For a long time, battery lifespan has been measured in terms of months / years.

Batteries used to last 2 - 4 years They were guaranteed to last for one year.

However, in the recent past, battery users have been experiencing cases of batteries lasting less than a year. After making the resultant warranty claims, these have been rejected as the cause of the failure has not been manufacturing defects.

What then has been the cause?

As is the case with other vehicle parts, battery lifespan is dependent on usage, not time!

Internationally, the expected battery lifespan is between 50,000kms and 60,000kms.

The more mileage you cover, the more of you use your battery ! As a result, people whose vehicles cover more kilometers over shorter periods of time will experience shorter battery life - in terms of time.

Increassed traffic jams, more powerful and heat emitting engines, more electronic vehicle accessories and increased mileage covered by vehicles today have meant that batteries are lasting for shorter periods of time.

In some extreme cases of Toyota Shark Matatus which are covering up to 50,000kms within 6 - 8 months. This coupled with the extremely hot temperatures that the batteries are exposed to by the powerful engines has made batteries "fail" within 6 - 8 months.

This phenomenon is found in all batteries.

Actually, these batteries do not "fail", they live up their life!