Best Car Battery Brand UK 2024

We were inspired to write this article when we realised that the only decent article answering this question on the internet was from 2007!

Just slightly out of date, we think you’ll agree.

We’ll talk about what is the best car battery UK in 2024.

We’ll let you know which brands we recommend, and how they compare for price, performance, longevity and overall value.

best car battery brand uk

Introducing Best Car Battery Brand UK

So which brands do we recommend?

  • Lion
  • Exide
  • Bosch
  • Varta

Lion

Lion batteries are made in China, by a Chinese manufacturer.

They’re exceptionally low cost. But their quality is still decent enough for us to recommend them.

But of course, you’re taking somewhat of a risk by getting a battery like this. Now, we know plenty of people have bought Lion batteries and they work absolutely fine for them for a few years.

But there are others who say it let them down pretty quickly. (Here’s the lifespan of a car battery in the UK).

They tend to have relatively low capacity (Ah value, here’s what Ah means on a car battery) and Cold Cranking Amps (CCA value) compared to other brands.

What does that mean?

In essence, it means they can store less charge and deliver less power than other battery brands.

Overall, if you need a very low cost battery, this is the one to get.

For example, we’ve done a review of the Lion 027 car battery and rated it highly. Ditto, the Lion 100 car battery.

Update March 2024: In fact, we’ve done a full deep dive into Lion Batteries: Are They Any Good?

Something to be aware of:

If you Google Lion batteries, one of the top results in an Australian manufacturer who also make batteries with brand Lion. But that’s not the maker of the Lion batteries you’ll get at UK retailers.

Exide

Exide are a battery brand from Georgia in the USA.

They’ve been around forever (well, since 1888) and have longstanding, strong reputation. They’re one of the biggest lead acid battery makers in the world.

For anyone with environmental interests, Exide are a strong choice. They’re one of the few battery producers to provide closed loop recycling (also called Total Battery Management) – they handle the full recycling process rather than delegating this to their customer. 99% of all the lead is recovered in Exide’s recycling centres.

As a result they’re keeping millions of tons of lead acid batteries out of landfills.

And the batteries. Well, they’re good quality and reasonably priced. From a value perspective, Exide batteries have a strong case to be the best car battery brand.

They tend to have mid-range capacity and CCA value, they’ll provide enough power for most drivers in most conditions.

Bosch

You probably know Bosch, even apart from their car batteries. They’re a big German engineering company, known for excellent manufacturing.

Quality? Well, like we said, they’re German. So they’re manufacturing is very high quality, their engineering processes are excellent and the internal components are high spec.

Bosch batteries are well known for their long service life and reliability. They hold onto their power well over time, and are less likely to give you trouble than other brands.

They tend to be priced highly, that quality comes at a cost. It’s an investment, after all. You’re paying more but they’ll last longer and will deliver more power for longer than other batteries.

Bosch provide, for example, the best batteries on the market for Ford Focus‘s and many other vehicles.

Just for one example, the Bosch EFB 027 car battery is the best on the market.

Varta

Varta are also a German brand, and even older (by one year!), formed in 1887.

Unlike Bosch, who make a lot of things, Varta are specialised battery makers.

They make very high quality batteries, with particularly well-made internal components and engineering processes. We rate Varta as having the most advanced battery technology in the world. The Varta EFB batteries, and their AGM batteries are some of the longest lasting batteries you can buy, as much as 360,000 starts are possible, if you treat the battery well enough.

For example, they have the best 096 car battery on the market.

How much do these batteries cost?

Well, as luck would have it. we’ve gone deep on exactly what your costs will be.

Here’s Car Battery Replacement Cost UK 2024.

Which battery do I need?

We’ve given you the simplest, most effective way to find out what car battery do I need?

Summing Up Best Car Battery Brand UK

So, we’ve told you the best car battery brands UK, for 2024. These are the brands we’ve chosen to recommend – each brand is the best for their particular price/quality category.

So for example, Lion is the best lowest cost brand, Exide the best mid-range brand, and Varta and Bosch are the best higher cost brand.

We reckon if you choose a battery from one of these companies you have the best chance of the battery lasting longer and giving you less hassle.