A 12-Volt Thunderdome May Be Coming
Adapted from the GCADA Newsletter
In the spring, hot off the heels of the Auto Expo move-in and just after meeting with the fire department and Duke Energy Convention Center management to discuss how we would safely disable EVs for our event, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) headline “Old battery woe plagues new EVs” caught our eye.
The low-voltage battery has a long history in the automotive world. The electric starter was invented by Charles Kettering's Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company (Delco) and first appeared in Cadillacs in 1912. The six-volt battery energized the revolutionary electric starter and also powered running lights, another Kettering invention.
In 1918, General Motors purchased United Motors Company, a holding company that owned several Kettering-associated companies, including Delco. Kettering began serving as General Motors Research Corporation vice president in 1920 and remained at the helm for 27 years.
By the 1950s, the advent of electric-powered automotive amenities such as radios, door locks, windows, heat blowers, and A/C blowers combined to create additional energy demands, ultimately leading to the introduction of the 12-volt battery.
Nearly 75 years later, the 12-volt battery remains the standard, but only for ICE vehicles, right? Well, no, it applies to EVs as well. You can imagine the surprise and head-scratching average consumers, including us, experience when they discover that massive EV batteries capable of producing 400 to 800 volts rely on a conventional 12-volt battery to operate.
As the WSJ article states, “It’s the one you don’t think about.”
For those who remember the 1985 film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, you may recall Master and Blaster, two distinct characters who function as a single entity known as Master-Blaster. Their relationship is symbiotic. Master provides the intellect and strategy, while Blaster provides the physical power. The combination makes them a formidable force in the post-apocalyptic Bartertown. In many ways, the 12-volt battery is Master, operating the mechanicals and battery management system, while the lithium-ion battery pack functions as Blaster, supplying the brute force for propulsion.
Well, according to the WSJ story, the old 12-volt system is showing its age. When installed in an EV, the batteries are “almost always on” and run out of juice faster than those in traditional powertrains, according to Amod Kumar, an industry analyst at the research firm S&P Global Mobility. Throw in a few computer bugs and hardware problems encountered by many manufacturers and you have some confused and frustrated customers. Reportedly, some of these failures have occurred during operations with occupants hearing a “pop” just before their vehicle loses power.
So, if the systems require more power, why not just increase the size of the low-voltage system as was done in the '50s?
Bob Gaylen, a battery consultant, and former chief technology officer for battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology told WSJ that such a transition would essentially require a wholesale redesign of the supply chain because manufacturers would need to source their vehicles' entire electrical component system. “Go out and try to source a 48-volt fan or a 48-volt door lifter,” Gaylen said. “It's hard to find the components that are going to run at the higher voltages.”
It’s a problem for everyone.
Tesla executives stated that solving the 12-volt problem would alleviate “a major source of failure in our cars.” In fact, the new Cybertruck was designed with a 48-volt system which reduces the size of the wiring and better accommodates the need for increased power. How and where the electrical components were sourced was not mentioned by WSJ, but judging by the looks of the truck, Telsa may not need a large quantity.
In the meantime, maximizing the efficiency of the software and hardware systems and more frequent replacement of the 12-volt battery appears to be the short-term solution, as it doesn’t appear the current Master-Blaster system is going anywhere soon.
