Someone recently sent us an inquiry about storing his brand new Aprilia bike (see photo above)—a 2022 Aprilia RS660 Stars & Stripes. Very nice. But he mentioned that it had a LiFePO4 battery installed from the factory. Frankly, none of us had heard of this kind of battery before. Naturally, we want to stay informed on all battery tech so as to make sure they last as long as possible in storage.

Some digging yielded that these are a new form of lithium ion battery.

Basically, instead of lithium cobalt oxide, they use a lithium iron phosphate. Not only can they handle more charging cycles (longer life), they can be run down to 0 without much damage to the cells. A big advantage over pretty much all other batteries out there.

The downside would probably be cost, as I’m sure we don’t have the economies of scale to produce these inexpensively.

What do we recommend for storage?

Well, given that these batteries are new and untested for the most part, our recommendation for now is to get a good lithium ion battery tender. Many can be found at a low cost on Amazon.

New Tech: LiFePO4 Batteries