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Car companies, starting with Volvo last summer, have laid out plans to electrify entire lineups of vehicles. But the fine print makes it clear that the coming decade and beyond will focus not just on massive battery packs powering electric motors, but also on adding a little extra juice to the venerable internal combustion engine.
Increasingly, that juice will arrive in the form of new electrical systems built to a 48-volt standard, instead of the 12-volt systems that have dominated since the 1950s. Simpler than Prius-type drivetrains and less expensive than Tesla-scale battery power, the new electrical architecture both satisfies the demands of cars made more power hungry by their gadget load and enables the use of lower-cost hybrid drive systems.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/08/business/electric-cars-48-volts.html
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @06:41AM
My first car was 6v, positive ground. Also had left-hand thread lug bolts on the driver's side. something left over from wagon axle nuts. But I converted it to 12v neg ground, to keep up the the times and to avoid having the jumper cables attached incorrectly by young 'uns. Problem was, I had to go through and take out and reverse every single bulb in the car, 'cause the 'lectricity was used to going the other way, and it just could put up with the positive poll being on the wrong side. Starter motor ran backwards, to, so the engine started running backwards. Not so much of a problem, but I only had one forward gear, and three in reverse. So I just turned the front seat around, put a flex extension on the steering, put alternate pedals and a mirror to see the instrument cluster. Drove for nigh on to a decade like that. Kids these days! Don't even know what a "ground" is!