Have CAR BATTERIES Evolved Much over the years?

Have CAR BATTERIES changed Much

The other day I was just mulling over the progress that cars have made over the period of my life time, in the garage trade.  

The hard rubber casings of car starter batteries are replaced by simple polypropylene boxes. As a result, they’re easier to move from place to place. In the 1960’s nothing seemed to happen much, it was pretty

much statuesque at the small British Leyland dealership where I worked as an apprentice mechanic, but there were things happening in the big outside world of Batley in West Yorkshire.

The first front wheel drive Minis and 1100’s were beginning to hit the car market and they were becoming very popular. They were small and economical at the time, the ideal car for town and city driving. Other car companies were following suit. I remember the Rootes group bring out similar products such as the Hillman Imp and the Chrysler Horizon, all small economical to run cars and to become very popular.

One of reasons was the 1967 oil crisis that was fuelled by the beginning of the six day war and although there was no shortage of oil to both America and Europe, the price of oil inevitably started to rise. This made people look for smaller more fuel efficient cars,

Most car batteries came from the main dealers.

In the sixties most of the replacement batteries that we fitted would come from the main dealer garages, who in those days offered a daily parts delivery service. You would just order the car battery that you required and when it came fitted it to the car. In those days they were no comparing prices with other battery companies and that was the price you paid for a new battery.

Car batteries began to change in the 1970’s

The 1970’s brought the start of the revolution in car repairing and servicing in general. The garages had some serious completion for the first time. The first “fast fit centres” began to spring up; the idea came from America and started to spread across the UK. The sellers were exhaust parts and tyres, but this was quickly followed by the selling of car batteries and most other things to do with the upkeep of your car.

Some of the first multi branch companies were owned by the large tyre companies of the day. For example National tyres were owned by Dunlop. Other things that were developing were the opening of motor factors. These motor factors started to supply the fast fit companies, offering same day delivery with a large stock inventory. I can remember having to wait days sometimes to get parts for the car that you were repairing, including exhausts and car batteries? How things were changing?

New designs for car batteries

In the seventies people were becoming more affluent and had more disposable income to spend on their cars. Even the humble car battery was beginning to change. Because they were very heavy and clumsy to handle the battery became lighter by the invention of the “dry charged battery”. This meant that the big companies could now buy car batteries in bulk and not sell them as they were needed. Transporting the batteries became much easier and they were also easier to store. I remember visiting a centre in Huddersfield, where they had just bought 300 dry charged Exide batteries. I had never seen so many batteries in my life, it was a real eye opener.

This was soon to be the general trend. The car market had almost doubled and all these cars required maintenance and repairing.

Car batteries made in the UK in the 70’s

Companies that made car batteries were very common in the 1970’s and they would battle it out for price, if you gave them a reasonable order. This was more prominent in the late seventies as the batteries were better made and began to lose their reputation for being un-reliable, (although in my opinion this has still stuck with the older generation of car owners). Companies such as Oldham batteries from Manchester and Tungstone batteries from Loughborough in the midlands were household names, not forgetting Exide and Crompton batteries.

Batteries were a great way to make profits, especially if you kept them in stock. In some very cold winters we would have cars queuing down the road for a new battery fitting.

In the late seventies came the introduction of the first ever maintenance free batteries with “Selenium” technology, resulting in a lower self-discharge with low water consumption and lower all round costs.

The 1980’s brought in all sorts of car battery changes including new grid technology and vibration proof battery casings all helping to put more power into the same space area. All the new technologies were driven by the need to supply the cars with more power to cope with the increasing amount of electric add-ons the car manufacturers were increasingly fitting to their new models.