to this thread. Over the course of COVID and all that went with it, the car of course spent a LOT of time parked. To the point where the battery tracker would measure the battery down to around 10% a few times (by the way, super useful gizmo - pick it up if you grab one of these batteries!). I ended up buying an AntiGravity-approved battery tender, and that worked great both trickle-charging it back up to 100% and keeping it there. As life has slowly eked to a new normal, I've been driving around a bit again and the battery still lights the car up instantly. It can go about 3-4 weeks of discharging before hitting the danger zone (cue Archer). Overall, still extremely happy with this little battery and at 2.5 years in it's lasted me longer than some Optima Yellow-Tops I've had.

 

@DanDRuiz Good update, Dan.

Pardon my dumbness, but what's the deal with the two posts on the front of the battery? Would you mind explaining that again (for this of us who weren't paying attention)?

Thanks.

 

Appreciative of the update and motive behind this thread!

I'm curious about what you meant in regards to the battery going 3-4 weeks before reaching low voltage. I'm not well versed in battery mods. Is the alternator unable to or insufficient for charging your battery?
​​​​​​

 

Oh yeah! The battery has two sets of posts that you can screw the brass terminals into. I bought two pair thinking that i would use one set for the Fit’s posts, and the other set for the Battery Tracker (how I have it connected in the pic). Didn’t work that way though - as soon as one set is wired up, the other set is disabled. So I had to connect the Tracker to the “main” posts, and it works great. The purpose is so you can position the battery how you need to, so you have the flexibility of screwing the terminal posts into whichever of the sets works for you.

 

I mean like if you leave the car stationary without driving it for a month at a time, this particular battery can discharge down to a low level. It has a “ReStart” function where a small percentage is walled-off so that it can “jump” itself if it gets to that point, but once you do that you really do need to drive around to recharge and then connect to a trickle-charger.

Thats only because this is a pretty small battery - IIRC it’s smaller than a 90s Civic battery. It’ll recharge totally fine via the alternator, so if you drive it a few times a month you’re ok.

 

I've have had the Anti-Gravity Bunny battery in my car for about two years now and it's amazing.

The worst battery drain situation I've dealt with was leaving my dome light on at the airport parking lot for a week. I was able to just hit the button on the battery and it started the car like nothing happened.