Customer story – Golf Chart battery

During the summer of 2008 an unexpected meeting took place. The chairman of the board for Alelion broke a golf driver just before a golf challenge and when he was told that there were a company that sold golf cars and charts also could have a spare driver to lend he didn’t hesitate and went there. Tom, the owner of the company Moby Dick borrowed him a driver and they started to talk. The common interest in batteries gave a project for lithium batteries for golf charts!

The need was to have batteries that was:
  • Lasted longer
  • Lighter
  • Easier to handle
  • Looked better
  • Environmental friendly

Alelion started a concept study and tried to design a product for Moby Dick. The LFP chemistry was good for the application and the biggest challenge was to find the right battery size. The idea came up the we should minimize the cost by offering a small battery for 18 holes that are possible to speed charge in 90 minutes to give another sound of 18 holes instead of a more expensive and heavier 36 holes product.

The casing was designed to be a neoprene rubber to give good protection and good looking design.

During the project we had unexpected problems with the range. The test batteries would not give the predicted number of holes we needed. After an intense trouble shooting that was delayed some by the winter weather we found that some of the cells we used had less energy than predicted due to a quality problem in the powder that was used for a certain batch in the cell production. This really points out the need for extensive testing and traceability in the production when dealing with batteries! Anyway the problem was solved and the product is now successfully sold!

Mobydick AB, iON Drives Golfvagn Battery Pack, (Powered by Alelion Batteries & Electronics)

Learn more about Moby Dick at this website: http://www.mobydick.se

Electrically driven golf chart