Since I am not familiar with anything older than '56, I assumed the '54 was 12 volt. Being the curious person that I am I had to research it and found out there are 12 volt conversions for them. When did vehicles switch from 6 volt to 12 volt? The '56 Chevy I had in high school was 12 volt and I am not aware if it had been converted from 6 volt, since I got the car from my mom.