GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Whatever you may think of him politically, Al Gore is bringing the issue of CO2 emissions and global warming to the forefront of public consciousness. Today he appeared before the congress to testify about global warming and recommend steps the U.S. goverment can take to help thwart it.

The reality is global warming is real and is happening; it may turn out to be less intense than Gore predicts, but it just as well could be worse. There are many reasons why the Volt should be mass-produced. These include cost savings in less need for fuel and reducing reliance on foreign governments. Reduction of CO2 emission and global warming risk is key.

Gore spoke to the congress about legislating improved fuel economy and specifically gave a 90% target reduction in CO2 emission by 2050.

Introducing the Volt will help, and concomitantly all the public and political attention will further the likelihood of production of the Volt. Economic incentives will go to the automakers, tax credits and moral imperatives will persuade the car buyers. Carbon taxes will influence corporations.

So in the end, this is not a partisan issue, but a moral imperative, and will get the Volt on the road.

With the impending arrival of the Saturn Aura Green Line, General Motors will bring forth the first U.S. hybrid sedan to market. This will compete with the very popular Toyota Prius. And when tax credits are figured in, the Aura will also be the least expensive hybrid sedan on the market.

The vehicle already began shipping to dealerships last week. Unfortunately mpg estimates are considerably less than the Prius 30 vs 50. GM is also planning to produce a Malibu hybrid later this year.

Between these releases and our upcoming Volt, we are likely to see a plugin hybrid Vue.

These vehicles represent the first shift of GM towards their green future, and we applaud them.

Source: msnbc

Sam Abuelsamid has done an outstanding job of relaying the information he garnered as one of the media people invited to visit GMs battery lab. See the post here. For those of you who cant get enough of the technical details, Sam nicely outlinines the data he was presented. Very understandable and great slides from GM’s shows are included (see one above in our graphic).

All-in-all it tells us that the basic nuts and bolts of the battery is here and functional its just tying the loose ends together (trivial details per Sam) that is required to bring the car to market.

Senior commenter Jerry Flint at The Car Connection has written a rather negative post about GMs ability to produce the Volt, especially by 2010. He refers to the effort as being analagous to a Frank Sinatra song where the guy is all dressed up for his date, but got no girl! In GM’s case the girl is the Li-ion battery.We have to keep a balanced view and so we have linked to this post here. We remain optimistic!

I know this site is all about the Volt electric car, but it cant happen if GM goes belly up. Especially in light of the financial trouble for all the big 3 U.S. automakers, it is encouraging to see that GM appears to be making a turnaround. If they play their cards right with the Volt (and it appears they are), it could catapult GM to a top tier international position. Just imagine the demand for electric cars in Europe, where gas is 2 to 3 x the U.S cost.See the New York Times article here.

According to the Free Press, and GM’s own Fast Lane Blog, GM made good on its promise to open the development process of the Volt to public scrutiny, by allowing 50 media people to come in for a tour of the battery lab yesterday. Hopefully the Warren Michigan facility will be birthplace of the next-gen Lithium batteries that will power the Volt.

There were leaders from the 3 main companies Cobasys, A123, and Johnson-Saft in attendance.

Much was discussed about the need for reliable batteries; those that can last for 150K miles, work in extreme climate conditions, and allow for rapid acceleration. There are working Li-ion batteries now (see Tesla’s), but not up to the standards for a mass produced, widely adoptable car.

One of Edmund’s reporters was there and got some more information, read his post here.