Are higher voltage architectures imminent?

As the limitations of current 12V architectures become more apparent, the commercial vehicle industry could be on the verge of adopting 48V. The only question is, will improvements in other technologies offer something better?

“I have never seen such momentum behind the current move towards higher voltage architectures in my 32 years' experience in this industry,” said Carl R. Smith, Commercial Manager, Sales, Applications Engineering and Customer Support for Eaton eMobility. “This is in commercial vehicles, construction and agricultural machines as well as in passenger cars.”

For those of us of a certain age, we have seen this before. In the late 1990s through 2000 or so, there was another initiative to upgrade electrical systems to a nominal 42V. That fizzled.