GM Sends in the Engineers

11 Responses to “GM Sends in the Engineers”

1. 
   
   Jean-Charles Jacquemin Says:
   June 15th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

   Great, but here in Belgium it is impossible to know if GM will adapt the Volt to the West European market. Demand for such a car exists but all our attemps to get answers from GM headquaters in Belgium, or Chevrolet web site are either “we do not have the technical skills to answer your question, ask your local dealer …” or we get no answer at all.
   Does anaybody know if given the fact that the Volt concept travels a lot around the world, it is because GM intends to make the global ? Thanks for your attention. JC

2. 
   
   Brian Says:
   June 15th, 2007 at 7:16 pm

   I’m sure if Europe wants a Volt they will get it.

   As for global efforts, the Volt was shown at the Shanghai Auto Show as a hydrogen fuel cell variant because China has the potential to become the largest consumer of hydrogen vehicles (because they don’t already have an extensive infrastructure for gasoline).

   Maybe GM will concentrate on a gas/E85 version for North America, a pure ethanol version for South America, a diesel version for Europe, and a hydrogen version for China. That would make a lot of sense.

3. 
   
   Ziv Says:
   June 16th, 2007 at 8:46 am

   These press releases about hydrogen are about as disappointing as the ones about producing ethanol from corn. Neither will work as advertised, (corn ethanol has a horrible EROEI and a low energy density and hydrogen has huge problems with expense, storage and EROEI) but they keep getting touted as being the way forward so that the big guys can continue to make money without taking any new risks and when they don’t pan out we will be in a worse situation than we are now.
   It seems like we should be taking a lot of small steps, like encouraging the production of cellulosic ethanol at coal plants, streamlining nuclear power plant construction in suitable locations, (i.e. relatively remote yet not with horrendous line loss issues), further encouraging windpower in the the states where it is appropriate, having state and federal governments buy plenty of first generation plug in hybrids from Hymotion, etc. to allow economies of scale to lower the unit price and drive improvements in LiIon battery packs, explore geothermal energy development, increase the subsidies for the purchase of solar cells to encourage the development process, increase testing to allow the availability/growth of flex fuels that would actually work like ethanol10butanol20+ blends…
   Instead the feds and the big corporations seem to have a monomaniacal fixation on the two least effective options: Corn ethanol and Hydrogen fuel cells…
   Energy policy is too important to kick it down the road, our economy can absorb the increased cost of oil and natural gas so far, but they aren’t going to drop back in price with China and India growing so rapidly, and if we get out in front now we won’t pay a horrendous price later.
   Sorry for the rant.

4. 
   
   Matt986 Says:
   June 16th, 2007 at 10:25 am

   It’s about time I saw someone else mention butanol. I haven’t mentioned it here, but I am of the opinion that ethanol is not worth it overall, due to the EROIE (Energy Return On Invested Energy). Meaning it takes as much or more enegry to produce ethanol that it gives in return. Butanol, if some of it’s characteristics can be overcome, returns almost the same amount of power as gasoline per gallon. It seems like a better option.

   Hydrogen does seem like it too will be difficult to generate, store and use.

   EVs are on the verge of being very practical and reliable, and people WILL buy them. We’ll need to get the power from somewhere. Wind power is a great idea, but does have it’s setbacks. Solar is good, but still expensive. Nuclear is good, but people are still afraid of it.

   I’d eventually love to have a home with solar power generation and possibly a wind turbine. Self sufficiency would be a great acheivement, if it doesn’t break the personal bank. An almost completely self sufficient home and an EV could be a great combination, and should be an achievable goal in our society.

   The future is about to get very interesting, IMHO.

5. 
   
   Steven B Says:
   June 16th, 2007 at 2:23 pm

   I’m really excited about the prospect of owning a Chevy Volt for my next car. I’ve got a Civic Hybrid (’05) right now and am looking forward to finishing off payments on it and then upgrading to a Volt. But something that I feel that is being downplayed about what will be so awesome about the Volt, as well as other EV’s, is the fact that we’ll also have the technology to go vehicle-to-grid and at the very least be able to use our cars for backup power in the case of a weather-related or system-overloaded blackout. And at the most be able to contract with our utility companies to provide services to the grid and get paid for it and reduce the cost of ownership for our Volt.

   Plus, in order to have renewable energy on a large scale we’ll need an electrified transportation sector. I’m really excited about the potential for it. For those of you who are interested in the topic, research is available at http://www.udel.edu/v2g

   I really want to know what the others in the reVOLuTion think.

6. 
   
   Matt986 Says:
   June 16th, 2007 at 4:45 pm

   Steven, I could be wrong… but I’d imagine you won’t really reduce your cost of ownership by draining your Volt’s battery in the event of a blackout or something.

   See, electricity costs so much. I’d venture that no utility company is going to pay you 1:1 what they charge per kWh.

   Meaning it will cost you $X to recharge your Volt. They’d only pay you $.5(X) on the current you ‘give back’.

   Then there’s the genset on the Volt. It burns gas. Gas costs money. I’d bet there would be a negative rate of return if you were to burn gas to feed the grid power.

7. 
   
   Ziv Says:
   June 16th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

   I like the idea of using my car to keep the fridge cold and the lights working after a storm. I spent 2 days in a cold house a few years ago when the power failed, it was a miserable experience. A Volt hooked up to my homes electrical system would have been a Godsend, albeit a limited one. I am not too sure how often the Volt would have to be started to maintain battery charge levels required to run a typical home, but I imagine it isn’t something you would want to do for long.

8. 
   
   Jean-Charles Jacquemin Says:
   June 17th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

   Thanks to Brian for the answer.

   Ok I think that a small Diesel engine could do in Europe. We owe an Opel Corsa 1.3 CDTI as a second car and the engine has enough power and torque that we can match the BMWs … that respect the speed limits. Its diesel use is very low (49 mpg ; 4.8 liters for 100kms), so the technology is there for the internal combustion engine.

   By the way I also read that the Volt is build on the D GM-platform (the same as the one used in Europe for the Opel/Saturn Astra) so that could be that a car as commun as the Opel Astra in Europe could be one day - that we hope as soon as possible - an electric car similar to the Volt.

9. 
   
   Tim Says:
   June 19th, 2007 at 8:03 am

   I have a GREAT IDEA! Let’s power everything with clean and safe hydrogen. We can make it by reforming cheap and plentiful natural gas and easily pump the excess Co2 back into the ground to pressurize the wells to extract more oil. Think of all the money the friendly oil companies will make by selling their natural gas to their subsidiaries who already make the vast majority of the planet’s Hydrogen at their refineries and use it to remove the sulfur from gasoline. They may even be able to keep us addicted to one of their products for the foreseeable future. Yes, I know that electricity is 4 times more efficient than Hydrogen, but we owe it to the nice oil companies for keeping us warm all these years.

   We will get a greener earth as a benefit. How? Well, when this smallest known element escapes and quickly raises into the upper atmosphere it will combine with the oxygen there to create a water vapor. (we have too much oxygen anyway) Since there is little particulate matter for the vapor to cling onto to create rain, this vapor will remain in the stratosphere causing a great big greenhouse and accelerate global warming thus bringing us a greener earth! This has been another wonderful “green house” idea from the nice folks who brought you oil.

10. 
    
    Bill C Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 8:51 pm

    Not sure how to actually get in line, but I have gone down to my Chevy dealer and told them I want one. I asked them if they had a list and when they said no I said start one and put my name on it. I later on went back and said I expect a phone call the day they can put an order in. Next step is to call the owner of the dealership and see if the salesman said anything to him. Don’t know what else to do at this point. I wish GM would go ahead and start the e-mail list like they have done for the Camero and Malibu.

11. 
    
    Bill C Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    Whoops too far! Meant this to be for the one above.

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