GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Within the past 2 hours (it’s 7:40 PM EST) an article was published in the Financial Times of London. The articles focus is again on the theme of charging stations, only it is reported that Toyota will be teaming with French utility EDF to develop the electric architecture that will be required for future Toyota plug-in cars in Europe.

The article goes on to mention Toyota’s competitors and mentions GM and its plans to unveil the Opel version of the E-Flex which we’ve been discussing.

Whether inadvertently or intentionally the article calls the car the Opel Flextreme.

As far as I know this is the first mention on the internet of the name of this vehicle. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen.

Be advised that I am only reporting on what can be found publicly online and I possess no pre-reveal knowledge or information otherwise.

In probably little more than a PR move, Hyatt Hotels through an agreement with Tesla Motorcars has announced that it will install Tesla recharging stations at three hotels, stretching in an arc from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe.

This comes on the heels of our last post about the speed of recharge using a 220 V oulet.

Tesla apparently offers two methods of recharging its cars, either from a standard wall outlet which would take on the order of 24 hours! Or, if one uses these specially designed high amperage, high voltage lines, that Hyatt is installing, the cars can recharge in 3.5 hours.

Of note, the Tesla uses a 53 kWh battery pack which is why it takes so long to charge, an issue which will not be true for the Volt that uses 8 kWh out of a 16 kWh pack
Still, this news indicates the first hints about how a new national (and perhaps global) charging infrastructure may emerge as electric cars become commonplace.

I see some good business opportunities here.

Of interest, each of these new reports mentions the fact that the E-Flex Opel can be recharged in about 3 hours, whereas the Volt’s recharge time has been reported at 6.5 hours.

As one of our commenter’s noted in a previous post, this is likely due to the fact that Europeans have 220V electric lines in their homes, as opposed to 110V systems used in the U.S.

We expect that the battery pack can certainly handle the more rapid rates of charge, and theoreticlly one could install a 220 or 230 V transformer in their home in the U.S. But, how important is the speed of recharge for average everyday commuters?

After all, the car will mostly charge at night while we’re asleep, and hopefully people are getting at least 6 hours of sleep! If you run out of juice during the day, there’s of course, the range extender.

Frank Weber, GM chief engineer has made some comments about the E-Flex Opel concept car set to debut in Frankfurt in 2 weeks.

Keep in mind the car is essentially the same vehicle as the Volt except for using a different range extender

For one thing Mr. Weber tell’s us is the car is Astra-sized, and as we expect, the range extending engine will be diesel-powered.  He says of the car, that full recharge time is 3 hours (can this be correct??), and “This has extremely high torque characteristics,” and, “similar to what you would get from a V6 engine, and it is available from zero revs.”   The latter comment reflicting the characteristics of electric motors.

He also makes the following comments:

“We have to see how the battery performs in very hot and very cold conditions and what sort of drain is put on it by other systems such as heating and air conditioning, audio systems, lights and windscreen wipers.”

and

“But we are not looking at this essentially as a long distance vehicle. This is for people with daily and relatively short commutes although there is the ability to go longer distances when necessary.”

Benoit Schlumberger, GM product planning director for global compact vehicles, said: “Obviously there is a lot of development cost and there will be a price premium on these vehicles, but we are expecting to sell a large number in China, for example. The environmental challenge there is greater than most other areas of the world but it is where interest in the E-Flex system is developing fastest.”

Hey how about that, E-Flex’s in China.

Source [AUTO INDUSTRY]

Like every carmaker before it including GM, Toyota, Ford, and several smaller operatives, Nissan is announcing it’s interest in building an electric car with a new concept called the Mixim.

The car will be shown at the Frankfurt Auto show and it noted to have two electric “Supermotors”, one for each axle, to produce the equilvalent of all-wheel drive.

The car is styled for the video-gamer, shaped like a crash-helmet, and uses lithium-ion batteries.

Nissan is not guaranteeing production.

Here is Edmunds take on it.

The Honda Insight was the first hybrid in the U.S. market in 1999. Now, it is of course discontinued, beaten along with it’s brethren the Civic and Accords hybrids, by the Toyota Prius models of which outsell all the Hondas by 5 to 1.

Honda wont go down without a fight, and is now planning a new comeback breakthrough car. Details are non-existent, but the new car code-named “Global Smal Hybrid” is expected to hit the streets in 2009, and have the highest fuel efficiency of any car on the road.

You can read the whole Newsweek article here.

It’s pretty clear the hybrid/electric market is going to be heating up faster than your laptop’s lithium-ion battery pack, so let’s hope we get those Volts on the road!