I’ve been shopping around for an emergency jump starter to carry around in the car. I’ve found jump packs that are roughly a little larger than a cell phone, and produce 1000 amps or more. What is keeping them from being a main car battery?
In: Engineering
Car batteries aren’t just for starting the vehicle. They act as a power source when the engine isn’t running (think modern vehicles with stop/start features) and act as a capacitor to handle surge loads to help keep the voltage stable which is important for the electronics which run modern cars.
Jump packs are limited capacity often only able to do just that, jump the vehicle when the battery cannot supply enough current. Often a jump pack can only be used a handful of times before it needs a recharge itself.
That all being said, we can afford the older lead acid design because the extra weight simply isn’t that huge of a concern and the added capacity makes up for it.
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