The PbA batts (18 of them) cost about $2,200 originally, and to replace 5 of them (I actually replaced 6 - 1 was covered under warranty) cost me about $800. So, total $3,000 into a pack that lasted me about 7,000 miles. Waste of $$! Very high per-mile cost. And, keep in mind, the last 2,000 of those miles were a major fight to keep them charged. Towards the end, I was able to do about 25 miles on a charge at best. I've heard of others having better experience (15k miles) with the T-890 batteries, so maybe I just had bad luck. PbA sucks nuts.
Another thing is that the PbA system would sag under acceleration loads, but you could take 800 amps out of the batteries. For the LiFePo, I haven't taken more than about 450 amps out of them, so acceleration is slower (you can't do any jack-rabbit starts). So that's the only drawback I've seen. And, to take care of the LiFePo (batts are 160 amp-hours), you don't want to draw more than 450amps for more than a couple seconds anyway, or else you will ruin them.
The PbA was a 144V system (18 8V in series). Top resting voltage was about 152 volts. With sag, even fully charged, they dropped below 120V often (momentarily). After about 10 miles, even when new, they would sag under lower current draws (but not bad), and you could feel them starting to run out of energy after about 20 miles, even when new. Later, when older, you would feel this after 10 miles. So, you could get 40 miles on a charge, but that's with no hwy, no heater, babying the accelerator, and even after all that you essentially limp for the last 10 miles. No fun. Again, PbA bites dingle-berries.
more to follow
