An electric vehicle's most important and costly part is its high-voltage battery pack. Many new electric vehicles are designed around this battery, sometimes making it part of its structure. This battery pack must store enough electricity for everyday driving and to give the car a long range to reduce charging worries for owners.
This high-voltage battery, also called the traction battery, holds dozens of kilowatt-hours of electricity, sometimes more than 100 kWh, with 400 or 800 volts. This allows the car to drive hundreds of miles and accelerate well, and it can also power your home's lights and fridge for a week or run power tools for many hours using bidirectional charging.
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Despite this large battery, electric vehicles still need a small 12-volt battery, like traditional cars. To understand why this is necessary, we need to look at the history of cars and how the 12-volt battery became standard in the industry, remaining essential even in electric vehicles.
➥ Looking Back at Car Batteries
Cars have been around for over 100 years, but they didn't have batteries at first because they didn't need them. Instead, they used a magneto, which was an early version of the alternator, to produce electricity for the ignition coils and engine spark. The magneto created power as the engine ran, and early cars didn't need an electric starter because they were started with a hand crank.
By the 1930s, the hand crank was seen as outdated and unsafe, and many cars had electric starters powered by an onboard battery. This change marked a significant shift in the car industry. Initially, these batteries had 6 volts, but by the 1960s, most manufacturers switched to 12 volts to provide enough power for larger engines with higher compression ratios. The 12-volt system became the standard for car electrical systems and remains so today.
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The battery's main job is to power the car's ignition system. Once the engine starts, the alternator keeps charging the battery, which powers everything in the vehicle, from headlights to electric windows. The battery regulates the alternator's voltage, provides extra power when needed, and protects electrical components from surges.
Most modern cars still use a 12-volt battery because the industry has built around this standard, despite its limitations. However, some vehicles are now moving to a 48-volt system, which has many benefits, including a significant reduction in cable weight and more power for systems like active suspension that can't run on 12 volts.
➥ Electric vehicles need 12-volt batteries
Even though electric vehicles (EVs) don’t need a big burst of power to start an engine like gas cars do, they still need a 12-volt battery for many other things. This includes the lights, door locks, power steering, entertainment systems, and safety features, which are similar to those in traditional cars and usually run on 12 volts provided by the 12-volt battery.
The 12-volt batteries in EVs have a lower output than those in gas cars because they don’t need to provide a quick burst of power (200 to 600 amps) to start an engine. Instead, they have much lower power needs.
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EVs use a device called a DC-to-DC converter to reduce the high voltage from the main battery down to 12 volts to power all the extra systems without sending the current through the 12-volt battery. The main job of the 12-volt battery in an EV is to turn the car on and keep some systems running while the car is off. The exact use varies by EV.
When an EV is turned off, its main battery is disconnected using special electronic switches to prevent power loss and make the car safer when parked. The 12-volt battery also powers these switches. It needs to be separate to stop power leakage and to ensure the high-voltage system is off when parked.
The 12-volt battery is crucial for turning on the EV by connecting the main battery, similar to how a gas car’s battery starts the engine.
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In an EV, a DC-to-DC converter works like the alternator in a gas car. It reduces the main battery’s voltage and charges the 12-volt battery only when needed to avoid constant power drain.
If you leave an EV parked for a long time, it will occasionally wake up to charge the 12-volt battery so it doesn’t run out. If the 12-volt battery fails, you won’t be able to unlock or start the car, even if the main battery is still charged.
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