GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

I arrived OK in Michigan, and on this first night had the chance to speak to a wide range of people involved in the Chevy Volt.

At tonight’s reception, I caught up with Frank Weber, the Volt’s vehicle line executive. At Volt Nation he had mentioned that the Volt will have a smart charging capacity, meaning it would recognize and accept either 110V or 220V input. I followed up with him on this.

He clarified that the car does indeed have a smart charger and it will be in the U.S. model. The car will recognize if the electrical input is 110 volts or 220 volts, as the latter is already found in many homes and if not could be easily installed in one’s garage.

Per Frank, "You need this, if the guy in his house has a 220, at some point he could be in a place where there is only 110, so he wants this flexibility for this car, "…."This is what we are currently implementing, a flexible charger for the car."

"It’s like your notebook charger 100 to 200 volts, although in this case you will be charging kilowatts."

Asked if using 220 volt input would cut the Volt’s charge time to 3 hours, Weber said

"I think we will be able to do something below three".."this is an important piece because at 220 volts we will be in a position where within an hour you might be already have half of your range pumped into the battery".."those batteries have this behavior where the first half is faster than the second."

Vice Chairman Bob Lutz took the time out to write a thank-you note to all of us who attended the Volt Nation event in New York City.

You can read his blog post here .

The event was indeed unprecedented in that a social media resource (this site) was able to gain the attention of, recognition by, and direct access to a major automaker. Also unprecedented is the intense enthusiasm and sheer size of a group of enthusiasts (us) for a car that doesn’t even exist yet.

We wish to thank you Mr. Lutz, for making the event possible, for directly meeting with us and taking our questions, and most of all for envisioning and giving rise to the Chevy Volt and making it a reality for the world.

One of the greatest opportunities I have been afforded in running this site, is to occasionally see the internal processes of the Volt’s development firsthand.

To that end, GM has once again invited me out to their Tech Center in Warren Michigan. I won’t be alone, but in the accompaniment of several journalists. I don’t know who yet, as I think that is sensitive information.

In any event, I will be boarding a plane today and shall arrive in Michigan this afternoon. We will have a reception tonight, but tomorrow will be the real meat and potatoes.

It looks like I might get back inside the battery lab and the design center where the heart and sole of the nascent Chevy Volt is coming to life.

I hope I will have the chance to ask some questions of key people.

As I am your connection to the Volt team, feel free to propose single short concise and as-yet unanswered questions here in the comments, with particular focus on battery development and design. I will try to get the best of them answered.

I look forward to bringing back as many facts and media as I can, but I suspect cameras wont be allowed in these facilities.

An interesting engineering consideration in building electric cars is the sound they will make. People are used to cars making noise, both inside and outside, and indeed some enthusiasts rejoice at such engine sound.

Also certain groups, such as the blind may rely on engine noise to alert them.

Electric drive cars like the Volt will be essentially silent, with the generator off.

We have previously discussed possibilities for sounds for the Volt. Most recently, at Volt Nation, Bob Lutz told us he could envision drivers putting a CD into the car to make it sound like, for example a Ferrari.

Carmaker Fisker is planning to produce it’s electric Karma, also with on-board range extender in 2009. The car will go 50 miles on a charge, 0 to 60 in 6 seconds and cost $80,000.

Fisker recently disclosed the vehicle will have both inside and outside speakers creating a sound ”like something between a Formula One car and a jet plane.”

I know of no final sound plans for the Volt, so we still have times to make some noise about it.

Source (Forbes Autos )