One of my cars has been used for very short trips lately. The question is whether the car battery can maintain full charge. The starter is rated 1.7KW, but that could be continuous running power. The start-up power could be higher. Let's assume 500A for 3 seconds, that's about 0.4Ah. The alternator rated output is 100A; but the actual charging current is much lower, no more than 1/4C, could be as low as 1/10C. The battery rated reserve capacity is 100min (25A) , so the capacity is about 42Ah; then the charging current could be only 4A. That means it should recover the loss energy in about 6min. So if the trip is more than 6min, the battery should maintain the full charge. This estimation is conservative.
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