GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

It’s not over yet. We still have some more answers to your questions to GM executives about the Volt.

Q: Is GM giving you every resource necessary to complete the Volt project?
A:(DG) “I have never seen so much of ‘Denise, what do you want’”..”open checkbook”..”and do more and do it faster.”..”This is a growth area, its kind of a min-company within a bigger company”..”The message that GM is continually hiring in certain areas is one that I have to get out to the public, because there are good people who think GM isn’t hiring”

Q: We get people on our site who are interested in working with GM on the Volt.
A: (DG) “Send them my way! Seriously! Honestly. I’m telling you, we cant find people fast enough.”

Q: Are you considering the possibility of multiple driving modes such as economy, making the battery last longer but not allowing accelerations, or a performance mode, letting you go all out when you don’t care about battery state of charge, for example?
A: (TP) “Probably not in Gen-1, as I indicated there will be a few choices we give to the customer, one being an eco-mode (HVAC) that’s a given.”..’We need to be careful about too many choices”..”Longer term given what GM brings technologically to the party..there are a host or myriad of different opportunities longer term”..”In gen-1, what does it take to get it out sooner it’s a matter of putting only a few things on (keep it simple)”..”A year later maybe well allow them to a have a greater configurability”. “In a future session when things are further along, we’ll share with you a few little tricks we think are coming”..”First we have to get the basic car right.”

Q: Are you interested in ideas that the GM-Volt readership community has?
A:(TP) “Yes. You can tell your readers I would be interested in some of the things that they think would be cool.”

We have had spirited discussion along the way about exactly what the Volt is.  Common misrepresentations have included calling it a hybrid or series hybrid, or more commonly a plug-in hybrid.  Bob Lutz has specifically said the Volt is not a hybrid (see post).

Calling a car a hybrid signifies that it’s driveshaft can be turned both by an electric motor and a combustion engine.  A plug-in hybrid is a car that has extended electrical capacity supplied from the grid allowing for extended driving in all-electric mode.  Modified Priuses and the upcoming Plug-in Saturn VUE are examples of those.

EVs and BEVs are cars that only have an electric motor and a rechargeable battery.  They usually have overall limited ranges.  The Tesla and EV-1 are examples.

GM toyed with different terms to describe the Volt.  They have decided on the term E-REV (with the dash, pronounced ee-rehv), which stands for extended-range electric vehicle.  They like the marketing opportunities of “REV” (i.e. E-REVolution)

The graphic above is a screenshot from a lecture just given by Tony Posawatz and Denise Gray on the current state of Volt development.  You will soon see the video here in it’s entirety (24 minutes long).

So this nomenclature issue is now settled.

At the L.A. Auto Show last week, Bob Lutz announced a deal between GM and Walt Disney Productions. The entertainment company agreed to take ownership of 10 Chevy Equinox hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as part of the project driveway program. This will be an example of an experimental fleet.

Today, an article appeared suggesting there might be a new theme park in the Epcot Center featuring the Chevy Volt.

I don’t know the source of this comment, nor am I aware of any press releases. However, it would be an excellent idea. Over 10 million people pass through Disney’s Epcot Center each year, and a ride/show about the Volt will help to educate the public (not everyone reads this blog yet!) about the importance and value of plug-in electric vehicles. And, it should lead to greater sales.

BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!

Source: (Half Life Source)

I applaud GM for being so open with us on the design and engineering process that’s bringing the Volt to life. They certainly have been very open with me, and doing their best to answer our questions and consider our advice.

No doubt the Volt is the lynchpin of GM’s future.

Besides the risk of promoting a car that doesn’t exist yet, there are risks of being so open. Corporate strategy usually keeps new technology secret until it hits the shelves. Think of the iPhone. In the case of the Volt, GM must pull from behind Toyota and needs the advantage of time. If they wait three years to tell the world about the Volt it could be too late. Now, because we know about it, many of us are waiting until the Volt comes out to purchase our next car.

Reuters has just published a new interview with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. In it he notes that E-Flex team members are expressing anxiety about the aggressive production timeline (I agree from my interviews).

He also admits the Volt is “an effort to leapfrog anything that is done by any other competitor.”

To assuage the risk of other automakers copying the Volt, the article notes that GM has assigned a patent attorney to the Volt. Lutz goes on to say “I’m convinced we can do the Volt and put it on the road, but if we want a commanding and permanent lead on this type of vehicle … we have to control the intellectual property,” … “Otherwise it will propagate to other manufacturers too quickly.”

Source (Reuters)

An article was just published in the New York Times about the green tint of the L.A. Auto Show.

The article discusses comments Bob Lutz made about Toyota. He referred to “a showdown at the O.K. Corral”, referencing an “unnamed” Asian automaker’s presentation at the Tokyo auto show in which the Volt was dismissed as a PR scam, having lithium-ion batteries that won’t work, and being car that will never come to market.

Now there is a new response from Toyota: “That never happened — it was never said,” responded Mike Michels, corporate manager for external communications at Toyota. “We aren’t trash-talking anyone.”

Of course, since we have been following Volt news since the concept was first revealed, there is plenty of evidence of negative Toyota comments:

• Toyota Believes its Parallel Hybrid Approach is Better Than Volts Series Design
• Toyota Hybrid Manager Says Even His Wife Wouldn’t Plug-in Her Car
• Toyota President Claims We Must Go Beyond Lithium Ion to Develop Plug-in Hybrids
• Toyota’s People Think the Volt Will Blow up in GM’s Face

Source (New York Times)