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Archive for March, 2008

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A Chat with Project Better Place Investor, Michael Granoff

March 31st, 2008 | Posted in: Charging, Original GM-Volt Interviews with 57 Comments

After Volt Nation, I received an email from Michael Granoff, who is a #1 investor with Project Better Place (PBP). It turns out he lives within a mile of where I work and we planned to meet up. We had a wide ranging discussion about Project Better Place, whether it could come to America, and [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 57 Comments

Volt Nation Audience Reactions

March 30th, 2008 | Posted in: Volt Nation Video with 25 Comments

At the end of last week’s Volt Nation event, some brief videos interviews were shot with attendees, who gave their opinions about the event, etc.:
Segment One
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piSgcH05c3A]
Segment Two
[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbvyb7nbm-w]

Posted by: Lyle with 25 Comments

California Drops ZEV Requirement to 7500 Cars From 2012-2014

March 29th, 2008 | Posted in: PHEV, Politics with 48 Comments

California is the only state that has authority to make its own rules about vehicle emissions requirements exceeding federal standards, stemming from its smog problem in the early 70s.
Thursday the California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to reduce the requirement of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) from the initial mandate of 25,000 sales to 7,500 sales in [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 48 Comments

Zenn Says EEStor Ultracapacitor-Powered Car for Launch Fall 2009

March 28th, 2008 | Posted in: Competitors with 96 Comments

Put this one in the category of “I’ll believe it when I see it”, but Zenn Motor company claims it will launch an electric car powered by EEStor’s ultracapacitor in the fall of 2009.
The car called the cityZENN is claimed to have a top speed of 80 MPH and to be able to drive up [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 96 Comments

Is there a Financial Benefit of a Volt over a Prius?

March 28th, 2008 | Posted in: Financial with 121 Comments

Michael Kanellos of CNET wrote a piece in which he analyzed Google.org’s ReChargeIT data. Google has a fleet of plug-in converted Priuses and Escapes which employees drive, and the data is summarized and posted here.
His conclusion is that there is an annual savings of 88 gallons of gas for the Prius plug-in versus the [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 121 Comments

Lutz Details Volt’s New Design and Production Plans

March 26th, 2008 | Posted in: Design, Engineering, Production with 117 Comments

Bob Lutz gave a rather extensive Chevy Volt interview to the Australian publication Go Auto, and let out remarkable details we didn’t get to hear at Volt Nation.
For one thing he told them the Volt will be sold in Australia in 2011 or 2012.
In terms of production volumes, he said:
“Initially the production is going [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 117 Comments

Volt Nation VIDEO: Public Q and A Part III (Final)

March 26th, 2008 | Posted in: Volt Nation Video with 42 Comments

In this final segment of the Volt Nation Q&A, Volt/E-Flex vehicle line executive Frank Weber tells us that the onboard charger, which takes the current from an electric outlet has smart charging capabilities and is able to receive either 110 V or 220 V input. He also mentions that GM has plans under development [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 42 Comments

At $40,000 the Volt Would Result in No Profit for GM

March 25th, 2008 | Posted in: Financial with 162 Comments

An article was just published by Businessweek by way of MSNBC, that discussed automakers’ efforts and requirements to be able to reach the new 2020 CAFE standards.
In it Bob Lutz was mentioned discussing the Chevy Volt. Here is a quote from the article:
“The company once targeted $30,000 as the price for a Chevy Volt. [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 162 Comments

Volt Nation VIDEO: Public Q and A Part II

March 24th, 2008 | Posted in: GM Q and A, Volt Nation Video with 66 Comments

In this segment, the GM execs answer questions about performance, saying it will be stable whether the generator is on or off.  Also discussed is how fun an experience electric driving can be. Weber says “it’s fun to eco-drive”.
The team was asked about roll-out plans, Volt chief engineer Posawatz says first the integrity [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 66 Comments

Volt Nation VIDEO: Public Q and A Part I

March 22nd, 2008 | Posted in: Volt Nation Video with 53 Comments

This video segment covers question from the attendees of the Volt Nation event and the Volt executive teams answers.
The first question covers electric grid capacity and thermal management.  Frank Weber says the powertrain components are there but its the functional integration that will be solved over the “next couple of months”.
The next question was about [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 53 Comments

GM’s Chevy Volt Vehicle Line Engineer’s Volt Nation Briefing

March 22nd, 2008 | Posted in: Volt Nation Video with 61 Comments

Frank Weber is the Chevy Volt E-Flex vehicle line engineer for GM. He is an earnest, forthright, and confident man who tells it like it is.
He gave us a 10 minute briefing about where the battery pack, mule, and design development is at the present time.
The video does not show the battery slide Frank [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 61 Comments

My Introduction and Bob Lutz Showing Off the Battery Photos

March 21st, 2008 | Posted in: Volt Nation Video with 18 Comments

We are getting more and more clips from the show to share with those who could not attend. The first clip is yours truly giving the opening comments. In the second clip you can see GM vice chairman Bob Lutz showing off some photos of the Continental/A123 pack. He had them safely [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 18 Comments

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