For the last decade, Ecobat Battery Technologies (EBT), formally Manbat, has supplied Lucas batteries to the UK and across Europe. Here, the company describes how its new warranty structure pays homage to its eventful history.
Introduced into the brand’s growing product range in the 1950s, Lucas batteries were the OE fitment on many British built cars during the ‘60s, including for prestigious marques such as Aston Martin and Jaguar.
Such was their quality reputation that in 1967, Sir Donald Campbell relied upon two 72Ah Lucas BV11A batteries to start the jet engine on the ill-fated Bluebird K7, in which he attempted to increase his previous world speed records to more than 300mph. Although his first run of 297mph proved it was capable of such speeds, as is well documented, he sadly perished on the second run when the boat crashed at more than 320mph. However, the wreck was raised in 2001 by a team headed by Campbell enthusiast and engineer, Bill Smith and incredibly, after the batteries were cleaned, the acid replaced and given significant charge, they still possessed 35% of their original capacity and were able to power four 100-watt bulbs.
With this testimony in the background and the company’s policy of continuous improvement in the forefront, EBT has recently taken a further step with another upgrade in performance and the introduction of a three, four, five warranty structure.
These performance improvements have yielded an increase in CCA – cold cranking amps, the rating used by the battery industry to define a battery’s ability to start an engine in cold temperatures – of almost 20%, which means that those choosing to supply and fit Lucas can have complete confidence in the quality of the product, as well as its ability to provide the long term durability and exceptional starting performance epitomised by the brand.
On top of this significant increase in performance is the warranty structure – even the entry level Classic series comes with a three-year pledge. Move up to Premium, which features matching OE specification and calcium plate technology, and the term increases to four years. However, those relying on Supreme, which exceeds OE specification and is the ideal solution for high performing diesel engines or electrically laden applications, can benefit from five years of motoring peace-of-mind.
With the massive growth in vehicles fitted with a start-stop function, which is predicted to be more than 90% of the cars manufactured next year, Lucas naturally has EFB (enhanced flooded battery) – suitable for smaller capacity engines with conventional start-stop equipped vehicles – and AGM (absorbed glass mat) – for large capacity, high demand applications – batteries in its considerable range.
These too come with extensive warranty coverage and prove that with Lucas, the independent sector has the complete solution for all its battery requirements.
