there are a several reasons:

1. light bulbs - as you increase the voltage, filaments get thinner. Thin
filaments cannot survive the vibration in a car for very long. Switching to
LEDs which is happening now will eliminate this constraint, but it was in
place for a long time
2. inertia - there's a lot of 12V stuff, costs $$ to change over
3. safety - above 24V, the electrical safety requirements are much more
stringent
4. cost - relative cost of batteries and wire
5. other, such as cold starting versus jump starting, accessories, spare
parts, etc


"Ivan Vegvary" wrote in message
news:97Poj.33$f73.12@trndny08...
Okay, so the switch from 6 volts to 12 volts (automobiles) was made to
save copper and other benefits that I don't remember.

Why, for the same reasons, are we not switching to 24 volts? I understand
that a few military vehicles and commercial trucks are 24 volts. Why not
our automobiles?

Anybody know?

Thanks,
Ivan Vegvary




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