400 volts.
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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And the torque of a motor is proportionate to the square of the voltage
So it's not producing twice as much torque, it's producing four times as much
But that doesn't matter in case of EVs, since 800/400V refers to the battery voltage. The motors are driven by variable voltage and frequency AC that is completely decoupled from the battery voltage.
I wouldn't say it doesn't matter. If your motors are rated for the full voltage (and why wouldn't they be?), they will have higher maximum torque. Or you can use smaller, lighter motors.
I haven't worked with EVs, so l but I did quite a bit with stationary, industrial, synchronous motors driven by VFDs. In that application, the V/f curve is used mostly to control torque and power efficiency. But the voltage drop isn't that dramatic.
I imagine the EV brain would do clever things such as increase voltage to accelerate the car, while reducing it in cruise to reduce power draw. But there are clear advantages to having a higher voltage battery.
TIL
But with half the amps (and x 4 torque) it must thus rotate way slower?
A bit more technical detail from greencarreports. I was wondering if 800v charging necessarily implies anything about motor voltage, and apparently it's "sometimes".
GM’s GMC Hummer EV, for instance, runs at 400 volts, and each layer of its dual-layer battery pack operates in some ways as an individual pack. In 400-volt charging, the packs are connected in parallel, but for 800-volt charging a switch allows them to be connected in series—like the cells in a long, multi-cell flashlight—to take advantage of the higher voltage.
That 800-volt “trick” permits the Hummer EV pickup, with its 205-kwh battery pack, to charge at 350 kw and gain nearly 100 miles of range in 10 minutes—despite its 400-volt system and its inefficiency compared to other EVs.