Why are electric cars going from 12 to 800 volts?

Almost no one doubts that electric cars will soon become the main vehicle. And one of the most significant events will be the massive transition of cars to the 800-volt system. Why is this really important and, in fact, inevitable?

The reason for using high voltage

Many people still don't understand why automakers had to switch electric cars from a conventional 12-volt circuit to, say, 24 volts, and in some cases even more, to a platform of several hundred volts. In fact, there are logical explanations for this.

Every truly full-fledged electric car is unthinkable without high voltage. Most fully electric cars are equipped with batteries with an operating voltage of 400 volts. These include the models of the trendsetter in electric fashion - the American brand Tesla.

The higher the voltage consumed by the motor, the more powerful it will be. Together with the power, the charge consumption also increases. A vicious circle that forces manufacturers to develop new power systems.

Now, it can be argued that Elon Musk's company will soon be ousted from the Olympus of electric vehicles. And the reason for this is the development of German engineers. But everything is in order.

Why are electric vehicles still not widely used?

First, let's answer the question, what is the main obstacle to the massive use of electric vehicles besides their high price? It's not just a poorly developed charging infrastructure. Consumers are concerned about two things: what is the mileage of an electric vehicle on a single charge and how long it takes to charge the battery. These parameters are the key to consumers' hearts.

The entire electrical network of environmentally friendly vehicles is connected to a battery that powers the engine (one or more). It is the battery charge that determines the basic parameters of the car. Electrical power is measured in watts and is calculated by multiplying voltage by current. To increase the battery charge of an electric vehicle, or the charge it can take, you need to increase either the voltage or the amperage.

What is the disadvantage of high voltage

The increase in current is problematic: this leads to the use of heavy and heavy cables with thick insulation. In addition to weight and dimensions, high voltage cables generate a lot of heat.

It is much more sensible to increase the operating voltage of the system. What does this give in practice? By increasing the voltage from 400 to 800 volts, you can approximately double the operating power or halve the size of the battery while maintaining the same vehicle performance. Some balance can be found between these characteristics.

First high voltage model

The first company to switch to an 800-volt platform was Porsche with the launch of the Taycan electric model. Now we can say with confidence that other premium brands will soon join the German company, and then mass models. Switching to 800 volts increases power while speeding up charging at the same time.

The high operating voltage of the Porsche Taycan battery allows the use of 350 kW chargers. They have already been developed by Ionity and are being actively installed throughout Europe. The trick is that with them you can charge an 800 volt battery to 80% in just 15-20 minutes. This is enough to drive about 200-250 km. Improving the batteries will lead to the fact that after 5 years the charging time will be reduced to an insignificant 10 minutes, according to experts.

The 800-volt architecture is expected to become the standard for most electric vehicles, at least in the Gran Turismo battery segment. Lamborghini is already working on its own model, Ford also showed one - Mustang Lithium got more than 900 horsepower and 1355 Nm of torque. South Korean Kia is preparing a powerful electric car with a similar architecture. The company believes that a model based on the Imagine concept will be able to compete with the Porsche Taycan in terms of performance. And from there to the mass segment half a step.

Questions and answers:

What is the battery life of an electric vehicle? The average battery life of an electric vehicle is 1000-1500 charge / discharge cycles. But the more accurate figure depends on the type of battery.

How many volts are in an electric car? In most models of modern electric vehicles, the operating voltage of some nodes of the on-board network is 400-450 volts. Therefore, the standard for battery charging is 500V.

What batteries are used in electric vehicles? Today's electric vehicles mainly use lithium-ion batteries. It is also possible to install an aluminum-ion, lithium-sulfur or metal-air battery.