GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Today GM has announced the creation of a new international engineering team whose task is bringing the electrification of vehicles into the mainstream development process more quickly.

Robert Kruse, GM executive director for vehicle engineering of hybrids has been appointed to head the team which will stretch from China to Detroit.

Jim Queen, GM VP of Global Engineering says:

“The future of automotive transportation will be based on electrification of our vehicles,”

and

“By having a vehicle engineering team in place and focused on delivering the technical aspects of hybrids and E-REVs, we can accelerate these programs and get them into production quickly and efficiently.”

So here is another move by GM to help speed among other cars, the Volt, into production.

Source (GM)

With respect to the Volt’s combustion engine, if it keeps at the same RPM will it be more efficient than an engine whose RPM varies?

You see this efficiency argument play out in CVT transmissions. You jump in a car with a CVT and what you do is you push the gas pedal down and the engine automatically speeds up to fairly high levels and you have many thousands of RPMs, maybe 2000 or 3000 RPM and meanwhile the vehicle speed is very low. Then over time, it’s this motorboat feel you know “Wheeeee” and this slowly, slowly speeding up of the vehicle. What’s going on there? Well the theory of a CVT is you put the engine at its most efficient operating point and you let the gear multiplication of a CVT take care of the change in wheel speed and tractive effort. This is the whole idea.

Well the same thing can be true in an internal combustion engine when you run it at a relatively constant speed and load, you can optimize the engine around those conditions. And so when we get cars on the road (Volt mules) and we really start the development program, that’s when were really going to start to explore, can we run this thing when we’re charging at relatively constant speed and load within 2 or 3 points and really ‘milk’ the efficiency of an internal combustion engine a little bit better than when its operating over a huge range of speed and load, from 0 RPM to 5000 RPM.

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Since its a new technology and drivetrain will it make the production process different and require new facilities that you don’t already have in place?

Oh yeah, we are putting different components in the vehicle but were using well understood principles. For example most of our cars what we have is what we call a ‘front cradle’. Its basically a U-shaped or hexagon shaped piece where we mount the drivetrain, where we attach control arms and things like that. We take that and we put that in from underneath the vehicle in the plant. Then we drive it with four or six very large bolts to attach it to the vehicle itself. We’ll do the same thing from a process standpoint on the Volt. Yes the bits and pieces, the drive motor will be different and so on and so forth, but the principles of how we’re putting it together will be very similar.

So it doesn’t require any retooling of your assembly plants?

Well we’ll have to retool the plant for the Volt, but the point is the processes that we use are very well understood. We know how to do those operations. The pieces that go in the cradle may be very different but the attachment of the cradle to the vehicle is going to be just like we do in all of the vehicles that we build around the world. There will be some on board subsystems that will be different, there will be some parts and pieces that will be different but we have something that we call a ‘bill of process’ or BOP. That’s the process that we use in General Motors to assemble the vehicle, and we do it in the same basic sequence for all of the vehicles that we build around the world. Because we use the same process its a process that’s very well understood. We understand the equipment thats required to do it and so-on and so-forth.

So really when you think about it, doing the vehicle itself for us, is very manageable. Its something we do each and every day around the world in large quantities.
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Jon Lauckner is GM’s VP of Global Program Management, and is reported to by all of the vehicle line directors including Frank Weber, the VLE for Chevy Volt/E-Flex. I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Mr. Lauckner in his office and the chance to sit down with him for a 45 minute chat about all things Volt. I am very grateful for Mr. Lauckner’s openness with me on a wide range of topics. Surprisingly, he admitted to me that he frequently reads GM-Volt.com, a sentiment echoed to me by several GM executives. Because of the length of our discussion I will post it in several parts.

What is your involvement with Lance Turner at the E-Flex battery lab?

I talk to Lance off the record quite a bit. He knows what’s going on and has been in the business for a long time, knows what to look for. The first packs were just a simple crimping operation. The next ones will be more robustly attached over a longer surface area.

What comments can you make in regards to the battery running without cooling?

Now you know why when we see the results we are particularly encouraged.  If you could keep the cells close to that magic 20 degrees C (70 degrees F) with the cooling system running, that would be good, but when you can run the battery severely and you still don’t have temperatures shooting off the map, that gives you more encouragement.

So there’s some extremely encouraging results.

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The Chevy Volt we have become familiar with is the concept car, or show car. After gaining broad public appeal in January 07, when it was first revealed, GM began the process of rapidly bringing the car to fruition. The interior and exterior design of this final or production vehicle is taking place in a brand new space called the E-Flex design studio and it’s team is headed by Bob Boniface (see previous interview here).

While in Detroit for the Auto Show, I was given a personal tour of the studio by Bob, and a fleeting glimpse of the production Volt.

The space is large and beautiful and filled with the awesome, youthful energy of a few dozen brilliant designers who were either sitting before massive computer displays or hand sculpting the surface of the clay model Volt.

It was truly an exciting and pleasant place to be, and obviously to work for those there.

Splayed out across the bright wide floor were two models of the production Volt and some interior assemblies called “bucks”.

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Tesla Motorcars as you may be aware, is on the verge of producing a fully electric car with over 200 miles of EV range, called the roadster. The company’s founder was Martin Eberhard who has subsequently left the company. Whether he’s disgruntled or not isn’t for me to say, nor frankly to care about much either, but his is an important voice in the world of EVs’. He has published his thoughts about the Chevy Volt on his new personal blog.

In summary, he noted that Bob Lutz told him GM was producing the car in response to Tesla. He also agrees that the Volt program is real, and a good thing for this country. As well he feels that the extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV) concept is good because the generator is much cheaper than another 100 miles of range worth of batteries, and may allow GM to produce a car many may be able to afford.

So now GM’s Volt has Eberhard’s blessing.

You can read his blog here.