Upgrading your Surron LBX’s battery is as simple as purchasing a new one, opening the battery cover, unplugging the cables, removing the battery, and doing the reverse with the new one!
However… there’s kinda a little more to this story if you’re hoping for big power increases…
Do you simply replace your stock Surron battery with another stock Surron battery, or do you put in something bigger? And how big? And what voltage? And do you need to upgrade anything else to work with the battery? Hmmm… Brain overload? Never!!! We’ve got this…
Let’s break it down into simple questions. The first one is why are you looking to upgrade your battery? This will determine the type of battery you’ll need – or don’t need. You might only need to upgrade your controller to give you what you’re after. Talking about controllers, you may need to upgrade your controller at the same time, depending on the battery you get. I’ll discuss this in more detail below.
How to upgrade my Surron LBX battery
Upgrading your battery could be one of the easiest mods to do on your LBX. I’m guessing you already know how to remove the battery. If you don’t, go and check your user manual. It will mention the circuit breaker. Make sure this is always turned off prior to disconnecting or connecting the battery.
- Remove battery
- Replace with a compatible battery
Done! Well.. almost. Let’s chat about that compatible part, and what is so important about knowing what you want to achieve from upgrading your battery.
Why do you want to upgrade your battery:
The common reasons why you would want to upgrade your battery are higher speed, more range, more torque, or a combination of all three. As a rule of thumb, this is how you could choose what battery to use:
- More Torque: Look for higher amps
- More Range: Look for a higher amp hour rating
- Higher Top speed: Look for a higher voltage
However, like most things, it’s not that simple. How you achieve more torque, range, or higher top speed is dependent on your complete powertrain. That is, the battery, the controller, and the motor all must work together and operate within their own operating range.
In other words, there is no point putting in a gigantic battery if your controller can’t handle the power. If your LBX still has a stock controller at this stage, it is likely to be 60V. You will need to replace the battery with another 60V battery. This will be useful if you’re looking for more range. You would be able to replace the battery with a 60V with a higher amp hour rating.
Can you make your LBX faster?
The best way to make your Surron faster is to increase the Watts of your powertrain. The most efficient way to do this is to increase the voltage.
Science recap: Watts = Amps x Voltage
That is, look at a 72V battery with more amps. This also means that an upgraded controller would be needed to handle the additional power. It could also mean a new motor, depending on how many watts you’re wanting.
A stock controller can typically handle up to 6000W peak power, depending on the build year. That’s when something like the EBMX X9000 Controller comes in handy. It can handle up to a massive 40kW of power. That’s 40,000W! And you’ll find the EBMX controller on most of our own personal e-motos, because it’s awesome!
If it is a higher top speed you’re after, I would recommend upgrading your controller first. With a controller upgrade alone, you’ll be able to pull up to 7.5kW of power from a stock (pre-2025) LBX battery, or more from the later models. It also gives you the option for upgrading your battery to 72V in the future while keeping your new controller – the best value for money upgrade process.
What size battery does a stock Surron LBX have?
Depending on the year of your Surron and the model, the 2024 battery could be the 60V40Ah. Other versions from previous years are 60v34Ah battery or perhaps a 60v38Ah. Without getting too technical, you can find out how many amp hours (simply put, how much energy is stored, much like gas in a gas tank) using the equation watt hours = amp hours x volts.
Let’s look at the 60v40aH battery: 60 x 40 = 2400Wh. This means it has more energy stored than the 60v34Ah battery. Basically, the 60v40Ah battery will allow you to use a higher speed for longer.
The other number you need to look at is how many amps your battery will draw. This can be found using the equation amps = watts / volts. If you’re running a pretty standard 3Kw tune on your stock Surron, amps = 3000/60 = 50A. With a bigger controller and stock battery, you could draw up to 7Kw, giving you 116A.
This is the basis for the argument of 60v or 72v. The higher the amps, the more heat that is generated, which means less efficiency. If you increase the volts instead, you can keep the amps down due to the nature of electricity.
So, what do you replace your battery with?
60v vs 72v Surron battery
Upgrading to a 60v battery means you won’t need to replace the controller if all you’re attempting to do is get a larger range (more amp hours). However, if you want to increase the watts, you’ll need to also upgrade your controller so you can use the extra power.
By upgrading your controller first, you’ll be able to run a 72v battery with a bigger tune, say 12Kw. That will give you a faster top speed with the best heat dissipation.
For a heap of info that dives deep into the discussion 60v or 72v, check out this article here
Do I need to upgrade the battery first?
I would recommend upgrading your controller first, unless it is only range you’re wanting. By upgrading your controller first, you can get more from your stock battery.
This article here discusses a pretty awesome controller
When the time comes to upgrade another component, look at upgrading your battery then. You’ll be able to get more from your battery this way. Just be careful you keep within the parameters for the motor. Generally, a stock Surron LBX motor will be sufficient for what you’ll need in most cases.
But it wouldn’t be right if we left the convo here. For peace of mind, check out this motor: it will handle anything that comes its way, and you never have to worry about overheating. You don’t need to rush out to grab one, but keep it in mind if you’re finding you need to be careful on the throttle to keep the heat down.
Recap
The suggested order to upgrade your LBX’s powertrain is:
- Controller
- Battery
- Motor
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