One of the myths among the golf cart / utv crowd is the idea that you HAVE to change your charger to charge lithium batteries; this can not be further from the truth! LFP or lithium Iron Phosphate batteries can be fully charged with many lead acid based chargers, they may require a little longer and a few restarts (such as with a wall timer or unplug and re-plug) but can reach full voltage and SOC. This is the appeal of the LFP chemistry, unlike NMC or NCA (cobalt based lithium), LFP voltage is very friendly with existing lead based charging equipment. That being said, the convenience of simply plugging and forgetting about it also has value, so for some customers that want the smoothest possible experience, they are opting to change out the built in charging equipment with a LFP specific charger. This requires a significant amount of work, modding, cutting, and probing. Not a beginner friendly task, and most will ask their dealer to assist them in this endeavor (or probably have them do the entire install/conversion).
Looks like we have 2 options:
Is there another way? How about keeping your existing charger and simply reprogramming it so you can charge your lithium batteries and avoid the headache of replacing the stock charger? Well you will be surprised to find out this is exactly what you can do and it will work with golf carts, utv's and more. If you have a Delta-Q, Summit II, ERIC, and other programmable charger, you can simply upload a lithium compatible profile and get all the benefits of a native lithium charger without having to do any modifications. Lets look at some chargers from Delta-Q, we are going to show how we are able to repgoram the chargers for a Polaris Ranger EV as well as a Hi Sun Sector E1:
With the Polaris Ranger EV you need their canbus adapter, but some chargers simply require a USB drive to do the update, lets see how the lithium profile is installed on a HiSun Sector E1 (jump to 37:27 to see the portion regarding reprogramming):
A lot simpler than having to mess with a custom canbus adapter and USB drives are available anywhere; but it can get even easier than this, golf carts that use the Summit II charger can simply upload a lithium profile via bluetooth:
Lester provides various profiles and a lithium profile can be set via the app:
As you can see, native lithium profiles are readily available for most golf carts and chargers, the above chargers form Delta-Q and Summit are used in Club Car, Ez-Go, Polaris, and HiSun; some carts like Yamaha have an external charger that be easily swapped with the native lithium version.
In conclusion: for golfcarts and utvs that have a programable charger, your best bet is going to be charging its profile rather than buying a dedicated LFP charger.
