You'd think with the technology there would be more advancements in the battery market, but no. I blame environmental regs as dealing with lead is an issue. Also, in the old days, the battery pretty much only carried the starting load, then nothing after that. With all the new cars, there is a constant drain, no matter how slight, so the battery spends its life in some state of constant discharge, and with the load shifted to the alternator when running, you don't get that charge back as quickly and certainly not on short trips to the grocery store and the like.