GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Nancy Gioia is Ford’s Director, Sustainable Mobility Technologies and Hybrid Vehicle Programs. I had a chance to speak with her recently about Ford’s view on the Chevy Volt E-REV design. Ford has announced it will bring a 100 mile range battery electric vehicle sedan on the market in 2011, and plans to bring a plug-in hybrid to market in 2012. They have not, however, announced an E-REV. Nancy tells me why.

What is your opinion about about the E-REV design?
Well we said by 2012 we’d have our plug in hybrid. If you’re familiar with our plug-in Escape project and our first partner Southern Cal., now EPRI has joined, and we are delighted that we have a whole other slew of utilities that have joined. And we have vehicle that we are now delivering around the country for testing. Our plug-in hybrid is a blended hybrid, so its a parallel series hybrid and and its based off our current power-split system that we have in our Escape. We make several modifications to that system but instead of having to depend upon the battery to go at highway speeds, or to do wide-open throttles, what we’ve looked at because of the battery costs and the size of the battery, and the weight of the battery, and the fact that battery technology is going to continue to evolve, we believe that the blended hybrid is a better solution.

So overnight you can fully charge your battery. It will be an energy lithium cell. You can run that down in up to 30 equivalent electric miles and then you go to regular hybrid mode. Just like our Escape hybrid today, or our Fusion/Milan, you are still then getting that 70% fuel efficiency city, overall combined 35-40% fuel efficiency.

So its never running on pure electricity, even as your running down the charge you are still firing the combustion engine?
Only in a wide-open throttle or high highway speed. So normal regular acceleration, up to a speed we are still determining, like today our Fusion/Milan goes up to 47 mph in pure electric, and that’s not feathering it to death, you can accelerate. We’re looking at that same thing in our blended plug-in hybrid. But if you need the highway speeds, actually you can run the engine very efficiently. In combination with the motor and give you great performance on the highway but not oversize that battery.

We did a lot of study with our HySeries Edge. This had a fuel cell instead of an engine but was a series hybrid. So it was similar to the Volt concept. What we found is the difficulty with the battery technology and the energy density that you can’t predict what the customer is going to need in the next five minutes. So if you’re in Colorado and you’re going up a steep grade for a very long time, and then you suddenly need to wide-open throttle around something, your state of charge of battery may be at a level even with the engine running full that to recharge that battery and maintain the highway speed and responsiveness you have a power fade issue. We also found if you wide-open-off, wide-open-off, that the 4th or 5th time into a wide open throttle, again because that engine can’t run fast enough and the chemistry of the battery can’t charge fast enough you may end up with limited power.

So the Volt has that problem?
Right. So from our point of view because you can never predict what the customer needs next, that doesn’t lead to a confident driving experience. The solution to that is a bigger battery, bigger engine, and then you get more weight etc. So what we thought was a better solution was our blended plug-in hybrid. You recharge, you have equivalent energy. When you turn the engine on and you have a need for speed or rapid acceleration we now can run that engine at its peak efficiency. Right on that torque curve, peak efficiency and supplement it with the motor. And always keep the battery in the happy zone. So the most expensive and the heaviest part, and the largest package consumer, the battery, can be the smallest it can be. And as the energy dentistry increases all we’re doing is giving greater electric range to our consumers. So affordability and attainability is the cornerstone of our sustainability strategy.

Wednesday when GM made its announcement encouraging communities to become “plug-in ready” they noted that Washington DC and San Francisco were two prime examples of places already making strides in that direction. This has led many to assume that GM had already decided that these cities were chosen to get initial production Chevy Volts when they roll off the assembly lines in November 2010.

According to GM spokesperson Pete Barkey, however, that isn’t the case.

He noted that the announcement was more of a “call to action” for places around the country to begin the dialog necessary to prepare the country to begin mass adoption of electric vehicles.

“We have not determined first markets yet,” said Barkey, “I wouldn’t infer that these would be the only two-or even the first two.”

Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz agreed stating “we haven’t decided” where the first Volts will be launched though encouraged “if communities show readiness they will be given special consideration.”

GM advises it certainly isn’t too late and the process to make communities plug-in ready has only just begun. Britta Gross is GM’s Manager of Fuel Cells, Hydrogen, & Electrical Infrastructure.  She offers us the following plug-in readiness checklist for use at the local level:

A key component of the Chevy Volt is the combustion engine that will act as the range-extender, turning the generator to make electricity for continued driving beyond the first 40 miles between charges.

One chapter of the Volt story was that a 1.4 L Family 0 normally-aspirated engine had been chosen for this task. Last year a Flint Michigan facility was chosen by GM to produce those engines for use in the Volt, and a turbo variety for use in the upcoming Chevy Cruze. However, GM’s financial difficulties has led to a suspension of that plant’s construction. This has not led to any delays in Volt production though, because engines for the initial Volts it turns out were never intended to come from that facility.

"The first engines we were going to get from Austria anyway," said Tony Posawatz GM Volt vehicle line director,"that’s always been the plan."

When asked whether volumes in the thousands would be imported from there for the Volt, Posawatz said they would import "one for every Volt." He noted that "the issue becomes that even if we go to higher volumes, they have the capability, but if the industry becomes more directed towards four cylinders than sixes and eights, we’d want an on site facility instead of shipping those things across the ocean."

And for that eventuality GM had planned the Flint plant which is in closer proximity to the Detroit-Hamtramck facility where the Volt itself will be assembled. Posawatz indicates the delay in that plant is related to GM’s cash flow problem that he thinks is "going to get sorted out."

And that even though the Flint plant would be ideal he says GM, "needs to respond to the government challenges and concerns," and that the plant really isn’t an "absolute thing that must happen off the bat since the engine’s already coming from an existing plant."

Wards Auto has also confirmed this information and gives the engine plants specific location as Aspern Austria where these family 0 engines are already being built. Furthermore the report indicates GM still hopes to build the plant in Flint only in a different greenfield location. It was also noted that the dedicated Michigan battery pack assembly plant plan remains intact although no specific location has been chosen yet.

Today marks another distinct turning point in the story of the Chevrolet Volt. From the beginning the focus has been on the batteries and the engineering. Now GM has outlined a comprehensive plan of action for communities to begin to get ready for the arrival of plug-in cars like the Chevy Volt.

They have announced they have begun work with stakeholders in certain regions such as San Francisco and Washington DC to develop policies and enablers to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles.

Ed Peper, manager of Chevrolet said “the Chevy Volt is truly coming to life, but preparing the market for electric vehicles also requires capable partners from outside the auto industry.”

GM is advising that people like us begin to prepare our communities to be plug-in ready. This means several things. Key stakeholders involved in the discussions should include:
-State, city and county governments
-Electric utilities
-Regulators/public utility commissions
-Permitting and code officials
-Clean Cities coalitions

The following incentives are suggested to promote local consumer adoption:
-public and workplace charging infrastructure
-consumer-friendly electricity rates and renewable electricity options
-government and corporate vehicle purchases
-supportive permitting and codes for vehicle charging
-other incentives such as high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lane access

It was also noted that GM has being actively working with 40 national utility companies and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to pave the way for the Volt, and is playing a leading role with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to develop the standards for a vehicle charging interface.

Ed Peper also said “we know plenty of work still remains, both within and outside of GM, But today’s and other recent announcements underscore the comprehensive work being done to bring the Chevrolet Volt and other electrically driven vehicles to market – and they also highlight why we are so optimistic about the ultimate success of the Volt.”

To get the ball rolling right here on GM-Volt.com we have started a new Forum that people can use to begin organizing plug-in readiness initiatives in their own communities.

Source (GM)

I had the opportunity to ask a question of GM’s VP North America, Troy Clarke. It was as follows:

Other automakers are making cars like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, why hasn’t GM placed a strong hybrid architecture into a small sedan and targeted a lower price point, and rather put those systems into big trucks first?

Its not that we have a bias against small sedans. Consideration of those are in our product plans. I don’t have anything specific I can announce at this time.

Its a matter of you choose to do one thing first and the next thing next. The Volt is important to us, because so many components in it we are developing can be used not just in the Volt but to other electric vehicles as well. I think that if the world goes the way of Insights and Priuses, we certainly have the ability to react very rapidly and compete in that segment.

But you know we’re kind of excited about the prospect of electric vehicles as well and at some point we have to decide how to apply each incremental dollar of investment that we make. At least for the past year, year and a half or so, we really wanted to double down on that Volt and get that out in the market and really get down on the path of the electrification of the automobile.

And we’ve done some other things as well. You know about the fleet of Equninox fuel cells we have out, they’re fabulous products as well.

Yes the Prius is a successful product, Honda’s back in the market with an Insight, that product I’m sure will do well also. Its been interesting to me though that hybrids sell directly proportional to fuel prices. Fuel prices are down and Prius sales are down 45%.

Again we don’t have a bias against it, its the kind of business we can get into.

Many here have heard of EEStor, they are the secretive Texas company reportedly working on a novel energy storage unit (EESU) that has several times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries at a fraction of the cost, and with a functionally infinite lifespan.  These EESUs are made with aluminum oxide-coated barium titanate powder and act similar to ultracapcitors with the ability to charge in minutes if enough current is available.  Despite their remarkable potential especially for use in electric cars, no known working prototypes have ever been observed or reported.

Denise Gray is GM’s director of advanced batteries and is principally involved in development of the Volt’s batteries. I had the chance to ask her what she knew about EEStor and whether their was any kind of relationship between EEStor and GM.

Have your heard of EEStor?
Yes.

Have you ever communicated with them?
Oh Yes, Yes Yes.  One of the great things about the advanced battery technology community is lots of information comes to GM and I’m really in a very good position (because) we’ve left an open door with many different suppliers.  And EEStor is one of those suppliers who often sends us information.  We’re willing to evaluate what they have and provide information on what our portfolio of higher batteries needs are, so that as they hone in on their technology they recognize what that end game is all about.

So Yes, they are one of those suppliers that we frequently get information from.

Have they sent you any working prototypes?
We’re still waiting for some of that information to come through to us.  They’ve provided us some literature.

So you haven’t seen a working prototype?
I would just say quite frankly that we are encouraging them to develop along those lines.  I probably shouldn’t say if I’ve received parts or not, that’s kind of confidential.  But we are in touch with them and we are continuing to encourage them to develop the technology.  Because we need as much help as we can possibly get to get the costs down of our battery solution and get the reliability up.

So maybe one day we’ll see an EEStor-powered Volt?
Anything’s possible.

Our friend Hank Green, Editor-in-chief of EcoGeek.org happened to film me asking Denise these questions. You can see that below:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKoruPRd4TQ]