On Saturday, January 7, 2017 at 8:51:51 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Sat, 7 Jan 2017 16:21:42 +0000 (UTC), John McCoy
wrote:

"Safe" is considered to be anything less than 52V. There was once
talk about the automotive industry moving to a 48V battery. The
reason for 48V was that it was just below the "safe" limit. Of course
it never happened because it would have caused more problems than it
solved.

At full charging rate, the terminals would be well over 52V; what I remember, the
auto buzz was about '42V', which is a 36V battery and allowance for
overvoltage during heavy charging.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a2198/4226979/

Changing standards can be an engineering nightmare, because so many
decisions have already been optimized for 12V. There aren't 'too many
problems' so much as too many decisions to be remade.