Electronic – Car Battery Voltage

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Why is the voltage of a car battery rated for say 12V around 14V when the car is running? Is it because of the alternator?

Best Answer

All batteries vary in voltage base on charge state and on loading.

A 12V lead acid battery is 12V nominally. This means that 12V is a about middle of the range of the battery. A fully discharge 12V lead acid is around 11V, fully charged it's about 14 to 15V.

Lithium Ion batteries are the same: 3.6V nominally but really they vary from 2.9V to 4.2V (there is variation in this depending on the precise cell; I've seen some Samsung ones got down to 2.5V for example). This is why you sometimes see prodcuts which are "42V" having the same power as a 36V battery pack, they've just used the maximum voltage to make their product seem better. This is legal in the EU and USA, though the ethics of it are questionable.

As for the second part of your question: the car goes up to 14V because the battery is being charged up, yes from the alternator (or other power source). To push power into the battery, you need a higher voltage than the current battery state. As a general rule you have a current limited voltage source, which charges the battery. Back to Li-Ion cells again (as that's what I've has most experience of) we use 4.4V per cell to work out the charging voltage (which is why if you look at chargers they are always higher voltage than the battery they are charging). For a car it is similar, often 15.2V is chosen as the charging voltage to balance safety (lowest voltage possible) and charging time (highest power possible). You're only seeing 14V for a combination of reasons: the car may keep the voltage lower to save over charging the battery pack and the current limit has taken effect, so the voltage as dropped.