GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

An Obama administration official under conditions of anonymity said the President will name a task force today to oversee the remaking of the auto industry, that will be charged on evaluating GM and Chrysler’s restructuring plan over the next six weeks. These plans are due tomorrow, and include an emergency request for $3 billion from Chrysler.

This anonymous official said “The administration understands the importance of the American auto industry. It wants to work with these companies as they seek to become viable and thriving businesses. But we’re also clear-eyed about the magnitude of the restructuring going forward.”

The task force will include members from the Departments of Treasury, Labor, Transportation, Commerce, and Energy, the National Economic Council, the White House Office of Energy and Environment, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Environmental Protection Agency, the official said. It will be overseen by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and NEC Director Larry Summers.

The White House will not appoint a “car czar,” the official said.

Obama’s chief adviser David Axelrod signaled that the administration is willing to help the automakers stating on NBCs Meet The Press, “We need an auto industry in this country, There are millions of lives, livelihoods that depend on it. Not just at the auto companies, but spin-off manufacturers, dealers and so on. So we have a real interest in seeing the auto industry survive.”

Even Obama himself stated last week he’s prepared to “offer serious help” to the automakers so long as they did their part to meet restructuring goals.

On a related note, Bob Lutz told Automotive News that a sacrifice of Saturn appear likely to be part of GMs plan. He said “My personal favorite would be to see Saturn survive and prosper, but frankly, the reality is that that is probably not going to be the outcome.”

He also added: “We spent a huge bundle of money in giving Saturn an absolutely no-excuses product lineup, top to bottom. They had a better and fresher lineup than any GM division, and the sales just never materialized. So we have to act on that. It’s our duty.”

Source (Detroit Press) and (Automotive News)

[UPDATE 4:50 PM EST: Obama Press Secretary confirms Presidential Task Force on Autos]

The specter of the financial crisis and the horrendously dismal state of the automotive industry continue to weight down heavily on GM.

On Tuesday February 17, GM is to submit to the government an update on how well it is achieving its viability goals outlined in its plan submitted in December. That plan has yielded $13.4 billion in loans to the automaker thus far. GM has to now prove to the government that it is viable, or able to achieve “net positive value.” The Obama administration will then rule on March 31st, if they agree, or if the loans already dispersed must be called back.

At this point, things aren’t looking very good.

Concession talks with the UAW have reportedly broken down, bondholders appear to balking at debt for equity swaps, and auto sales remains critically low. The Wall Street Journal citing anonymous sources said GM’s report on Tuesday will request an undisclosed amount of more funds from the government or offer as one alternative filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, something GM had previously said was not an option.

Per the report “One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM’s viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company. The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked.”

And now the latest round of high stakes poker begins, and once again the Volt may lie in the balance.

Source (Reuters)

Cars.com gave a review of the information that is expected to be displayed on the Chevy Volt’s 7 inch center console touch screen LCD display.  I suspect at this point the final information rendered in the production car is still under revision.  Reviewed is what the show car illustrates on its screen as it flips through a pre-recorded DVD:

1.  The graphic renderings are described as being bluish, curvy, Nintendo Wii-like and show that state you are in, EV or range-extended.  The screen will appear different depending on which of the two modes the car is in.

2.  Vehicle speed, battery level, and fuel level

3.  Braking, acceleration , and tire pressure  meters

4.  While plugged in, the screen will show how much more time until full charge is attained and whether at 110V or 220V

5.  Stereo, A/C and optional navigation

6.  A climate control efficiency gauge

7.  An extensive menu to to program charging start and end times

And finally, the author got the answer to a question people have been asking for a long time here on GM-Volt.com, the Volt cannot be driven while it is still plugged in.

Source (Cars.com)

I recently had the chance to speak to Jon Lauckner. He co-conceived the Volt with Bob Lutz and is GM’s VP of global program management.

What is the current state of mule development?
Frankly, its complete. We’ve built all of the cars that we intended to, around 33 or 35, and we are done with the hardware building phase. The cars have all been delivered to the Milford proving grounds and testing and development is ongoing.

What we learn from that particular hardware phase will be used for the hardware phase that is upcoming. Around the middle of this year we’ll build our integration cars which not only feature the drivetrain components of the Chevy Volt which we’ve had in the mule cars. Those mule cars were built in Cruze-bodies. Our integration cars are where we integrate all of the pieces together whether they’re drivetrain related or the interior and exterior the car altogether in a series of prototypes. We’ll probably have the first ones completed when it gets warm here next summer.

These will look like Volts?
Yes they will be built off of prototype tools. Those will be tested for a short period of time and then we move to the plant. Then we’ll build our product and process validation vehicles. Those will be built in the plant, on the line using the real assembly documents and all the correct tools in a true production setting. Now it will be at a very low volume to start with but that is the final phase. You’re moving from the prototype production into the high volume production facility and getting that ramped up for start of production.

And that low level production will be at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant?
Correct. And when I say low volume production, keep in mind that’s a high volume plant, so the line rate when its running full production runs very high. We carve out some space in that line by leaving some empty slots and then we put a car in there and we send that down the line and people start to develop the skill to assemble that entire vehicle.

And that will start late in 2009?
No that starts in the beginning of 2010. Sometime around the first or second quarter.

Do you have some retooling to do now in D-HAM?
Sure we need to have all the machinery and equipment in place to build the Volt before we start our production and process validation vehicles. We have to go into that plant and take out equipment and bring in new equipment because its a different car than those that are built there to day. We have to reconfigure all the equipment that’s in the plant so we can build the Volt.

Are you still going to build others cars at that plant alongside the Volts?
I believe that’s still the plan but we continue to still refine what we’re going to do with our manufacturing footprint as we see how the volumes progress. So the plan is we’re still going to have another product or so in that plant, but I cant tell you that for sure.

If you were just building Volts there, what would that plants total annual production capacity be?
Well over 200,000 units.

So if the world demands over 200,000 Volts annually you’ll able to do it?
We would be able to do it in that facility or it may make more sense to put the Volt in another facility. We have to see when we get there exactly what makes the most amount of sense.

One of the unique features about the way the Chevy Volt was designed is that it can be easily and rapidly updated. Most of the car’s behavior is controlled through software which could easily be revised.  Furthermore, the T-shaped battery pack could easily be replaced with future packs containing more advanced cells and/or battery management systems.

Although GM hasn’t publicly commented on how long the  Volt generational lifecyle will be, it is expected to be considerably shorter than typical cars. Today’s standard combustion cars don’t vary much in their behavior from one generation to the next which could be as long as five years, whereas the Volt could evolve as frequently as yearly.

Frank Weber who is GM’s Volt vehicle line executive told Reuters “This is almost like getting software updates into your car. This is not a mechanical world. This is suddenly you get updates, improvements much more rapidly. So, even within a vehicle lifecycle you will see updates that are very significant.”

The Volt is expected to roll into dealer showrooms in November of next year. GM is already hard at work on the next generation.

Weber notes that the next generation plans are to keep the 40 mile electric range but lower battery cost.  Weber said “My goal is not to go from 40 to 60 (miles) in the next generation vehicles. My expectation is that the battery is equally capable, but they are half the size and half the cost of the batteries that go into the car right now.”

Weber was reported to believe the Voltec system will be viable for several generations of vehicles until a time when energy storage allows for low-cost long range pure EVs.

Source (Reuters)

California-based Tesla Motors is a pioneer in the electric car arena. They first brought the 2-seat electric Roadster into production in late 2008 and now have over 200 cars on the road.

The company is known to have inspired Bob Lutz to start the Volt program.

Tesla also has had plans to build an electric sedan called the Model S. The vehicle’s future has been uncertain due to the company’s economic uncertainties. We recently heard their California plant was delayed, and that they had asked for $450 million in US government loans to help them build it.

Today, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced that the company has was advised they would receive $350 Million in government advanced technology loans, and that they expect to receive funding within the next 4 to 5 months.

Furthermore he announced that the company will be publicly unveiling a road-ready prototype of the Model S on March 26th at his SpaceX rocket factory. He indicated that the government funds "will keep us on track for production to start in 2011."

Musk also noted that the company is set to become profitable in the middle of this year mainly because of the fact that Roadster production capacity of 1000 cars are already on backorder for the rest of the year.

Per Musk "My goal for Tesla from the beginning was to do whatever we can to help end the world’s addiction to oil. We’ll do that by making cars directly, helping other automakers develop cars, and serving as an example to the rest of the industry."

And oh yeah, yours truly will be taking home a production Roadster for a one day test-drive this weekend!

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