The 12V battery runs the car’s systems when the car isn’t in a ready-to-drive state. As soon as you put the car into that ready-to-drive state, a high voltage contactor opens to feed the engines. This also feeds a DC-to-DC converter that produces the 12v needed for the car to run, taking over from the 12V battery (and also charging the 12v battery).

From what you’ve said, it sounds like:

• You hook the jump starter (pocket booster) onto the 12v battery.
• You hop into the car and “turn it on”.
• The car stays in this state for a few seconds then turns off.

If your jump starter is the Xiaomi 70mai, the manual says that it will turn off the jump start/boost function when it detects that the current draw has dropped. This could explain why the car doesn’t stay running - it doesn’t draw a lot of current, so the jump starter thinks it’s not needed and turns off. If the DC-to-DC converter hasn’t fully taken over by that stage then there won’t be enough power to keep the car running.

A better jump starter would help here. You want to get something that can keep supplying power rather than cutting out. Even if it’s something that turns off after 1 minute, that should be better.

You’ll also want to make sure that you turn the car on with your foot on the brake, so that it’s in a ready-to-drive mode. If you don’t have your foot on the brake, the car goes into accessory-only mode and doesn’t use the HV battery. You need that HV battery to be in use so that it can power the DC-to-DC converter.

The good news is that charging the 12v battery should make a difference. When the car is able to stay on, plug in the HV charger and also charge up the main battery. If the main battery gets too low, it can go into a failsafe mode where it refuses to provide charge (including to the DC-to-DC converter).

If you still have issues after this, you’ll need to get it into a dealership to get it looked at.

Many ICE car batteries are rated at around 600CCA. This is how many amps they can produce continuously for 30 seconds at 0F/-17C. They can spike above this but 2000A is something they can only produce for a couple of seconds at most.

The 12V battery in an EV doesn’t need anywhere near this amount of current. It needs enough power to run the car’s basic electronics and to be able to open the high voltage contactor. Once that’s open, there is a DC-to-DC converter that takes over and turns the HV battery voltage into 12v for the car to use.

So no, you don’t need 2000A to jump-start an EV. Most lower-powered lithium jump starter packs are perfectly fine.

When you see a vehicle’s power being advertised, it’s always the maximum amount of power that the motor can produce.

Let’s look at the 3.5L V6 PowerBoost hybrid engine in the 2021-2022 model Ford F-150. It’s advertised as having 430hp but only gets that from around 4500-5500rpm and only with a certain octane of gas.

In this case, the electric motor would be advertised as 180kW / 240hp.

The actual power at any time depends on a number of factors, including the input power level (fuel octane/battery voltage) and RPM. For an electric engine, heat from continuous running can also reduce power output, as seen from the 30min values in the chart.

There’s no reason why you can’t charge your car to 100%. You just can’t do it at a supercharger when all the stalls are full (which is what this charge targets).

This will have no impact on people using L1/L2 chargers outside of supercharger locations, e.g. at home.

Honestly, the biggest learning curve with an EV is adjusting how you do longer drives.

EV chargers aren’t as plentiful or as speedy as gas stations, so you need to take that into account when planning a longer journey. You need to think about where you’re going to stop and whether you have a backup plan if the chargers are all in use or not working. You also have to look at whether overnight charging is available away from home because that can help get you on your way a bit sooner.

The faster you drive, the more energy you use. You may want to consider taking it a bit slower if there’s a big gap between charging stations. On a recent long drive, dropping my speed from 118 km/h to 115 km/h (about 2mph difference) was enough to give me about 20km (12mi) extra range on a full charge. It doesn’t sound like much but it does add up.

The instant torque is amazing, but if you get a RWD vehicle, it can be a bit treacherous in the wet. I have to be careful accelerating when cornering at intersections, as I’ve had the tail slide loose on me a few times.

That’s about it. Aside from this, an EV will drive just like a normal car. Except it’s better because there’s no engine noise, you can “fill the tank” at home, and the maintenance costs are a lot lower.