I would hope so. Probably not replace your battery though. What I read was that they designed it to absorb across the whole pack where the image you have here puts all the force through the mounting bolts, and they were not designed for this purpose or forces.
I don't have a problem with the stock plate itself and its good padding. But coverage of the battery, linkage, and other under parts is not too good off of dead center. I would have stuck with OEM but the broken fins were a warning for me at least. I did come down on angle in rock garden, and stock didn't even offer much deflection. I agree if you hit stock plate head on it is plush and I like the big foam. But once I damaged the battery I decided for more side coverage.
I don’t know whether it was the AXP or another one, but I remember having noticed an aftermarket skid plate that included some rubber block that, after the installation, would have been sandwiched between the plate and the battery. The problem is: how much force should be transmitted to the mounting points? How much to the bottom of the battery through the foam? You could even use the stock foam but ending up relying on it either too little or too much. And what about forces that have a significant horizontal component, like when hitting some pretty asymmetrical rock? These look like that kind of problems solutions which start with some FEM simulation on computers and continue with testing and for which you need battery cases to sacrifice. I highly doubt that any aftermarket company has done the same amount of testing and that they can evaluate the damages or even just the elastic flex deciding whether the battery can accept that mechanical stress or not.
Foam could be installed I think. In fact, a thin piece of foam is included on the bottom of the AXP plate. The AXP is much much thicker plastic so the trade off is increased coverage and stronger plastic for shock resistance vs less coverage with thin plastic and foam for shock resistance. Stark's view is that their plate is better designed for load distribution which is likely true since the stronger plastic can tend to drive more load to the fasteners rather than foam.
Will Stark warranty a battery damaged in use? I thought it covered defects and workmanship? I would find it very surprising if they replaced a battery obviously damaged in use like a rock cracking the magnesium. Maybe I should go back and read that warranty, I didn't think it was unlimited?
Yes maybe they would cover the bottom not sure. The real difference is the coverage of the side of the battery --at least for me-- which is very exposed. Since I don't have my previous Stark any longer I can't send a pic (the thieves got the broken battery fins) but the extended side of the battery protection where the air vent are on AXP are is where the rock(s) smashed off fins. Rock gardens with good sized rocks did damage to my gas bikes with standard bottom protection type skidplates too. A cracked case sucks on any bike.
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