My understanding was that nearly every production vehicle on the road is 12V and that Tesla and perhaps Audi as you mentioned are doing things differently. Who is using 400-800V systems? That sounds extremely dangerous.
In fact, afaik every single electric car has two separate systems. There's a high voltage system (the main battery and motor(s)) and the low voltage (almost always 12v) system, usually with a traditional lead-acid 12v battery that is charged via a DC-DC converter connected to the high voltage battery.
Running 48v to a radio is not an engineering marvel. Running it safely and reliably in an automotive environment full of vibration and weather is.
If you can do that with 400v, I argue you can do it with 48v, so the secret sauce they’re sharing is less relevant than if they did this ten years ago.
Electric bikes use 12V, 24V, 28V and even 56V. Nobody loves the weight and the cost of thick copper wires.
400V or 800V are charging voltages, because it's the operation with the highest current; to keep it manageable while transferring more energy you need really high voltages. AFAICT, motors inside a Tesla use 320V. I suppose that ICE-electric hybrids also use some reasonably high voltage to feed the electric motors.
Jalopnik was talking about the "48V revolution" in 2017:
https://jalopnik.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-u...
Alternative take: Everybody else was aware 48 V networks work as well for decades, there was just no real benefot in switching yet. And Tesla has nothing to do with it.
What's next, Tesla annoncing they will share the revolutionary tech of windscreens and doors?
Every electric vehicle. And yes, it is dangerous to work on the HV circuit.
But yes, you’re right the increased voltages add a lot of risk that has to be managed.
Evidence in support of this claim is that EVs are statistically 4-5 times less likely to catch on fire compared to ICE vehicles.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/11/ev-fires-less-likely-th...