GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Just as the Volt is called by some a Prius-killer, so too has the new low cost hybrid Honda has been planning to unveil.

Today they made it official.

The new hybrid will be called the Honda Insight, just like Honda’s original hybrid, which beat Prius to market but wound up being discontinued due to poor sales.

The new Insight will take design cues from the fuel cell FCX Clarity, sport seating for five, and will be value priced. As per Honda’s CEO "this new Insight will break new ground as an affordable hybrid within the reach of customers who want great fuel economy and great value."

Honda expects to sell 100,000 per year in the US and will unveil the car at the Paris Auto Show in October. Launch is planned for 2009.

No plug.

Source (Honda )

GM first announced in June 2007 that they were going to choose from one of two lithium-ion battery pack suppliers for the Chevy Volt, either LG Chem/Compact Power or A123/Continental. The decision was to come by this summer.

GM vice chair Bob Lutz indeed recently noted that the prototype packs have been operating “flawlessly”, and that GM has already decided which supplier they would use.

I asked GM sources why they might delay making public or even notifying the supplier they chose, I was told “we’ll make this info available when the time is right, but not now.”

Previously Bob Lutz had said publicly that only one of the teams’ packs were being used in the running mules because that team offered “the least risk,” but wouldn’t say which. Shortly after we learned from Compact Power that it was indeed their packs which were running in the mules.

I just recently had the chance to interview the CEO of Compact Power, Dr. Prabhakar Patil, and asked him about contract timing.  We also had some other discussions which will be forthcoming.

GM said it would be in June 08 when they announced the supplier of choice. Can you say whether this has been delayed in some way, or do you not know when GM will announce their choice?
The only thing I can say is that I’m almost positive that the decision will be made this year, simply because of the timing that’s required to make the high volume manufacturing commitments, putting the lines in place and so forth to support the 2010 introduction. Beyond that its GM’s call regarding the pace and timing. So that’s a question better directed at them.

Will it require some time for a plant to be built on your end in order to roll out 10,000 packs?
I am doing my homework and doing the development that is necessary so that time doesn’t become our enemy if we are selected as the production supplier. That’s a conscious business decision.

What kind of capacity to you have right now to build those packs?
From a cell perspective, typically we will need about 12 to 18 months of lead time in order to set up a cell line and have it be “PPAP’d” (production part approval process). That’s all the way to a point where the line runs at full production speed, and what comes out meets all of the requirements.

That’s the reason why I know the decision will be made by the end of this year, because that’s simply the least time that we will need in order to be ready to go (by November 2010).

Cutting edge lithium ion battery packs being built for the Volt are expensive. Some experts guess they cost up to $10,000 although certainly GM nor their suppliers are saying what the actual numbers will be.

When one looks at the close to $40,000 price tag for the Volt it is recognized that the pack makes up a significant component of that.

But two packs?

GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz recently told Cars.com that the current battery pack prototypes are “performing flawlessly” even in harsh testing environments. He said however that “longevity is the unanswered question”.

GM has previously said they expect to warranty the Volt batteries for 10 years/150,000 miles. In this new interview Lutz said “We’re being conservative on battery life. For our cost calculations we’re assuming each car will need a replacement during the warranty period.”

Source (Cars.com)

Remember the production version of the Chevy Volt that was “leaked” last week?

Edmunds has found out a little more about that particular vehicle. Apparently it was indeed a production Volt fiberglass shell, only one of which was made for the movie, with restrictions that it be held under very tight security.

That shell was mounted on a standard Malibu chassis, dirvetrain, and interior by Saleen.

GM sources still insist that it isn’t a true production version.

The article rapidly loses credibility though on its insistence that the production Chevy Volt itself will be available in showroom next summer (2009) when the Transformers 2 movie debuts.

What we do expect to see by next summer are fleets of hundreds of near production Volt prototypes out gathering data.

Source (Edmunds)

A question that people like to ask about the Chevy Volt involves Pikes’ Peak.  For those not familiar with it, Pike’s Peak is 14,115 feet high and has a 19 mile road going up to the summit.

I had the chance to asked Volt chief engineer Andrew Farah that very question and here’s how he describes the result:

What happens if your 40th EV mile occurs at the foot of Pike’s Peak and you want to continue on to the top. Is it a problem?
It’s a problem if you want to do it at 90 mph. But it’s not a problem to get you to the top. As you know, the faster you go, the more energy it takes and hence the more power you need.

Will there then be a governor that doesn’t let you go too fast in that situation?
No its not really a speed limit. Envision an infinite hill that goes up forever. Now I’m at the bottom of it in my Volt and I just hit my 40th mile and I start to go up this hill and I want to do it at 80 mph. That will take a certain amount of power and total energy.

As I start up that hill, I’ll be going at 80 mph, no problem. I will be drawing roughly 50 kw of electrical energy from the generator and I’ll be drawing the additional energy required out of the battery. Lets say its another 10 or 15 kw out of the battery.

At some point the battery will become depleted, completely. Or to within a reasonable margin of safety. Then the car wont be able to continue to go 80 mph. Its only going to be able to go as much as the roughly 50 kw generator will be able to take it.

How far will it have gotten up the hill at that point? It depends how steep the hill is. How often will this affect the typical customer? Answer, not very often.

There are a few situations in North America where I could conceivable think about this such as Eisenhower pass out in Colorado on the way to Vail and Aspen, that’s a long 6% or so grade. Will you be able to do that in the Volt at top speed for the whole thing? Probably not. Will you be able to do it at a speed that’s reasonable. Yes.

There are limitations to the E-REV concept, but the people who will experience a problem with this are far and few between.

As we discuss the Volt and its revolutionary E-flex drivetrain, interest in seeing this technology placed in vehicles other than a 4-seater sedan is often expressed.

Although nothing has been publicly unveiled yet, GM has certainly implied plans for a future portfolio of E-Flex vehicles.  Clearly they don’t expect the momentum to stop with the Volt, but rather expect E-Flex is the dawn of a new era.  Indeed we already know that the E-Flex design studio has at least two other new concepts in the scale model stage (post).

So just when will this new era will begin?  On a few occasions, spy photographers have spotted a small GM Chevy prototype microvan mule, known alternatively as the MPV7 or Chevy Tacuma, undergoing testing in Germany (shown above). For those not familiar with the term, a microvan is a smaller sedan-sized version of a minivan, the most common example being the current Mazda5.

Reportedly this particular Chevy vehicle will be built on the same Delta platform as the Volt will and alongside the Volt at the same assembly plant in Hamtramck.

Because of these shared aspects, some authors have guessed that this vehicle might also have an E-flex drivetrain.  Imagine that, an E-Flex microvan?!

I obtained GMs official comment on this: “pure speculation.”

We’ll see.

Source (Jalopnik)