GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Exactly nine weeks ago we were shown a countdown clock in front of the office of Andrew Farah, the Chevy Volt’s chief engineer.  That countdown clock was clicking off the days until the start of the first Chevy Volt integration vehicle build.  The integration vehicle, or IVer, is an actual full functioning Chevy Volt with authentic exterior, interior, and powertrain.  It is in effect, fully production intent.

Today is the day says Andrew, “We will start general assembly build, what that means is the body in white comes out of the body shop and is positioned at the beginning of this pre-production assembly line over at the Warren Tech center. The whistle blows, all the parts are in line, and they start doing it.”

“The first ones go very slowly (and) we call them template builds and they take about 2 weeks,” he says. “Eventually we’ll be able to crank them out at ten a week.”

“My goal is for forth of July to be driving more than one,” he says.

GM expects to build over 100 of these integration vehicles before moving to the next stage which are known as validation cars. Those will be assembled in gradually increasing quantities on the actual assembly line at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant in 2010, eventually ramping into the actual saleable production cars.

So despite imminent bankruptcy of General Motors, Volt development goes on.

“The IVer build begins, on-time, today in the general assembly area of our Pre-Production Operations (PPO) in Warren,” confirms GM spokesperson Rob Peterson. “The team’s excited to get the build started, but there’s not much time to celebrate – the journey doesn’t end until Volts are rolling onto dealer lots late next year.”

Thanks to Jim and Mary S for the above photo of the Trasformers Volt they found at the Indy 500.

An unknown area about the Chevy Volt is how much gas the tank will hold and how the possibility for stale gas will be dealt with. It is known the first 40 miles of driving will be from the electricity of a fully charged battery. After that the car will get 50 MPG.

I was recently told by Volt vehicle line executive Frank Weber that “the gas tank will be between 6 and 10 gallons.”

Below is some further detail I was given by Volt lead engineer, Andrew Farah:

A long standing secret seems to be how large the Volt’s gas tank will be, can you clarify?
Its not a secret. I’m still balancing (the decision). I can trade off fuel tank size for other things. As we’re taking the vehicle through this critical phase of development this calendar year, there’s a strong likelihood I’ll still be making changes to that variable. And rather than throw a number out, we have said the car is going to go several hundred miles. Exactly how much is something we’re going to be tuning and trading off for other things.

So the size of the gas tank affects the mass and thus may be varied according to your needs?
Certainly. Fuel is very heavy and it also takes up space so maybe we’re going to use some of that space for something else too.

Have you solved the stale gas problem?
I’m not so worried about that. Most people are going to use up some fuel at some rate, probably faster than six months. Fuel is certainly going to be good for six months without concern. Most people are going to take one or two long trips in six months. We’re not designing this vehicle as a pure EV for a reason. Most people realistically while they’re going to get their 40 miles and there’s going to be five days a week when they may never use any gas at all, there’s a strong likelihood that they are going to use enough gas that this isn’t going to be a significant problem for most people.

So you feel you don’t need to build in a system to deal with it?
I don’t think we need to build in a special system.

If somebody never uses their gas in a year and a half will the car remind them about it?
That’s one solution, but if you go read the regulations about fuel management and evaporative emissions, (you will see) we have to limit our evaporative emissions to almost nothing. If you limit your evaporative emissions to almost nothing, things don’t get stale very much.

Take any volatile fluid, in the sense that it has a low vapor pressure and keep a lid on it and what happens? Almost nothing. Its not the same as in a lawn mower where you don’t have a sealed system. We have a sealed system. So there is something we are doing, it is not particularly special, but thats what we’re going to do.

An unconfirmed report appears in the Japanese newspaper, the Daily Yomiuri, citing senior executives which claims Japanese automaker Toyota is prepared to give its core hybrid technology to GM.

Toyota supposedly wishes to offer GM the technology that underlies the Prius and other Toyota vehicles should GM go into bankruptcy.  The intellectual property under consideration is patented technology for “increasing fuel economy by controlling the movement of the engine and the motor.”

Such a move reportedly would benefit Toyota by allowing its technology to become the de facto world-wide standard thereby continuing to accelerate its improvement and cost effectiveness.

Toyota is said to be concerned that failure of GM to successfully restructure could further collapse the North American auto market, potentially bringing down suppliers, and having significant repercussions on Toyota.  Toyota is expected to post losses for two consecutive years and the return of the North American market is felt to be critical for Toyota’s recovery.

Toyota believes its hybrid technology is superior to what GM has developed thus far and is concerned that failure to achieve high fuel efficiency is one reason for GM’s current plight.  GM is described as having fallen significantly behind Toyota in developing fuel efficient vehicles because of a long-standing focus on hydrogen fuel cell development, a market for which has not materialized.

Also, Toyota is claiming this action would ease US-Japan tensions as the automotive market plunges deeper into crisis.

GM and Toyota already have a joint assembly plant in California called NUMMI in which Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe are built.  No capital alliance between the companies in known to exist.

GM sources have advised GM-Volt.com that this report is “unlikely” to be accurate but that “stranger things” have been reported over the last few months.  Toyota has also formally denied this plans to several news agencies, with a spokesperson declaring “we’re not considering it at the moment.”

Source (Yomiuri)

President Obama was interviewed on C-SPAN on Friday from which the following comments were derived.

The President told the reporter he wanted the government to get out of the automotive business as soon as possible, and said the government would help any auto workers who lost their job to be effectively retrained.

Obama was not asked whether GM would be allowed to enter bankruptcy, and did not mention the possibility.

“Ultimately, I think that GM is going to be a strong company, and we are going to be pulling out as soon as the economy recovers and they’ve completed their restructuring,” he said. “My hope … is that we will see both GM and Chrysler having emerged from this restructuring process leaner, meaner, more competitive with a set of product lines that appeal to consumers, good cars that are fuel efficient and that look at the markets of tomorrow.”

Obama also predicted a rebound in the automotive market when the economy recovers.

“You are looking at a substantial market that is going to be available for U.S. automakers if they’ve made some good decisions now, and if they are building the kinds of fuel-efficient, high-performance cars that American consumers are hungry for,” he said.

“I think GM and Chrysler can do that,” added Obama. “We’re confident that they can emerge and take advantage of that new market and actually be very profitable and thrive, but it means going through some pain now.”

Also I received an email back from former CEO Rick Wagoner today that I thought I would share. After he was asked to leave I sent him a note of well wishes and thanked him for greenlighting the Volt. He wrote back:

Lyle: I’m finally digging into my overstuffed inbox, and so belatedly wanted to thank you for your message and support, which I greatly appreciated. Keep cheerleading for the Volt, pls! Wish you all the best. Rick

ENTIRE OBAMA INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Argonne National Laboratory has been pursuing a research project since mid 2007.  The idea is to blend ultracapcitors with lithium-ion batteries in the energy storage system of a PHEV.  Lithium-ion batteries are particularly good at energy density whereas ultracapacitors are best in terms of power density.  High energy density is needed for traveling long distances, whereas to create short bursts of intense power for rapid acceleration high power density is needed.

The project aims to optimize the combination of both components to maximize efficiency and minimize cost.  At this point, proof of concept of the hardware has been demonstrated.

The lead researcher at ANL Ted Bohn has indicated that “GM has verbally committed to apply this technology on the Chevy Volt energy storage system and to perform lab evaluations.”

This idea isn’t really surprising as AFS Trinity Power has already demonstrated a working prototype of a modified plug-in Saturn VUE which uses a combined lithium-ion/ultracap energy system that delivers more than 150 mpg.

Also GM’s Advanced Battery Director, Denise Gray, has repeatedly described an “open door policy” for evaluating future technologies in GM’s battery lab.

“I’m pushing the envelope from and R&D perspective, there has to be a next generation,” Gray told GM-Volt.com. “It may be a next generation lithium, whether its manganese based, iron phosphate based, combined or another ion.”

“I applaud the research,” she says. “That’s where the breakthroughs are going to happen.”

Of course if EEStor comes through with its breakthrough material combining the best of ultracaps and batteries in the same low cost, low weight, high longevity device, all bets are off.  Investor Zenn Motors has just announced it has independently confirmed that EEStor’s material is able to hold the energy they claim over a wide temperature range.

Source (GreenCarCongress)

The Washington Post is reporting that “sources familiar with the discussion” say the Obama administration is planning to send GM into bankruptcy as early as the end of next week. The government also expects to lift Chrysler out of bankruptcy at the same time.

The plan for GM bankruptcy would also give the automaker just short of $30 billion in additional aid.

That $30 billion figure is a starting point for the government negotiations, and if realized, would bring the total government aid GM would receive to $45 billion dollars.

At the onset of bankruptcy proceedings, it is expected a new GM would be formed immediately and given the best performing assets and the billions in aid. The government would get a 50% stake, the UAW 39%, bondholders 10%, and shareholders 1% of that new company. The UAW has just reached an agreement to accept VEBA concessions, and it is expected the new GM will still be headed by Fritz Henderson. The new company would then be spun off in 30 to 60 days, and GM’s bad assets would remain in the courts for a prolonged liquidation process.

Presently, the only obstacle for out-of-court GM restructuring is the unwillingness of bondholders to accept forgiving $27 billion in loans for the aforementioned exchange in equity. If bondholders do not acquiesce by June 1st, the GM bankruptcy is expected to proceed, although it could be in the first week in June.

Talk of bankruptcy may be rather unsettling to some here who are eager to buy a Volt, however it is widely agreed that this type of restructuring may be the only hope for GM to survive and prosper. Along with it, of course, the Chevy Volt and its progeny. Obama has federally guaranteed the warranty of all GM products should bankruptcy occur, and company operations would proceed without interruption, including Volt development.

Source (Washington Post)

UPDATE 4:43 PM EST: The New York Times is reporting that the bondholders have reaffirmed their decision not to accept the debt for equity swap.  GM has said it must receive the approval of 90% of the debtholders for the swap by next Tuesday in order to avoid bankruptcy.