GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Recent reports have noted the Volt will be sold in Europe, Australia, and China. An important message from GM is that they are highly focused on developing the Chevy Volt for the whole planet. According to GM VP of global program management, Jon Lauckner, the Volt will indeed be a global vehicle. The following is a discussion Mr. Lauckner and I had about it:

With respect to how the Volt may be branded internationally, is Chevrolet represented in all of Europe?
Chevrolet is represented in all of the regions where we do business. So its one of our global brands. Chevrolet on one hand and Cadillac on the other, those are two of our foundation global brands.

So you can be sure when we talk to our colleagues in other areas of the world outside of North America they too are very interested in the Chevy Volt.

How many countries does GM do business in?
I don’t have the exact number but its probably at least 180 or something like that.

Does everyone of those countries have Chevrolet as a brand?
Well Europe does business under Opel/Vauxhall and Chevrolet. GM does business in that many countries and the vast majority of them has Chevrolet as their foundational brand. For example, in South America Chevrolet is ‘the brand’ for us. In Europe we’re known as Saab, Vauxhall, Cadillac, and Chevrolet. Of course then we have some imports from North America such as Hummer and so on. But even in Europe today Chevrolet is one of our major brands.

So we are developing the car with all global requirements in mind, the Chevrolet Volt. That means from the very first moment we are already anticipating that there is going to be widespread demand for the Chevrolet Volt in other regions of the world. And we are going to prepare the car accordingly so it will meet all of the regulatory requirements in these other countries right from the very beginning.

Do you anticipate building a diesel-generator version of the Volt for Europe?
That hasn’t been decided. Once you have a gasoline engine generator set that runs E85 ethanol its a relatively straightforward job to covert that to diesel and run biodiesel. You can take the same engine and convert it to run E100 ethanol for our friends in Brazil. That’s one of the beautiful things about the setup for the Chevrolet Volt is it lends itself intrinsically as a part of a concept to be something we can levarage around the world depending upon the preference of customers in those particular regions. ‘E’ equals electricity, ‘flex’ equals flexibility.

[UPDATE: Title changed to reflect Mr. Lauckner's comments more accurately]

A key unique element in the Chevy Volt is the liquid-cooling system for the lithium ion battery pack.  It is  critically important for maintaining the battery cells close to their ideal operating (room) temperature.

Although which company has gotten the actual pack contract has not been made public yet, LG Chem/CPI or A123/Conti, GM has internally decided on the supplier.

Today the word is out that Buehler Motor Inc., will be announcing a $50 million multi-year deal to supply water pumps to GM for the Chevy Volt extended-range electric vehicle.  The North Carolina firm will provide the 12 watt and 50 watt pumps that will circulate coolant thorough the Volt’s subsystems.

Indeed many subsystems within the vehicle had to be custom designed for the car’s unique functioning.  As an example, the Volt’s radiator is thicker than normal to accommodate the additional needs of the battery packs.

Beuhler and GM have been working together since mid-2007.

…Another small step towards oil independence.

Source (Detroit News)

Its very common knowledge around here that the original Volt concept was considerably redesigned for production, and was unveiled on September 16th.

The Ohio Plain Dealer has a discussion of that process as it was explained members the Volts designs team, including design chief Bob Boniface.

Boniface indicates the car doesn’t look like the “electric camaro” some people may have expected, but explains that concept cars are built purely for looks and have no practical limitations.  It was indeed those limitations that caused the concept to change.

It was explained that the concept car’s long hood and big wheels would have led to 10 to 20 miles less range.  The concept’s wheelbase was as large as GM’s biggest SUVs, and therefore if used would have actually wound up handling like a truck.

Volt aerodynamic engineer Ken Karbon acknowledged some people feel the production Volt shares some similarities with the Prius.  It turns out the “arch-like” body shape is the most aerodynamic, and he said “the laws of aerodynamics are the same if it’s a Toyota or a Chevy.”

Another key factor underlying the design change was the fact that the Volt would have to sit on the global compact delta platform, which restrained it some more.

In the end, Boniface said, “I’m more proud of this car than I am of the concept car. To make the car still good looking after putting on all of these restricting criteria was tough, and I think we delivered on it.”

Source (The Plain Dealer)

The shocking merger of two of the big three US automakers continues to move forward, and could even be completed by the end of October. Cerberus, the private equity firm that owns 80.1% of Chrysler and 51% of GMAC is pushing for the deal as reportedly is Rick Wagoner, GMs CEO.

The main problem is GM is rapidly running out of its cash reserves. It had been spending $1 billion per month and was believed to have $26 billion at the end of June. However due to the financial/credit crisis, auto sales have plummeted to levels GM hadn’t planned on and auto loans and leases have become increasingly unavailable.

If GM were to merge with Chrysler, drastic cuts will take place, likely decimating Chrysler’s workforce and production facilities. The only vehicles expected to survive are the Jeep line, the Minivan, and the Chrysler 300.

However, the merger would also give GM access to Chrysler’s $11 billion in capital and may result in a cash infusion from Cerberus in exchange for more stake in GMAC. This could allow Cerberus to merge GMAC and Chrylser financial, a combined entity that would have a better balance sheet than either alone.

GM would be left with the Chrysler automotive arm, and through rapid and extensive cuts, might be able to reap immediate savings on a combined revenue of $200 billion per year on more than 10 million vehicles.

The big challenge would be managing 11 brands and 10,000 dealerships.   GM reportedly feels confident it can handle the excess brands, and the excess dealers wont cost them anything in the short term and would likely fail out of existence.  Not surprisingly the autoworkers union (UAW) does not favor merger as many would lose their jobs.

Also, although not reported elsewhere, the result of such a merger might allow GM a greater share of the $25 billion in government auto loans that have been approved, and an additional $25 billion which has already been discussed and supported by democrats including presidential candidate Obama.

GM CFO Henderson has indicated that he thinks the auto market has bottomed out and the only way is up.

But lets face it, a giant the size of GM-Chrysler and the staggering number of employees, industries, and tax revenues it entails is extremely unlikely to be allowed to fail by a US government that has recently developed a fancy for taking ownership stakes in corporate enterprises.

Source (WSJ) , (IHT), (Businessweek), (Detroit Press), and (Reuters)

Car and Driver just published a Volt review called “Running on Empty: Is the 2011 Volt Hype or Hope”. The authors had interviews with GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, GM VP John Lauckner and GM Volt executive Frank

The article noted that the final production Volt will look the same as the production version which was just unveiled. It was noted that illumination technology might change including the use of LEDs for the taillights, and a touch more chrome around the grille.

The ICE generator is now quoted as being able to add 250 to 300 miles more range.

The home sensing technology was described as detecting if the driver is close to home and then allowing a deeper discharge than to the usual 30% level, without turning on the generator, if the car knows it will “get a good night’s charge.”

Lauckner indicated he expects the Volt to cost in the mid 30s and that the Volt’s production line was flexible enough to allow production of more than 100,000 models per year. Production will trickle out at first but lead to “tens of thousands” of copies within the first year. He also expects a “focused launch” into California and other areas “thick with early adopters” first.

The next generation of Chevy Volt was also covered. Frank Weber said the focus will be on keeping the 40 mile range, but trying to make cheaper smaller batteries achieve it. He admitted that market demand though could lead to increasing the range if that turned out to be consumers’ interest.

There was some discord in plans for Generation 2. Lutz said that the design is unlikely to change into the next generation, stating “what you see is what you’re going to get for a fairly long time,” although Lauckner said a completely different looking Volt 2 would appear in 5 years.

Source (Car and Driver)

Without the emotional response of the Volt’s leaked pics (at least for me), Toyota’s next generation Prius pictures have too leaked to the web.

Expected to have a larger combustion engine, and larger size, there are reports the fuel efficiency will be improved as well.  The car is slated for reveal at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

That these are indeed photos of the 2010 Prius has been confirmed by Toyota.

This is the car that will compete with the 2011 Volt.

No plug expected.

Source (Priuschat)