Why 6 Volt?

In 1966 my new 1966 VolksWagen type 1 "Beetle" ("Bug") came with 6 volt system. When I bought my new VW Bug in 1969, it had a 12 volt system. So VW continued having 6 volt systems at least thru 1967.
 
marc hildebrant said:
6 Volts was popular in the early 1920's with the use of 01A tubes (5 volt filament) in the early radio's. The use of 6 volts was a natural for the early cars.

Marc
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Marc,
In the country, we had NO electricity & depended on old battery powered radios & the throw away batteries were EXPENSIVE!
Chief discovered it was 6 VOLT & began to run it on spare CAR batteries, which lasted a LOOONG TIME! He'd switch batteries occasionally & charge them on his work commute. We had MUSIC almost 24/7!
Bill W.
 
CarlG said:
Air conditioning began to appear around the mid '50s, about the same time as everything was going to 12 volts. That's the reason you don't see any 6-volt air conditioners.
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Carl,
The first A/C I remember, was in a BLACK '41 Buick Fast Back. The evaporator was UNDER the front seat. When Jack went to the market, he'd put his meat under the seat. I "think" the system used Ammonia??
Bill W.
 
I too, remember some oldies. Once saw a late '30s Packard that had air. Then there were the ones that had the evaporator mounted in the trunk with Plexiglas ducting coming out of the rear package shelf. Then there were the "hang-on" units under the dash.

I actually installed one of those under dash units in a '54 Ford I6 that I had when I lived in Phoenix in the early '60s (had to go 12v though) Got the kit from Sears.
 
I suspect that battery technology and cost in the 1920s were the driving principals for the use of a 6V electrical system. Although 12V systems were in limited use in the 1920s, the 12V battery was larger, heavier and more expensive than the 6V battery.

The 6 volt sensitive parts in a Model "A", including the starter, generator, ignition coil, light bulbs and ignition condenser were commercially available parts the Ford Motor Company purchased from various suppliers rather than make these item internally.

Ford's engineers likely came to the conclusion that a standard battery producing 80 amperes at 6 volts was sufficient power for the Model "A's" starter motor in cold weather, and that the 80 ampere-hour battery had a size and weight they could reasonably fit into the Model "A." Because 6 volts was in common use by other car makers, catalog components were available from suppliers such as General Electric, Eaton, Ames, EA Labs, Slant Pole, Westinghouse, Edison, Detroit Electric, and many others.
 
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