Lead-Acid or Lithium-Ion: What's Powering Your Warehouse? | TCM

Author: Joy

Jun. 30, 2025

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Lead-Acid or Lithium-Ion: What's Powering Your Warehouse? | TCM

With a broad range of batteries on the market and conflicting information on each, it can be difficult knowing which battery type is best suited to your business. Is lithium-ion the battery of the future, or are better options available?

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Discussions surrounding lithium-ion continue to colour the material handling industry. With electrification at the forefront of operations managers’ minds, it’s easy to see why.

However, despite the flurry of interest, lithium-ion is not necessarily the best choice of battery for every organisation. In fact, lead-acid (also known as wet-cell) battery technology may be better suited to your operation and work out more cost-effective in the long run.

Looking to plan your electrification journey? Read more here.

To help you find the most efficient and cost-effective battery choice for your requirements, here are the top two batteries currently on the market and why you might choose them.

Lead-acid: contributing towards a lower TCO

As the most economical commercially available option, lead-acid is likely to remain a popular choice for powering electric counterbalance forklifts and reach trucks for years to come.

Lead-acid (also known as wet-cell) batteries are up to four times less expensive than lithium-ion, and they are also recyclable. If your business is working to reduce its fleet management costs, lead-acid battery technology provides a good alternative to lithium-ion.

However, in terms of charging, lead-acid batteries have a significantly lower battery life in comparison to their lithium-ion counterparts, with an average lifespan of 1,500 cycles. For this reason, if your operation requires maximum availability — with minimum time for charging breaks — it is worth considering other solutions.

It is also important to note that wet-cell batteries such as lead-acid can degrade by as much as 32% during the course of their lifetime. Therefore scheduling in regular maintenance must be factored into your operation. Having said this, water topping can easily be done manually, and the batteries are easy to replace. They are also particularly well suited to working in extreme cold weather conditions.

If your business is committed to opting for the most economical option, then we would recommend adapting your existing shift patterns to facilitate more frequent battery charging.

Lithium-ion: shaping the future for 24/7 operations

Based on their steep price point (lithium-ion is four times more expensive than lead-acid), it will be a while before lithium-ion batteries become a viable option in material handling. However, for businesses interested in future-proofing their operations, it is worth familiarising yourself with the benefits of lithium-ion batteries now.

Although they have a considerably lower capacity than lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion greatly surpasses lead-acid in terms of battery life, delivering 10,000+ cycles during their lifespan. Lithium-ion batteries can also be ‘opportunity charged’, maximising productivity. This makes them ideal for businesses running 24/7 operations that can’t afford extended downtime.

Since lithium-ion batteries recharge much faster than the alternative commercial options available, it is likely you will only ever need one battery per forklift (in comparison to two to three lead-acid batteries). Despite the higher acquisition cost, lithium-ion batteries quickly pay for themselves in reduced running and labour costs, as they require no maintenance.

Organisations actively seeking ways to reduce their carbon footprint are also likely to find lithium-ion batteries a good match as they don’t pollute the atmosphere.

If productivity is your business’s number one priority and you are prepared to invest at the outset, lithium-ion batteries could be a competitive way to power your warehouse in future.

Learn more about lithium-ion batteries from TCM here.

Lead-acid vs lithium-ion: an overview

Advantages and disadvantages of lead-acid

Cost-effective — up to four times less expensive than lithium-ion
Batteries are recyclable
Has a considerably lower battery life than lithium-ion
Batteries can degrade by as much as 32%

Advantages and disadvantages of lithium-ion

Has a significantly longer battery life than lead-acid
Recharges faster than alternative commercial options
Doesn’t require maintenance
Doesn’t pollute the atmosphere
Reduces running and labour costs

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Has a higher acquisition cost than lead-acid

Related read: Why Wet-Cell Battery Technology Could Surpass Lithium-Ion

What’s powering your warehouse?

The ideal battery choice for your operation will ultimately depend on whether you are running a 24/7 operation or can accommodate frequent charging breaks.

Whether you opt for the productivity-boosting technology of lithium-ion or the cost-cutting powers of lead-acid, assessing your organisation’s operation and business goals should inform your final decision.

Prepare your operations for the deadline. Discover all of the steps you need to take to ensure your electrification journey covers everything you need for the future.

Energy Storage: Lead Acid Versus Lithium-Ion Batteries

In most data center facilities, lead acid batteries are the standard stored energy source for UPSs, providing brief ride-through time during a changeover to an auxiliary power source, or providing time for an orderly shutdown. Data centers depend on their UPSs and associated battery backups to provide continuity of their critical systems during a power outage. But lead-acid batteries have numerous disadvantages, including:

Reliability

UPSs are typically powered by strings of lead acid batteries, and any individual battery could be a point of failure. A single bad battery cell can bring down a data center’s entire backup system, especially if the facility hasn’t established UPS redundancy.

A Ponemon Research study found that lead acid battery failure is the most frequent cause of unplanned data center outages, beating out other causes such as human error, exceeding UPS capacity, cyber attacks, bad weather incidents, etc. The study found that 55% of unplanned outages, and one-third of all UPS system failures, were related to lead acid battery failure.

A Ponemon Research study found that 55% of unplanned outages, and one-third of all UPS system failures, were related to lead acid battery failure.

Lifespan

Lead acid batteries must be replaced every 4-5 years, or three to four times over the 15-year life of a UPS system. The cost of replacement batteries and the time and labor involved increases their total cost of ownership (TCO). Service life is dictated by how often batteries are discharged and recharged. But factors like overcharging, frequent discharge cycles, high or uneven room temperatures, strained battery terminals, and loose intercell connections can shorten a battery’s useful life.

Size and Weight

A lead acid battery cabinet takes up considerable floor space that might otherwise be used for IT infrastructure. Also, lead acid batteries are heavy, and can literally “weigh down” a data center. In some facilities, floors may need to be reinforced to handle the extra weight of lead acid battery systems.

Maintenance

Facility managers and technicians must continuously evaluate individual lead acid batteries through ongoing voltage checks and performance monitoring, to ensure that a single bad battery doesn’t take down an entire string. Data centers must do frequent maintenance to remove corrosion, prevent loose connections, and identify and replace defective batteries.

Cooling Requirements

Lead acid batteries require a controlled room temperature of around 77°F (25°C) to keep your warranty and ensure 3 to 5 years of life. The cost of cooling battery rooms or cabinets adds to their TCO. Also, lead acid batteries are sensitive to temperature changes. Every 10°C the room temperature goes up, it reduces the battery’s useful life.

Environmental Hazard

Lead acid batteries contain large amounts of highlytoxic lead and sulfuric acid, both of which are hazardous to the environment. Recycling of lead acid batteries is considered one of the worst polluting industries in the world.

Lead Acid vs. Lithium-Ion Batteries

The table below compares the performance of lead acid batteries vs. lithium-ion batteries (using the lithium iron phosphate chemistry as an example):

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