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.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 8:59 am and is filed under Opel, PHEV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Aug 31st, 2007 (9:13 am)Of course 220 is already available in the U.S. If you have a full-size electric water heater, electric stove, or electric dryer, you are using 220. It’s not a very common outlet in a garage, however. It would be nice if the car is set up as dual voltage, then you could quick-charge if you do set up 220.
Aug 31st, 2007 (9:44 am)If GM supplies a 220 charger (Chrysler already does with those test plug-in hybrids they have built) then you wouldn’t use a transformer – that, I believe would simply knock up voltage and reduce amps, producing no change in output watts (watts equals amps times volts).
It’s usually a very simple matter to run a 220 Volt line from your service panel to where your car is parked. Adding another 220 volt circuit breaker to your panel is a snap – make sure that the single outlet on the circuit is GFI protected, either by using a GFI receptacle outlet, or a GFI circuit breaker. Electrical code requires
garage receptacles to be GFI, as I recall. I would install GFI regardless of whether
it is required or not. A 220 Volt/40 amp
circuit can pump out 220 times 40 or 8.8 kilowatts, or enough to more than fill the battery in 1 hour, assuming GM allows that rate of charge to the VOLT battery. They are being very conservative about such things in order to guarantee long life for their battery pack. More experience/battery improvements may show they don’t have to be so cautious, which would also possibly allow deeper discharges and higher recharge
levels, providing for greater range with the same sized battery pack.
Aug 31st, 2007 (9:44 am)I agree, I would very much like to see the Volt support 110/120/220/240 volts. In the US most houses have 220 or 240 available, but would require an extra wire to be run from the main circuit panel.
So much equipment already has smart power supplies that can handle 110/120/220/240v.
In Japan one of the islands uses 50Hz and one uses 60Hz, there maybe locales that where 110 is available in some places and 220v in others.
There are two simple advantages to charging at 220v or 240v instead of 110v or 120v. First is half the charge time, second is lower losses in the cable between house and car.
However by supporting 220/240v opens up the possibility of being able to use the car as a whole house standby generator if GM will add that facility, or provide it as an after market option.
There would need to be an after market transfer switch or grid tied inverter (both are costly).
Providing a generator capability is something that I would certain pay extra for. Even a 25KW standby generator costs $5000 plus, and we have 75% of what’s needed already sitting in the Volt with I think a 53KW generator.
Providing a generator option for even $1000, plus cost of transfer switch or grid tied inverter would make the Volt look cheap:
$31K for Volt (plus options)
-$6K for tax credit
-$12K in fuel savings
-$5K in whole house generator cost savings
final cost: $8K
If GM don’t provide it I can see it becoming a third party after market modification.
It could charge even quicker if 20A rather than 15A draw was used, but I can envisage too many people trying to draw 20A through a 15A circuit and causing grief to be worth that.
Aug 31st, 2007 (10:35 am)Who are you to say how much sleep I should be getting and when I should be charging my car? If it’s possible to charge it quicker, why not provide it? If it costs a little extra and you’re not sure that anyone wants it, offer it at a premium. Don’t pigeon hole me.
Aug 31st, 2007 (3:17 pm)Mark Bartosik – I started a thread about using the Volt as a generator:
http://www.gm-volt.com/volt-discussion?forum=1&topic=50&page=1
Your comments are welcome.
As for Lyle’s original post, I believe all homes in the U.S. are wired for 220 volts, so a transformer is unnecessary. All you need is a specially installed 220 volt outlet (like for an electric dryer) and special outdoor cabling. All of this is possible, but will cost some money.
I think the real issue would be making this feature goof-proof. If they have a 110/220 volt switch, then you KNOW someone will mis-use it. In the end, this might make the Volt less successful.
I also think Lyle has a good point. Most people sleep 6.5 hours or more most of the time. And after all, this is what the Volt is really about – optimizing typical usage patterns, while at the same time allowing occaisional non-typical use. So if you occaisionally only sleep 4 hours, no problem – you have 635 miles of range on gasoline. If your normal lifestyle doesn’t allow 6.5 hours of charging a night (including eating, bathing, sleeping, etc.), then God help you. Worring about the Volt’s charging time will be the least of your problems.
Aug 31st, 2007 (3:24 pm)As of now it appears that GM isn’t concerned with all these little fine tuning extras. I don’t blame them either. It will be the first mass produced volume produced car of its kind that is new and totally foriegn to the public in general. They can not afford for anything to go wrong, to have any bad press, to have any thing break to cast a shadow of doubt with the public at large. The ignorant publics acceptance of this type of car is a must.
It would be a shame for the battery packs to go bad for even a few people. Then that makes the news and even though those people may have caused the problem thereselves it doesn’t matter. I the public know is if they buy a volt the would be buying an expensive lemon.
Extra, and choices and options are going to come in future models and future serial hybrids after the Volt.
I think you can look for all of the cool features to start showing up from a GM product a couple of years after they initial release. Maybe from others sooner. Just my opinion.
Aug 31st, 2007 (3:42 pm)Another thing:
Over my lifetime there have been many promises that fell flat on all the stuff we would have and be able to do in the future. i.e. flying cars etc.
Think about it. Finally one of those predictions/promises of a replacement for the ICE engine is about to make its grand entrance!
Aug 31st, 2007 (10:02 pm)omegaman66 – the beauty of the Volt, however, is that it is using mostly off-the-shelf products that ALREADY exist. This is happening now man- get ready. We are witnessing a revolution.
Concerning the 220V outlets in Europe- can anyone expand on the advantages/disadvantages of having a system like the one in Europe? As long as my volt will fully charge in
Aug 31st, 2007 (10:02 pm)continued…
Aug 31st, 2007 (10:29 pm)Certainly, the use of 220V household circuits in Europe may account for the 3 versus 6.5 hours for charging in the US using 110 V circuits. However, the shorter European charge cycle may also be due to the use of smaller battery parks because of shorter average commutes in Europe than in the US. I recall the average round trip Japanese commute as being 10 miles vs. 25 miles in the US but I have no data for Europe.
Jul 4th, 2009 (7:42 am)I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view