the strange part is the "dual" voltage difference between alternator
power and battery starting system.  right now alternators put out about
14 volts to charge our "12v" battery.  in the new system the alternator
would be putting out a rated 42v for a "36v" battery.   the 36v would
use  dc  to dc  converters to run most of our normal car stuff at  12v
while  the industry slowly changed over.  .   the big thing they are
after with the new technology is to make your transmissions and many
other parts of the car like power steering,  to be electrical
controlled.  electical controlled systems for the mechanical  stuff on
the car were shown to be anywhere from 4 to 10 times more efficient
depending on system.  several  higher end european cars and at least
one  japanese vehicle have already converted some of their internal
systems to the new voltages using dc to dc converters.  VW/Audi is one
of them.  they stated it was to both give them a realistic test bed and
to get a head start meeting the 2006 requirements.  the 2006
requirement is not for a running vehicle  but to show  a certain
progress level.  not sure when the actual european date is.  several US
battery manufacturers have already announced batteries ready for
testing.  the US automakers  will be  jumping in because they will have
to eventually meet pollution standards that are tightening all the
time.  not to mention that both the japanese and european mfrs will be
sending vehicles into the US and ford  and chryslers many overseas
plants will all be converting.
jimt
On Saturday, Oct 5, 2002, at 11:05 America/Denver, DaveC wrote:
>
> BTW, from what I remember, the "official" adopted voltage for future
> vehicles is 36 volts, not 48. Go figure...
>
> Dave
> --
> Dave Carpenter