GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Well, it finally happened. Japanese carmaker Toyota sold more vehicles worldwide this year so far than General Motors, supplanting it as the Number 1 automaker in the world. Toyota sold 2.35 million vehicles as compared to GM’s 2.26 million. Remember GM has been in the top position for 75 years, so this is a major stirring of the roost.

Of course, Toyota has been leading the way in the green car market with its Prius, but if we are right, the E-flex system and the Volt may just pave the way to the future, putting good ol’ GM back on top.

Either way ya’ gotta love the graphic!

Source: Bloomberg

GM rolled out its new Volt concept variant in Shanghaii yesterday. As mentioned, the vehicle is different than the predecessor concept in that instead of a combustion engine linked to the battery, the car uses a hydrogen fuel cell, which can both charge the battery and drive the engine.

Because of the hydrogen fuel cell, the battery pack is smaller and lighter, letting the car drive for only 20 miles on electric only as opposed to 40 miles in the first version. The fuel cell system itself is also lightweight and is considered GM’s 5th generation device.

There are a few important considerations about this vehicle. Due to the lack of hydrogen refueling infrastructure, pure hydrogen vehicles are impractical for among other reasons, inablity for drivers to refuel. The Hydrogen Volt, will allow drivers to do more driving without hydrogen, and refueling can be much less freuqent. Another issue is that we are aware that Big Oil and Big Goverment are pushing the hydrogen economy. This vehicle will allow GM access to government funding dollars to help develop the car. Remember, the pure electric car isnt a favorite of the goverment and big oil. Third, the fact that the vehicle could be built with different non-electric fuel sources, demonstrates the flexiblilty and robustness of the E-flex platform and allows a “roadmap” of future vehicle to roll out on the platform, with the ICE Volt coming out first.

As we predicted in our previous post, the new version of the Volt to be displayed at the Shanghai Auto show will demonstrate how the E-flex system can be configured with a hydrogen fuel cell as opposed to the internal combusiton engine.

This concept illustrates the “Flex” portion of E-flex. Since it is the battery-powered electric engine which powers the vehicle, one can hook up any supply they would like to charge the batteries, including, in this case a hydrogen cell. Less batteries and range will be needed as the fuel cell can directly power the electric engine.
More information will be forthcoming when the car is unveiled.

Source:here

Sure, wed all like to drive off in an all-new, dealership-supported, warrantied, and well-made GM Volt. But there are folks who dont want to wait until 2010. Indeed the do-it-yourself movement is rapidly underway. As we’ve discussed previously there are a variety of ways to “grow your own” electric car.

There are several companies that will take your Prius, swap out the stock batteries and swap in hand-made Li-ion batteries, allowing for an extended all-electric driving range, and mpgs >100. These companies include A123 Systems and Hybrids Plus. Other companies, such as AC propulsion, can swap in entire electric engines. You can even buy a production electric car from Tesla called the Roadster.

As gas prices rise and the momentum for electric cars increases, expect more and more of these companies and options to appear on the road ahead of the Volt.

Source: Voice of America

The issue of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) has been raised before when discussing electric vehicles. This refers to the intriguing concept of using a fully-charged electric car’s batteries to give power back to the grid, when the grid needs it and the car doesn’t.

An example given is the scenario of a blackout, ocurring after the homeowner’s car is already charged. The car could then contribute its power back to the house. On a whole-grid basis, one can envision a network of cars as both depositing and withdrawing electricity on an as-needed basis, titrated to keep costs down and efficiencies high.

On Moday PG&E showcased a plug-in converted Prius (A123 again) and demonstrated how it can be used to power a few home appliances. See article here. The batteries have enough power to keep the home going for hours (hopefully long enough for the utility company to fix the black-out).

This concept is interesting, when considering a wide network, but lets face it, we want electric cars for driving, its a bit too high a price to pay for a $500 emergency home generator!