GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

GM vice chairman Bob Lutz and GM Europe’s president Carl-Peter Forester were on hand at the British Motor Show last week.

In a new article in the Times, there are several unprecedented statements. The author contends that the first E-Flex in Europe will be based on the next generation Vauxhall Astra, appear under that brand or Saab, and be priced at £32,000

Forester is reported to state he wants  a European state to sponsor the idea of GM getting a “super carbon credit” for making E-Flex vehicles, and if England would agree to that role, then GM would build the cars there.

It was said that that GM plans a first year European production run of 30,000 E-Flex vehicles in 2011.

Bob Lutz was quoted as saying he believed “that worldwide production of E-Flex cars could be 1m by 2020.”

The article also states that the lithium-ion packs are costing GM £5000 and that the contract going to either LG Chem or A123 is about to be announced.

In a shocker of a statement the article goes on to imply that afterward, GM,  “because it believes that electrics will play a large part in the future of the car, it is now bringing battery technology in-house. ”

This latter statement was neither confirmed nor denied by a GM official familiar with these matters that I contacted, who indicated the article may contain some errors.

Take it as you will.

Source (Times Online )

On Friday GM dedicated a new advanced powertrain engineering center in Pontiac Michigan. The 450,000 square foot, $450 Million facility will use new specialized technology and procedures to more rapidly roll out advanced fuel efficient powertrains.   It should be able to cut 10 weeks off of the typical powertrain development cycle.  The Volt’s hardware will take center stage at the facility and per GM, "the Volt’s electric drive unit, motors, power electronics and engine will be tested in this center."

At the dedication, automotive blogger Sam Abuelsamid had the chance to interview GM’s executive director of hybrid powertrain engineering, Larry Nitz, about why GM went with the 1.4 L non-turbo 4 cylinder engine and found out some other interesting things.

For one thing, per Nitz, "the 1.4L NA four has better brake-specific fuel consumption than the 1.0L turbo when used in steady state mode, as it will be in the Volt application."

Also Nitz claims the four cylinder engine will provide for a smoother transition from EV to range extension saying "the objective is to keep the engine off and when the engine comes on, you don’t want to know it’s on. You want it really smooth and four cylinder is smoother than a three."

Nitz also noted that the four cylinder has a lower cost and that when the turbocharging architecture is added to the 3-cylinder engine, the non-turbo four cylinder engine setup is actually lighter.

Since the four cylinder engine is also longer, GM has had to reconfigure the packaging somewhat to make it fit, which as per Nitz is "turning out nice."

Nitz goes on to say the generator produces 50 kw, whereas the electric motor produces 100 kw, and assures us that the "vehicle will never use more than 50kW on a continuous basis," and says "zero to sixty, passing maneuvers, you’ll be fine, the ability to actually use more than about 50kW doesn’t exist very frequently."

He notes that the engine never has to perform dynamic response, that only comes from the battery and electric motor side.

Nitz also states that GM has refined the charging window of the pack as 35% to 85%, whereas previously GM had said it would be 30% to 80%. He does say though that the battery could be discharged below 35% if it has to on rare occasions, but that when steady state resumes, the battery will recharge as the engine then produces more output than the car requires at that time.

And yes that’s the actual Chevy Volt range extender in the graphic above (Thanks BillR)

Source (GM ) and (Green Fuels Forecast )

[UPDATE: Sam Abuelsamid indicates that Nitz did not specifically say the available charge window would be 35% to 85%, but rather that was Sam's understanding from discussions with others at GM, slightly different than the information I had been given of it being 30% to 80%]

Previously we heard rumors that GM might use a 1.4 L non-turbo 4 cylinder engine as the Volt’s range extender.  Last week GM CEO Rick Wagoner confirmed it was under consideration.

Now GreenCarCongress’ Mike Millikin reports the decision has been finalized as per personal communication with Larry Nitz who is GMs VP of Hybrid Powertrain Development.  Nitz also clarified that the engine will be naturally aspirated.

In the original Volt concept model the plan called for a 1.0 L 3 cylinder turbo engine.

Keep in mind, the only function of this E-85 capable engine is to fire up when the battery discharges to a level of 30% state of charge after 40 miles of EV driving.  When it runs, it will match the demands on the battery that are called for by the electric motor.  It will sustain the battery at that 30% state of charge, and will turn off at times (see graphic above).

The goal will be to get the driver home in the charge depleted state.  This way the driver can get the most benefit from charging.

Source (GreenCarCongress ) thanks to Karik in the forum for the tip!

Graphic from MotorTrend, thanks to RB and Exp_EngTech for pointing it out!

It looks like more fighting words in the OK Corral as GM vice-chair Bob Lutz has taken to calling the electric car competition arena.

Nissan’s CEO Carlson Ghosn has long stood by a pure EV approach. He recently told the New York Times  that any electric car he would sell in the US would have to have at least a 100 mile range to be practical.

He was quoted as saying “I want a pure electric car. I don’t want a range extender. I don’t want another hybrid,” and “It’s not going to be zero emissions in certain conditions. It’s going to be zero emissions.”

Ghosn has said Nissan would bring a pure EV to the US within 2 years, and he further went on to say “Everything that we develop, we develop for profits. We make money on all our cars. We do not have loss leaders.”

With this statement he contends that his company would be able to pull off the seemingly elusive task of actually making a profit on first generation electric cars. This stands in contrast to GM’s claim that at a selling price of $40,000 the Volt would just about break even.

Ghosn has not given any details about these initial EVs and has noted production quantities would be meager, saying “we’re talking about hundreds of vehicles first.”

Source (New York Times )

Not only is the Volt planned for America, but it has been clear from the start that the Volt will be a global vehicle.  We are already aware the Volt will be built in Detroit for US consumption.  Now there is news GM is looking to build a Volt plant overseas as well.

Reports out of London suggest GM is studying Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside as the possible European Chevy Volt assembly plant.

This information came from GM European President Carl-Peter Forester who also recently met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Forester further suggested that the Volt could be built under all three European brands, Chevrolet, Opel, and Vauxhall. He said he wasn’t worried about branding identity problems, just that he wanted to get the cars out to as many dealers as possible.

He noted that the Flextreme design wouldn’t be part of the first generation of cars, which, built in America, will hit Europe either in late 2011 or 2012.

Forester also indicated that the first European E-Flex vehicles would cost about €40,000, and says "we won’t make a cent of profit on that €40,000," citing high battery price as the reason profiting would be difficult.

He floated the idea of having European utility companies finance the batteries at subsidized rates and then selling the electricity.

On a related note, Prime Minister Brown also announced a plan for the British government to provide £90 million over the next 5 years to help, among other things, build an electric car charging infrastructure on "thousands" of British streets.

Source (Financial Times ) and (just-auto, subscription )

GM’s director of Hybrid Powertrain Engineering Larry Nitz has apparently taken to calling the Saturn VUE 2-Mode plug-in hybrid the "other" GM plug-in due to all the attention the Chevy Volt gets.

At the Plug-in 2008 conference he gave an update on the vehicle and has written about it on GM’s FastLane blog.

He mentioned that there are currently 11 plug-in VUEs undergoing testing on the Milford proving grounds, and they brought one to show off at the aforementioned conference in San Jose, California.

The vehicles are based on the 2-mode hybrid front wheel drivetrain that is soon to make its appearance in the 2-mode (non plugin) VUE going into production later this year.

The plug-in prototypes are using extensively tested lithium-ion packs and Nitz notes plug-in charge integration is fully operational.

The 2-mode VUE is slated for production in 2010, and is a few months or more ahead of the Volt since the hybrid system is going into a vehicle that already exists.

It is expected that the plug-in VUE could cover up to 10 miles of electric driving range, but in practice usually never will.  The is because the car is not an E-REV, the battery is integrated into the 2-mode hybrid system, and controllers will switch the vehicle between pure EV (both low and high speed) and ICE power depending on the driving needs of the moment (see prior post ).

In the end, Mr. Nitz noted the car has "the promise of potentially doubling the fuel efficiency of any current SUV." While GM has not recently given exact figures, early reports suggest 70 mpg is possible.

Source (FastLane Blog )