What makes you think 18v is the max?

heres an old school example. Charge up a condenser with a 12v source, then toss it to your buddy. he gets shocked bad when he catches it.

Why? only 12v went into it.

Only 12v passes through your ignition coil, yet it produces as much as 40kv. How? its 2 rolls of wire, thats all. a simple transformer. It sparks when the primary circuit collapses.

is an electrical system not a roll of wire?