While I agree with points 1 and 2, I have a beef with point 5. Car manufacturers do whatever they can to shave costs, all over the car, all the time. Batteries

While I agree with points 1 and 2, I have a beef with point 5. Car manufacturers do whatever they can to shave costs, all over the car, all the time. Batteries are needlessly heavy because they are manufactured with the cheapest-possible components using the cheapest-possible technologies. They do put in a best-guess size to keep the median consumer masses happy, whether they drive the car once a month in Death Valley or six times a day in Duluth. You can buy lighter-weight, lower-capacity batteries to use in competitions where weight matters, or higher-technology batteries for use in angles where lead-acid will give up the ghost. Batteries are frequently moved by tuners to places where their weight has less of an affect on the car's suspension.