GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Trying to get out of the plume of dust the Volt has kicked up, Toyota’s president has gone a full 180 on lithium-ion batteries.  Often in the past stating things like lithium-ion technology was not ready for cars, that people didn’t want to plug-in, and that the next generation Prius would have to rely on nickel metal hydride batteries, here in Detroit Toyota president Wantanabe has indicated his plan to put plug-in lithium ion hybrid cars on the road in 2010.

He acknowledged plans and preparations to ramp up production of li-ion batteries by supply partner Panasonic, and also admitted he specifically intends to compete directly with GM and it’s Volt on this matter.

Toyota hopes to have a plug-in electric vehicle fleet numbering in the hundreds by the end of 2010.  I wouldn’t expect an E-REV though, Toyota has a lot of stake in it’s parallel design.
So whether you call it throwing eggs or having a showdown in the OK corral, the fight to bring the first plug-in EV to market will clearly be energetic.

Source (New York Times, and many others)

BYD is a Chinese automaker. Here in Detroit, they are displaying the slogan “building your dreams” as opposed to “bring your own drivetrain”. I suppose it probably stands for something else in Chinese.

Anyway I stopped by the booth and spoke to their export manager Mr. Paul Lin.

Paul explained that the car uses a lithium iron phosphate battery (hence why the call it an ‘iron’ battery). This is similar to A123′s technology but Paul advises is different. He was quick to point out that BYD is also a battery-making company, largest in the world. They also make electronic controls, so all things can be done in house.

The F6DM cut-out shown above has a 20 kWh lithium-ion pack capable of 60 miles of range and 120 kW of peak power. After 60 miles the car goes into an HEV mode, where the gas engine acts in parallel with the electric motor, as opposed to only recharging the battery as is the plan for the Volt.

Paul notes that there are already working prototypes running around China, and will produce them there this year. They plan to sell the car in the U.S. too but he admits that could be at least 3 to 5 years away. Delays include regulatory issues and lack of dealerships. The cost is low, and he said the whole battery pack and powertrain together is about $6000 USD.

On an interesting aside, when I showed Henry my GM-Volt.com card, he suggested maybe I’d like to make a website for BYD.

Anyway, I guess this thing could give the Volt a run for it’s money, so long as they don’t use lead paint.

Troy Clarke is GM’s President of North America.  I participated in a blogger interview with him.

When asked about why and whether GM has positioned itself as an alternative energy powertrain leader.  He noted the top three reasons are; concern over climate change, price of gas, and energy indepoendence .  He feels GM has positioned itself ahead of the other automakers in fuel diversification and feels the move has been spearheaded by Rick Wagoner.

Asked about lithium-ion battery development, he called the lithium-ion battery the “moon shot”.  He said GM doesn’t want to own the battery technology. He is willing to go on record saying that GM is willing to work with the other major carmakers in advancing battery technology despite its competitive aspects.
I asked him about the Volt’s rollout plan.

He told us GM has started market research last month. He thinks there will be ‘early adopters’, environmentally conscious-minded people, and the largest group will think its about cost of ownership.  He noted early adopters will pay a premium for the fist high technology vehicle. How big are each of these groups is still unkown.  He said “we want it to be a high volume car.   He expects to sell them through every Chevy dealership.

He feels the Volt will become the “halo car” for the Chevrolet brand and mentioned that it may be come the icon of this generation much like the 57′ Chevy was of it’s era.  How’s that for a great line?

Read full release below:

 More 

GM has announced it is making progress on the Saturn VUE plug-in 2-mode hybrid, and that they expect production in calenday year 2010.

The vehicle is expected to have 10 mile all-electric driving range and will use a lithium-ion battery pack. I had a chance to speak with Bob Reuter who is the chief engineer. Bob advised that packs from several companies were being evaluated for the vehicle but in the end only one will be chosen for production.

He also mentioned that early test mules are indeed already in operation.

The plug-in VUE will have a 2-mode hybrid drivetrain, and can function in charge sustaining as well as charge depleting modes. After the 1st 10 miles of charge is depleted, the battery can be restored by regeneration to be able to run the car again if possible in charge depleting mode.

Read full release below.

 More 

Here on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show myself and several bloggers are having the opportunity to chat with GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz. I am actually writing this post as we go; so-called “live-blogging”.

He is asked what his personal involvement in the Volt project is.

He mentioned he is very interested because it’s never been done before. He doesn’t go to the lab daily and “clamp cells together” but it is important to him. Then he dropped the bombshell. He said he was overly optimistic when he said driveable mules would be out for Easter. “It looks more like June”.

Asked about the financial relationship with Coskata, the new ethanol producing partner, he says “we took a tiny little bit of equity in Coskata”. In explaining why GM is doing it besides altruism he said “We would like to take the automobile out of the firing line for being involved in everything from global warming to funding terrorism.”

On the reason for the Volt mules delay, he says they have been delays in getting the battery packs for one thing, and testing isn’t as far along by now as they had hoped, and also that they want the software the car will need to be more perfected

I asked him whether GM would tolerate any risk of battery thermal runaway events (i.e. dangerous overheating).

He said “We will not sell the vehicle at all if there is any risk of of thermal events. We will have considered it a failure, and say see you in 3 or 4 years.” He went on to say that GM asked the original battery suppliers whether they felt their technology had any risk of thermal events, and the ones that were uncertain were not chosen. He is confident in the manganese spinel and iron nanophosphate chemistries of LG chem and A123 respectively.