Those who swapped in a 12V lithium - how are things going?

Greetings All,

For those that installed a 12v Lithium battery to replace their 12v SLA/AGM battery - how is it working out for you?

Can you share which make/model of battery you used and for how long?

In South Florida, we are lucky if we can have our 12v batteries last 3-4 years - going to be due to swap out soon...

Thanks in Advance!

I haven't changed my AGM but did come across this on facebook

https://dakotalithium.com/product/dakota-lithium-12v-20ah-amp-hour-23ah-lifepo4-battery/

These two blurbies are from the Dakota Lithium FAQ and worthy of consideration:


With a former Audi, I recall in VCDS there were different coding values to input for SLA and AGM batteries, and I also recall their being a Li-Ion setting but don't remember if it was available as a selection in my 2013, or if it only applied to other models. Does anybody know whether BMW has such a setting?

Anyway... despite all that, here's a thread on Reddit where the author just "dropped one in" tp his i3 and it has been doing fine for him for at least 3 years.

eNate said:

With a former Audi, I recall in VCDS there were different coding values to input for SLA and AGM batteries, and I also recall their being a Li-Ion setting but don't remember if it was available as a selection in my 2013, or if it only applied to other models. Does anybody know whether BMW has such a setting?

Click to expand...

When I installed a LFP 12 V battery in our i3 6 months ago, I tried to change the battery type during battery registration. However, the battery type and capacity cannot be set when registering the battery with BimmerLink. BimmerCode can set the battery type and capacity but only from a fixed list of types and capacities which doesn't include any lithium type. The battery manufacturer told me that the capacity of my LFP battery is equivalent to a 40 Ah AGM battery, so I set the type and capacity to 40 Ah AGM. I don't believe that this makes much, if any, difference on an i3.

My LFP battery's performance seems good. Its voltage is ~0.5 V higher than an AGM battery. The DC-DC converter keeps this battery fully charged. The battery's output voltage doesn't sag nearly as much as the OEM AUX18L. Living in the tropics, I don't have to worry about my LFP battery not charging well at cold temperatures. However, my battery has its own internal battery cell heater which is claimed to make it perform normally at cold temperatures.