[billjn3]

Yesterday, March 7th, I bought a new EZGO Elite Lithium Golf Cart at the Villages Golf Car store. It will be delivered around March 21st. I read, on this site, that someone got 120 miles on a single charge and waited two weeks between charges.

Will it be harmful to charge the lithium batteries every night? Will a nightly charge shorten the life of the batteries?

[Paulz]

TV golf stores must have an EZGO expert who has been factory trained on the Elite. Meet with him or her and have them answer ALL your questions to your satisfaction before you take possession of your new cart.


From what my research shows a 120ah battery pack should be good for 70 plus miles...The Villages is starting 55. Lithium has no memory, you can charge whenever and cut a charge short with no issues.

[Bay Kid]

You tube, it helped me.

[permanentvacation]

Would you mind sharing what you paid and how the price might compare to gas options available? Thank you.

[autumnspring]

Originally Posted by billjn3

Yesterday, March 7th, I bought a new EZGO Elite Lithium Golf Cart at the Villages Golf Car store. It will be delivered around March 21st. I read, on this site, that someone got 120 miles on a single charge and waited two weeks between charges.

Will it be harmful to charge the lithium batteries every night? Will a nightly charge shorten the life of the batteries?

My background-I used to sell several expensive photographic products that used rechargeable batteries. Noting has changed re: chemistry. Prices, in real dollars, have come down dramatically.

Lead Acid-are heavy (lead) inexpensive so are often a good choice. As they discharge the voltage falls off so in a golf cart you may well notice it is slower and has more trouble going up hills as the battery discharges.

Nicads-are becoming less popular as lithium Ion batteries are coming down in price. They are the ones where you used to worry about memory. Unlike, lead acid they have a flat voltage curve-there is little voltage fall off till the battery is totally discharged.

Lithium Ion-prices have dropped dramatically. They have no memory issues. READ NEXT SECTION. You will see stuff like how many times the battery can be recharged.
That number is very fudgey. The number of recharge cycles depends greatly on how low you drain the batteries.

Few rechargeable items run on only one cell. So what you have is a pile of cells. In most cases the device being run by these rechargeable batteries is designed to shut off before the batteries are completely discharged. The reason is that one cell out of ??????? will be weaker than the others. If, you run the pile of cells too low the stronger cells will reverse the polarity of the weakest cell and destroy it.

There is endless reading available in books, on the internet etc. Hopefully some will be clearer than my post.

Originally Posted by billjn3

Yesterday, March 7th, I bought a new EZGO Elite Lithium Golf Cart at the Villages Golf Car store. It will be delivered around March 21st. I read, on this site, that someone got 120 miles on a single charge and waited two weeks between charges.

Will it be harmful to charge the lithium batteries every night? Will a nightly charge shorten the life of the batteries?

I used to sell expensive photographic equipment so I am familiar with the pluses and minuses of the different battery types available. The chemistry has not changed.
The cost, particularly for lithium ion batteries has come down dramatically making them now an option.

Most rechargeable items, tools, golf carts etc run on several cells strapped together to get the higher voltage.
You 12 volt car battery has six openings for you to add water. It is actually 6 cells wired together each one is two volts. In a 48V golf cart using lead acid batteries you will have 48 divided by 2-24 cells. That is often stated as 4/12v batteries,6/8v or 8/6v.

RE: What your read about claimed driving 120 miles and waiting two weeks to recharge.
As stated above you are dealing with a pile of cells. Obviously, they do not match perfectly so one is always weaker than the rest. You have what is called standby losses. Part of that is chemistry. The other part is electrical leaks-dirt-a clock-a computer control etc. The standby losses goes up as the temperature rises.
Since it is a pile of cells and one is always weaker than the rest of the cells, if you drain the battery pile too low the stronger cells will try to reverse the polarity of the weakest cell and will permanently damage or destroy it. I would expect your golf cart will refuse to run after a certain battery discharge is reached preventing you form totally draining and damaging the EXPENSIVE batteries.

Surely, your golf cart will come with a full set of directions.
I WOULD GUESS they say to run the golf cart to about half and then recharge. That is my GUESS. The company goes to a lot of effort to test the chosen batteries, charger and golf cart application. OBVIOUSLY, THE BEST THING TO DO IS READ AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS.

RE: Charging every night
I would expect your golf cart comes with an automatic charger. If, you were to hook up the charger and the batteries are full the charger will not charge the batteries.
AGAIN-teasing a little. If all else fails read the instructions.

[dhabel2112@gmail.com]

I am looking very hard at this same cart.
I haven't seen a 120 mile testimonial.
But I did read a review of 50 miles on less than half charge.

[MorTech]

EZGO Elite Lithium has 3 models - 2.0(60ah*50v=3kw), 3.0(90ah*50v=4.5kw), 4.0(120ah*50v=6kw)

The EZGO AC motor is pretty efficient at about 100w per mile.
An EZGO Elite 4.0 has an approx range of 60 miles (6kw/100w) at 80F.
I am guessing it comes with a standard 1000w battery charger so charging rate of approx 10 miles per hour.

The lithium pack has a built-in battery management system that prevents over-charging and also protects from over-discharging. Plugging in every night will not shorten the life. I don't know how many charge cycles the lithium pack has but you should easily get 10 years from it. Leaving a lithium battery in a partial state of charge won't damage them like lead-acid batteries.

[dhabel2112@gmail.com]

Originally Posted by billjn3

Yesterday, March 7th, I bought a new EZGO Elite Lithium Golf Cart at the Villages Golf Car store. It will be delivered around March 21st. I read, on this site, that someone got 120 miles on a single charge and waited two weeks between charges.

Will it be harmful to charge the lithium batteries every night? Will a nightly charge shorten the life of the batteries?

I sure wish this customer would give us a review.