Performance demands placed upon lead acid batteries have outgrown the technology's ability to deliver. These demands, typically leading to Negative Active Material (NAM) failure, include: short, high-current surges; prolonged, minimal, overvoltage charging; repeated, Ah deficit charging; and frequent deep discharges. Research shows these failure mechanisms are attenuated by inclusion of carbon allotropes into the NAM. Addition of significant quantities of carbon, however, produces detrimental changes in paste rheology, leading to lowered industrial throughput. Additionally, capacity, cold-cranking performance, and other battery metrics are negatively affected at high carbon loads. Presented here is Molecular Rebar (R) Lead Negative, a new battery additive comprising discrete carbon nanotubes (dCNT) which uniformly disperse within battery pastes during mixing. NS40ZL batteries containing dCNT show enhanced charge acceptance, reserve capacity, and cold-cranking performance, decreased risk of polarization, and no detrimental changes to paste properties, when compared to dCNT-free controls. This work focuses on the dCNT as NAM additives only, but early-stage research is underway to test their functionality as a PAM additive. Batteries infused with Molecular Rebar (R) Lead Negative address the needs of modern lead acid battery applications, produce none of the detrimental side effects associated with carbon additives, and require no change to existing production lines. (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.