Can someone explain to me why 48V? Is there something special with 48V or beyond? The reason I ask is because some cars now have electric turbos and the manufacturer had to switch to a 48V system. Just curious what the benefits of higher voltage is and if 48 is somehow special.
Thanks in advance.
I seem to recall that somewhere around 50 volts is a magic number from a safety/regulatory perspective. It might also have something to do with semiconductor breakdown voltage, but maybe I'm out of date on that.
Specifically, 50 volts is approximately the threshold above which electricity can pass through the skin and shock you. Lower voltages will only shock humans if they have a way to bypass some of the skin, like wounds or tight-fitting metal jewelry. Otherwise, the resistance of skin is high enough to prevent the flow of electricity. That's why you can touch both terminals of a 12V car battery at the same time and almost certainly not be shocked.
One of the things that can “get you” with these higher voltage systems is you can’t use them to jumpstart the present majority of cars. While I’ve yet to actually see a higher voltage car, I would hope they’d put warnings by the battery to remind the user that “hey, don’t try to jumpstart your friends car with this battery!”