GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Here’s what we know and don’t know about the battery so far:

The Volt has a 400-pound, 16-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack attached to the 160 hp electric motor.
Since 1 kilowatt-hour = 1000 watts expended over 1 hour,the battery can produce 16000 watts per hour. Peak output is 136KW.
At 40 mph battery will discharge in 1 hour, at 60 mph battery will discharge in 40 minutes.

The current cost in the prototype of the Li-ion battery pack is about $20,000 (reference) , the goal price for production will be $5000.

We don’t know how long the battery will last considering the likelihood of frequent deep-drain cyclings, and a car should last at least 100K miles (that would be 2500 cycles). We also don’t know at how low a temperature it will operate.
GM has awarded contracts to develop Li-ion batteries with four companies connected in two joint ventures:

One is Cobasys combined with A123Systems. Cobasys is a joint venture between Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) and Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER).

The other is Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI) combined with Saft.

The government is also closely working with these companies for military applications.

We have invited Keith Watson at A123 to give us some comments, and hopefully shed some light on the don’t knows..

Jeff Bingham, Chairman

On Tuesday the Senate Natural Resources Committee heard from GM VP Beth Lowery about ways to reduce fuel consumption. She encouraged the government to help subsidize the production of biofuels like E85, which could power the Volt. She also recommended tax money be spent on battery research.

The comiitte called for the automakers to do more in terms of increasing gas mileage in return. Hondas VP in opposition claimed that the fuel savings of plugins wont justify the cost.

I hope were not just concerned with cost, but more so preventing climate change, and reducing Middle East dependence.