GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

After a lengthy and healthy discussion about costs of driving the Volt we needed to know at what battery state of charge (SOC) the onboard generator would kick in. GM was kind enough to let us know that was intended to be 50%.

The next question to arise was that once the generator started at what SOC would it stop again as the car continued to drive.

Once again GM has been very helpful and informative and tells us the answer is 80%.

So what do these numbers mean? Mainly it tells us they wish to be very conservative with the batteries. Although A123 Li-ion cells are very robust and can handle repetitive deep discharges to below 20% and up to 100% again, up to 7000 times, GM clearly doesn’t want to take any chances with this very expensive (and possibly leased hardware). By keeping it in this limited range, the hope will be increased reliability and longevity I would have to assume.

Lets see what happens when one drives the Volt.

For the first 40 miles, as we’ve discussed, the battery will drain from full (16 kWh energy) to 50% (8 kWh), this 8 kWh will cost you roughly 85 cents in electricity. If you drive that distance or less, NO GAS.

If you keep driving, the generator will start. It will generate 53 kW of electricity. It needs to restore the pack by 30%, which is 4.8 kW, that would take ~5.4 minutes if the generator was only charging the battery. But at the same time, as the car continues to drive, the battery would continue to drain, so the generator would have to run longer.

GM estimates that in this condition, the combustion engine would provide 50 mpg efficiency.

From what engineering experts in the PHEV/EV field tell me, the battery pack, electric engine, and generator are all on the same bus (not yellow or greyhound folks), which means that one can have current flowing into the battery from the generator at the same time it is leaving to run the powertrain.

This is great stuff, and an engineering process never before witnessed by humankind. Let’s hope it works.

In the coming weeks GM will have the Volt “mules” (cobbled-together, rough and ugly engineering experimental prototypes) up and running with the first gen A123 packs (and CPI). Then these issues will be testable under driving conditions.

Right now, as per Rob Peterson of GM, “the engineers are still working out the optimum charge cycles and control systems”. As per Bart Riley of A123, “The key will be to achieve the life target for the battery across the all operational requirements (temperature, cycling, storage, SOC range)”.

Remember folks, you just can’t get this stuff anywhere else!

At the Frankfurt Auto Show on Septebmer 10th, GM is expect to announce the sister car to the Chevy Volt.

As you know, Opel is GM’s main European car company, and sells vehicles all across the continent.

Well whats good for the U.S. is good for the world.

We will see the Chevy Volt here in the U.S., and Europe will get the same technology in a car under the Opel name.

I can say for sure, after speaking to GM spokesman Rob Peterson directly, E85 capability will indeed remain in the Volt.  Here in the U.S., diesel capability is not expected.

However, the Opel E-Flex car is expected to use a diesel on-board generator.

That will complete the quartad of flex fuel options: gas, ethanol, hydrogen, and diesel.

There are no complete pictures, or public name for the new Opel, but we will have them here as soon as they are made public.

Above is the first public photo of the car GM has released.

How’s that for ambitious plans? I’m sure there will be enough buyers.

Today Bloomberg published a report again citing those infernal anonymous sources (hope they’re better than mine!), who indicate that GM is planning to produce 60,000 Chevy Volts for it’s inaugural year (2010). This is four times the number of Priuses that came out it’s first year. The sources note that this level of production would be required to keep the car below it’s $30,000 price point. I guess they know how much the battery will cost by now.

Of course, the article inserted it’s obligatory critic, Menahem Anderman, president of Advanced Automotive Batteries, who feels that producing the car at all within 3 years may be impossible, and that this 60,000 unit number is “ridiculous”. He thinks GM should be taking orders now.

The Prius first year (2000) they sold 5,562 units, but lets face it, that was a different day and age. And this is a very different car.

For the Bloomberg article, GM spokesman Scott Fosgard declined to comment.

Could this be true? Sure is exciting news.

A new video clip has appeared dated 08/18/2007, produced by instantriverside.com. In it, the car is shown and discussed, and contains new brief interviews with Denise Gray, Bart Riley, and Rick Wagoner. Check it out:
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc1jCBTHviY]

A recent syndicated article is entitled: “Critics skeptical of Buzz over GM’s latest electric car”. Ever since the Volt concept was first announced in January we’ve been inundated by these pessimistic commentaries which do little more themselves than to feed off the negative hype left behind from the EV1 era.

This latest piece starts off well and talks about many positives of the car and mentions many facts which support the idea that GM is serious about it. The first critic is named as David Friedman,”research director for the clean-vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists” who’s main point was that GM is good at producing hype, and has failed to follow through before.

Critic number two is Thad Malesh, principal of Automotive Technology Research Group. He is described as being enthusiastic about the car, but thinks having a ready battery pack by 2010 is unlikely. He is quoted to say “My guess is that GM is going to miss that deadline, maybe by a year or two”.

The article closes paradoxically by mentioning the test Volts will be on the road next spring.

Basically, the article is thin is substance. The experts’ conclusions do not seem based on fact, and frankly, following the Volt as closely as we do here, seem to me to be invalid.

I thought is would be interesting to invite the critics themselves to come out here on GM-Volt and let us what they see that we can’t. I’ve sent them both and the author emails, look for their responses in the comments here.

Yesterday I wrote a post indicating that GM planned to remove E85 capability from the Volt’s onboard generator. Those of you that were sad, put your tissues away, those who were happy put away your party hats. GM spokesman Rob Peterson has said that GM has not changed to the production plan to have E85 capability in the car.

What was unique about our post is that in this rare instance we used an anonymous inside source for information. Rob Peterson is GM’s official spokesman on E-Flex systems. I have no documentation proving my source’s statement, and possibly it isn’t true.  Perhaps it is a mistake to quote these anonymous sources, after all my objective is to provide you with the clear and transparent truth about this car to the absolute extent possible, and to avoid any rumors or misstatements. Usually I go out of my way to get the official statements direct from GM.

When I confronted him with GM’s response, my source indicated for sure that the ecotech flexfuel engine postulated for the initial concept Volt has been dropped. The new combustion engine still appears to be an unknown. Many people think it will be an HCCI engine. He thought it wasn’t planned to be E85 capable.

It is true that adding E85 capability isn’t a big deal. The cost is negligible and it’s mainly a software issue. In terms of whether the ethanol will hold up well sitting in the tank unused..well have you heard of 100 year-old bottles of wine?

Anyway, we’ll keep you posted on this as it evolves. Cheers.