Transportation & Power Sports

Lead batteries enable the movement of global commerce and power transportation innovation. Whether traveling by land, sea or air, people and goods rely on lead batteries to deliver them safely to their destination. The industry itself also provides thousands of green-economy jobs. Without this cost-effective, safe and reliable technology, modern life would come to a grinding halt.

Personal and Public Transportation

In the U.S., Americans rely on over 290 million cars and trucks powered by lead batteries to take them where they want to go for work and play. Each is powered by a lead battery, including electric vehicles (EVs).  Lead batteries safely transport Americans 34 million times each weekday via public transportation. This is just a sliver of the world’s 1 billion vehicles which are on the road today, each with a lead battery for power and safety features.

Commercial transportation supported by lead batteries

Commercial Transportation

Lead batteries are responsible for the uninterrupted, vast movement of global commerce from origination to final destination. That includes multimodal combinations of truck, rail, airline and waterways, not to mention forklifts. All rely on essential lead battery power in some way.

Fact: Forklifts are considered industrial trucks and are classified as “motive power.” An amazing 90% of global motive power battery demand is met by lead batteries.

Start-stop technology made possible by lead batteries

A Sustainable Power Source: Start-Stop Technology

Start-stop engine technology, made possible by advanced lead batteries, reduces fuel consumption and emissions by stopping the engine when the car comes to a full stop, and seamlessly restarting when the brake is released. In the U.S. this means nearly 10 million tons of greenhouse gasses are eliminated each year.

When the engine is off, start-stop lead batteries save fuel. This can yield fuel savings ranging from 5% to 10% depending on driving conditions. Utilizing this technology is one of the most affordable ways for drivers to cut fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Traditional, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles all depend on lead batteries for starting, lighting, ignition (SLI) functions, which can also support start-stop technology and a more sustainable future.

Venkat Srinivasan from the Argonne Collaborative Center

The lead acid battery ... is legendary. We can recycle 95+ percent of [these] batteries all across the world. It's a very safe chemistry, ... [and] we understand how to use it very, very well.

Dr. Venkat Srinivasan, Director, Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science