GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Sure we’re saving our pennies to buy a Chevy Volt, the economy is sputtering, and GM just lost $3.3 billion this quarter.

But wouldn’t it be great to tap into that future $30 billion lithium-ion automotive battery market?

The news li-ion battery investors out there have been waiting for is starting to trickle in.

Watertown Massachusetts battery-maker A123 Systems, the GM Volt partner who we just discussed in the last post, is reportedly about to file for their IPO according to a blog post citing inside sources.

A123 has already raised over $132 million in venture funding and reportedly have “essentially completed” their IPO filing. We are told the S-1 should arrive at the SEC within a month, and that the “road show” may take place in September. Goldman, JPMorgan and Merrill have been chosen as the bankers.

Expected value $1 billion.

Could this be another Google? Your guess is as good as mine.

Source (Private Equity Hub ) and (Innovation Economy )

There is an interesting and thoughtful article about A123, and how it went from a handshake between an entrepreneur and a scientist into a company with 1000 employees and a chance at being GMs Volt battery supplier.

Buried in that story is a striking statement that I have never heard or seen.

We debate and wonder how many Volts GM will churn out in its initial production run, with estimates putting it anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 cars.

The well known global marketing firm JD Power and Associates has apparently estmated that GM should be able to sell 300,000 Volts by 2014.

Can anyone say 300,001?

Source (Technology Review )

Thanks to Glen M. for the tip.

Compact Power, Inc. (CPI) is a Troy Michigan-based company with 50 employees (on its way to 100) which has teamed up with the massive battery maker, Korea’s LG Chem, as one of the teams vying to make the Volt’s battery pack.

A new interview with CPIs’ CEO Prabhakar Patil is published by Edmunds.

Patil indicates he believes one reason his company was chosen by GM (from an initial filed of 27 contractors) was becasue LG Chem already has an existing high volume battery production operation.

He noted that CPI is also negotiating with other automakers.

Patil agrees that GMs 2010 Volt timeline is a challenge, and states “The miraculous part of doing this battery in the required time period was that, at first, we didn’t even have a cell (of the proper size).”

Speaking of the technological achievements that have had to occur, he said, “There was a great degree of difficulty: We literally had to double the energy capability of the cell that we had developed for hybrids prior to Volt.”

He confirms the success of the prototypes, “the packs we’ve delivered to GM have worked very well – line on line with how we said they’d perform.”

Finally he concedes his companies “marathon at a sprint pace” is being run by his employees becasue “they relate to this not just as a job, but it has become a cause bigger than themselves,” referring to the game changing nature the Volt represents for the auto industry.

See my prior interview with CPI execs: Part 1 , Part 2

Source (Edmunds )

GM-Volt.com has just been signed to the Internet advertising agency Federated Media. This company is significant, they are the ad partners for such massive sites as Techcrunch, BoingBoing, and Digg.

This relationship will allows us access to high quality direct advertisers and actually help us spread the Volt word to corporate America.

Sorry to do this, but they require me to post a brief readership survey. I would appreciate it if you could take a moment or two to fill it out (link below). It is anonymous.

Anyway, since they will give me back the results, I will post them back here. It might actually be interesting to see a demographic profile for the typical reader of GM-Volt.com.

Thanks.

TAKE SURVEY HERE

“How much it will cost?” is by far the most asked question about the Chevy Volt. Not only most discussed but certain to bring forth strong discussion. The higher the quote the stronger the vitriol.

There was no mention of price when the concept debuted in January 07. The dialog began in May 07, when GM vice-chair Bob Lutz first was quoted as saying the goal price for the car would be under $30,000 (see post) . We luxuriated over that number until in January of this year when Mr. Lutz said: “I don’t want to wait for cost optimization. I’d rather it come out in 2010, and if it costs closer to 40 than 30, well, that’s too bad.” He did indicate the car would eventually reach the 30K price point but not until production costs could drop.

As your public liaison to the Volt team, when I last went to Warren MI, I went with the hope of obtaining GM’s current target price.

First, I asked Frank Weber, E-Flex/Volt vehicle line executive this question, “Since you guys always like to talk about a 40 mile EV range goal, what is your price goal for the car?” His answer was really just a wry smile indicating he wouldn’t answer.

Not undaunted I was ready when I came across VP of global program management Jon Lauckner and Mr. Lutz himself at the event’s closing dinner (pictured above), and yes, I did it again; I asked how much the Volt will cost.

What’s the target price for the Volt, it used to be $30,000?

Lutz: It keeps going up. Every time you ask, Lyle, it goes up again.

Is there a target?

Lauckner: We want to push it down to the maximal possible extent.

Lutz: It’s like this joke about a man at a conference who goes like this (demonstrates a steady clap) Then he says every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies. Some guy in the audience shouts “Then why don’t you bleedin’ stop clapping ya heartless bastard!’ (laughter)

So stop asking how much it will cost!

(Seriously) The answer is that we don’t know. Needless to say, the big chunk that we don’t control is the battery. Everything else we have a pretty good line of sight on. We know how to do electric motors, power electronics, the charger is pretty straightforward. The battery is the big unknown. We’ve had intense discussion about it.

Lauckner: The battery is the biggest cost component of the car by far. To give you an idea, if you look at just the powertrain, maybe 90% of that stuff, we know who is going to build it, its in common with other GM cars, and we know how much its going to cost. We have some work to do on that but we basically have it well understood. We’ve only sourced 10% of the car so far. That is we have production suppliers of about 10% of the value of the car. So we still have in front of us to source about 90% of the car. And that’s on schedule by the way, that’s not unusual for this point in a program. Part of that is the battery. That’s one of the vehicle side components that has to be sourced. How well we do with that sourcing process will impact our final product price.

Mr. Lutz also advised me that the recent quote of him saying “$48,000 was more reasonable” was never actually said by him . That he never gave that figure was also verified by his spokesman Dee Allen who was there for the interview.

I was also later instructed by other executives that a new car’s MSRP usually doesn’t get revealed until literally days before the release date. So whether its a wonderful surprise or a terrible disappointment, it looks like well have to wait until November 2010 to find out for sure. There is little doubt that over the long term, affordability is the goal, and that will depend in large part on the expected decline in cost of the batteries over time.

No sooner than we hear the first Chevy Volt lithium-ion battery powered prototypes are tooling around the track, than a GM VP is giving an interview about the next generation Volt.

Fact is the Volt is here to stay (and GM-Volt.com along with it). Indeed we have heard GM North America president Troy Clarke call the Volt this generation’s 57′ Chevy (see post ).

For the first edition Chevy Volts, engineers have been taking the keep-it-simple approach and just making sure they have a robust vehicle than can be made reliable in the tens of thousands of copies.

They have heard our desires for snazzy and unique features, and many times when these ideas are brought up, we are told that might be for the next generation.

GM VP of R&D Larry Burns gave an interview for Road and Track Magazine.

Per the article "work is already under way on the second generation. He declines to give a timeframe."

He also goes on to refer to longer battery ranges, but implies fuel cells could be that range extender. In the past Burns has said the fuel cell Volt is slated for production in 2011 (see post ).

He also appears not to be keen on using E-Flex for large vehicles such as large SUVs and pick-up trucks, but rather indicates the 2-mode hybrid will serve for those.

What would you like to see in the next generation Volt?

Source (Car and Driver)