Electric Golf Carts Are Going Lithium, But What Is that Stuff?

by Michelle Brooks, Ready Golf Cars

Lithium-ion-powered everything is available now, including golf carts. In 2017, E-Z-GO was the first golf cart manufacturer to offer a lithium-powered vehicle with their Freedom RXV Elite model, which featured a Samsung lithium battery pack. Since that time, most other golf cart manufacturers have come out with their own version of the lithium-powered cart, but E-Z-GO remains at the top of the game with new, improved, smaller, and more lightweight Samsung battery packs in both sixty and one-hundredtwenty amps.

People were kind of skeptical when E-Z-GO first released the lithium-powered cart. But these days, with eight-year warranties, zero maintenance on the battery packs, and less impact on the environment, lithium has become the most popular option. In fact, beginning in 2023, all but one of E-Z-GO’s electric models will no longer be built with lead-acid batteries but only with Samsung lithium batteries.

Golf cart conversions from lead-acid to lithium are now available as well, which is super handy for someone who doesn’t want to buy an entirely new golf cart to get the benefits of lithium. Conversions can be done by dealership service centers, or for the mechanically inclined, there are do-it-yourself kits available.

So, with everything seemingly going lithium, did you ever wonder what lithium is? Is it man-made, something found in the earth, or derived from magic fairy dust?

Did you know that lithium is a metal? For some reason, when I first started hearing about lithium years ago, I thought it was some kind of gas.

But, no, lithium is a naturally occurring metal found in salt water, salt flats, and certain types of hard rock. It has the chemical element symbol of “Li” and sits proudly at the top of the periodic table. It’s a soft metal—it can actually be cut with a knife—and literally floats on water. But don’t try this at home—lithium is also a very reactive metal and may burst into flames when it comes in contact with water. (I would actually like to see that.)

Australia is currently the world’s largest producer of lithium, but the salt deserts in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, called “the Lithium Triangle,” are giving The Aussies a run for their money.

Lithium can be found in many places around the globe, the U.S. included. The first lithium mine in the United States was started in the 1960s in Silver Peak Nevada. More recently, lithium has been found in abundance in Thacker Pass in northern Nevada. Thacker Pass is thought to have the largest lithium deposit in the United States, and production is set to begin this year. I wonder if Nevada will be called “the Lithium State” years from now…

Lithium was discovered by Johan August Arfwedson, a Swedish fellow, in 1817. He got his hands on this shiny new element and dropped it in a beaker of water. It shot out red flames, and he said, “Ah! Lithium! Let’s make a battery!” (No, that’s not really true.) But Johan did discover and name the soft metal.

Several scientists experimented with lithium over the years, and in the 1970s, during the oil crisis, an English chap named Stanley Whittingham working for Exxon-Mobil began experimenting with the metal. He had hopes of creating a battery that would free us from fossil fuel. He was not successful, and I’m pretty sure he got fired after that, but we thank him for his efforts.

In the 1980s, German-born John Goodenough of the University of Texas at Austin must have thought that non-lithium batteries were not good enough (get it, Goodenough?), and he was successful in creating one type of lithium battery. At about the same time, Akira Yoshino of Meijo University in Nagoya, Japan, also got in on the lithium battery craze and invented a similar version, which became the first prototype of the lithium-ion battery we know and love today. Lithium-ion batteries are powering everything from cell phones to golf carts these days. How interesting that a soft and flammable metal could be turned into an amazing new power source. Now, as to how it works, you’re on your own.V

For information on converting a lead-acid cart to lithium-ion, you can contact us at info@readygolfcars.com.