After a jump start: That's how far you have to drive to charge the battery
Created: 2022-12-14 05:01
By: Marcus Efler
Low temperatures put a strain on the car battery, and it is not uncommon for drivers to have to get a jump start.
It then takes as long as it takes for the power storage to be full again.
Breakdown services are particularly busy during the cold season.
The most common reason for car club trips, even calculated over the whole year, is weak car batteries: the car won't start.
The problem not only affects vehicles with combustion engines, but also electric cars.
With them, the 12-volt energy storage device does not have to get cylinders going with low-temperature engine oil, but mechanically close the high-voltage circuit for the drive battery.
Jump start is the most common reason for breakdown services.
(Iconic image) © Jens Wolf/dpa
After a jump start: That's how far you have to drive to charge the battery
Classically, the breakdown helper - or a nice neighbor - bridges the drained battery with a jump start cable, and thus uses the power of his own vehicle.
The broken-down car can then drive without any problems, while a generator, the so-called alternator, recharges the 12-volt battery in the case of combustion engines (in e-cars, of course, this is done by the large traction current battery).
Furniture, refrigerators, lighting: seven tips for saving electricity in your own four walls
View photo gallery
But how far do petrol and diesel engines have to go before enough juice flows into the battery for the next start-up process?
The ADAC recommends somewhat vaguely "a longer driving time" or "a longer distance in one go".
In fact, a precise number of kilometers and minutes can hardly be given, because the value depends on many factors such as the age of the battery, the performance of the alternator and the outside temperature.
After jump-start: Sometimes it even has to be an hour's drive
However, there is one rule of thumb to be on the safe side: Half an hour of driving, and a maximum of a whole hour in poor conditions, should be enough to have a reasonably usable battery on board.
For those who commute a slightly longer distance, 50 kilometers apply, or 30 in good conditions, as a guideline.
You can find even more exciting car topics in the free newsletter from our partner 24auto.de.
If you get to work faster, you shouldn't compensate for this by driving at particularly high speeds: the engine speed has hardly any influence on the charging current.
On the other hand, you shouldn't try to reach your goal as energy-efficiently as possible, for example by switching off the engine at red traffic lights (by the way, an automatic stop-start system only works if the battery level is sufficient): Even under normal conditions, this only works under certain circumstances prerequisites something.
With a (still) empty battery, you can quickly become a traffic light blocker.
