Man sees how many AA batteries it takes to start a car and he ends up buying a lot

This YouTuber wanted to see how many AA batteries he would need to start up a car, and let’s just say, he ended up needing a lot.

YouTuber Garage 54 has done plenty of interesting car experiments during his time on the platform.

This would be no different, as he wanted to see how many AA cells could crank a full engine.

When you discover the final figure, you will be stunned.

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How many AA batteries would it take to power a car?

The team over at Garage 54 has done some pretty unorthodox car experiments in the past.

Remember that time they drove cars repeatedly over different speed bumps, just to see if they could handle it?

Then there was the time they fitted a propeller to a car to see if it would make it faster.

And of course, we couldn’t forget the time a Subaru was placed on a shaker for a month – yes, seriously.

By way of comparison, using AA batteries to power a car probably isn’t as risky to the car.

But it’s definitely the kind of idea that comes to you at 2am and you commit to it.

The goal here was to use AA cells wired together to replicate a 12V car battery.

The Garage 54 team took a standard car battery casing, removed its internal plates, and filled it with AA batteries in internal dividers.

Eight cells in series gave off approximately 12V – while this was enough to power an automotive light bulb, it wasn’t sufficient to turn a starter motor.

More and more batteries were added, and things progressed slowly.

By the time 40 batteries were in play, there was some starter action, but the power produced was still insufficient to reliably crank an engine.

After resetting with fresh cells, 120 AA batteries were found to slightly turn the engine once – but it still wasn’t enough.

It took 308 AA batteries to get the job done.

Visualize yourself coming out of the store with more than 300 batteries to appreciate how many that is.

How much would that cost you?

Over at Jalopnik, a writer did the math and found that it’d set you back around $90 if you were buying cheap Amazon-branded batteries – much more than the $60 spent on a standard car battery at Walmart.

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What was the takeaway from this experiment?

While 308 batteries could get the engine started, that was no guarantee of long-term power.

As you might expect, the batteries’ voltage dropped during use, and there were diminishing returns as the experiment went on.

This was obviously an interesting experiment, but its limitations were clear.

AA cells are not designed for high-current automotive use, and conventional car batteries can get the job done safely.

To see Garage 54’s experiment for yourself, visit their YouTube channel.

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