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Archive for March, 2009

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Now That Buick is JD Power Number One Brand in Quality, is it Time for an Electric Buick Electra?

March 22nd, 2009 | Posted in: Brand, Voltec with 71 Comments

Spyphotos of a next generation Buick Excelle undergoing testing have surfaced.  Reportedly this is a new-version Buick built on the same compact Delta platform that the Chevy Cruze and Chevy Volt are.
It is conjectured that this vehicle could become an extended-range electric car as well since it already has the proper architecture.
We have been told [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 71 Comments

Bright Expectations for the Volt

March 21st, 2009 | Posted in: Competitors, Voltec with 41 Comments

I offer the following guest post from Michael Brylawski, Vice President of Corporate Strategy of Bright Automotive in response to our recent post here:
Following a recent posting about Bright Automotive, the GM Volt site has been some great discussion about our company and our vehicle. Speaking as the company’s Vice President of Corporate Strategy, I [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 41 Comments

Wagoner: Collapse Will Lead to Leaner GM, Rattner: More Than $16.6B Will Likely be Needed

March 20th, 2009 | Posted in: Financial, Politics with 100 Comments

GM CEO Rick Wagoner who is now working for $1 per year told Bloomberg “I do it because it’s important and I feel like I have a responsibility to do it. I plan to stay here until we get things well in shape and on track and beyond that, we’ll see.”
He noted that the [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 100 Comments

President Obama Visits Electric Car Plant and Promotes Spending Towards Goal of 1 Million Plug-in Cars by 2015

March 19th, 2009 | Posted in: Financial, Politics with 125 Comments

President Obama has mentioned before it is his goal to see 1 million plug-in cars on US roads by 2015. On Thursday he visited Southern California Edison’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center in California. The facility is an experimentla electric car plant that maintains more than 300 electric and gas electric cars.
There he [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 125 Comments

GM Volt Battery Update

March 19th, 2009 | Posted in: Battery, Engineering, Production with 177 Comments

GM hosted a press conference on their battery strategy and GMs director of EVs and HEVs Bob Kruse wrote a blog post about it.
As we know, the Volt lithium-ion cell contract went to LG Chem of Korea. Mainly the decision to choose them over A123 was based on the fact that LG was ready [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 177 Comments

Jay Leno Thinks Chevy Volt Superior to Prius

March 18th, 2009 | Posted in: Public Opinion with 190 Comments

Television superstar and host of the Tonight Show Jay Leno is well-known to be a car enthusiast. In fact he is an ardent fan of electric cars in general. Reuters had a chance to talk with him about his upcoming free concert in Detroit on April 7th, called the Comedy Stimulus Package. [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 190 Comments

The Current State of Chevy Volt Prototype Testing and Development

March 17th, 2009 | Posted in: Original GM-Volt Interviews, Prototypes with 129 Comments

Frank Weber is GM’s straight-shooting vehicle line executive of the Volt program. I had the chance to ask him what was happening with mule development.  At this point there are 35 or so developmental mule vehicles.  Mules are early prototypes that have the full Voltec drivetrain but a borrowed interior and exterior.  Within days the [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 129 Comments

GM Aims to ‘Wow’ Customers With Seamless and Intuitive Chevy Volt Driving Experience

March 16th, 2009 | Posted in: Engineering, Features, Original GM-Volt Interviews, Prototypes with 170 Comments

People who follow the Volt development closely know that GM has about 35 mules clad in Chevy Cruze bodies.  These have been undergoing extensive continuous daily testing for months.  By the summer we will see the arrival of the first full Volt interior and exterior prototypes, and likely begin to see public test drives.
I had [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 170 Comments

Gen II Volt Engine Less Than 1 L, Smaller and Simpler

March 15th, 2009 | Posted in: Engineering, Generator, Next Generation with 120 Comments

Now that electrification has begun to take hold, the roles will be reversed from present day hybrids.  Instead of a small electric motor assisting the main gas engine, the gas engine will take a backseat.  This is well illustrated in the Volt where the gas engine simply waits until its services are needed only if [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 120 Comments

Will the Chevy Volt Jump-Start GM?

March 14th, 2009 | Posted in: Public Opinion with 100 Comments

A Chevy Volt article appears in the Washington Post today.  Questioned is whether the Volt will be sufficient to resuscitate GM or whether it is too expensive and its competition too fierce.
An Obama administration official gave the first word of what the Task Force on Autos though of their Volt prototype test drive, “The Volt [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 100 Comments

Q&A With Lithium Battery Charging Breakthrough Inventor Byoungwoo Kang, and What Does This Mean for Electric Cars?

March 13th, 2009 | Posted in: Battery, Research with 164 Comments

On March 11th, the world heard about a new breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology. Researchers Gerbrand Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang created a new technique that gives lithium-ion batteries a 100 fold increase in power density. These new batteries when moved from lab to factory could allow charging at 100 times the speed and release [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 164 Comments

Think Announces US Electric Car Factory Plans

March 12th, 2009 | Posted in: Competitors with 141 Comments

Norwegian electric automaker Think has recently been on the brink of bankruptcy but was rescued by US lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel.
Now they are coming back from the dead with new plans to travel across the Atlantic.
Today they announced plans to build an electric car manufacturing plant in the United States. The company is in [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 141 Comments

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