This is what we get for putting bureaucrats in charge of GM. Maybe the GM engineers and execs should march in the streets and see who clubs THEM to death. EPA, get off their backs!

Dr Mark

I would also like to know more about the Volt’s generator. Unfortunately that might be a little bit out of this site’s depth.

Just a little rant: Did anyone else notice the stupid “boot up” commentary in the article? How comforting to know that McElroy “gets the sense” that the Volt will still require some boot up time even in the final production version. Look, he might be right, but I think it’s quite premature and totally baseless to guess about this right now. Does the Prius take any appreciable time to “boot up?” Heck no. And I fail to see how the Voltec system is going to be complex enough compared to a Prius to require a long boot-up. It’s different, but the components themselves (and the ways in which they interact) are not fundamentally any fancier than any other hybrid. Boot up time? I doubt it.

examples:
Why allow a writer to write that the volt sure was noticably noisy when the ICE kicked on, when GM knows full and well that that issue won’t be an issue when the final volt hits the road.

There is enough misunderstanding about the volt without having to dispel additional misunderstanding that you didn’t need to be put out in the first place.

Just have a switch to toggle quiet mode vs max efficiency mode. Its all software, piece of cake.

I don’t care if it’s 4500 rpms, 6000 rpms or 1.21 Gigawatts. I want to know when that stinky poison belching ICE engine comes on so I can modify my behavior and NEVER hear that hideous sound again.

I think GM should have a buzzer under all the seats in the Volt that comes on when the ICE kicks in and repeats itself every minute that the ICE is running – like those handshake buzzers, very annoying. And a flashing LED lightbar (like on top of a cop car except right on the driver side sun visor) to tell you that you’ve just become responsible for 1 more young American man or woman’s death over in the oil wars… I mean Iraq and Afghanistan.

When the engine kicks-in in the Volt ( with only 30% charge left in the battery), the generator will generate it’s maximum power output until the battery reaches 80% of full charge. If at that time the driver is going up a steep hill, that power may be all directed to the electric motor (front wheels). If any excess power is produce, then the rest of the power will be directed to the battery.

The engine will have a long stroke with a sweet spot that’s in the low RPM’s which will not vary much.

In case your wondering, I can at least say I’m retired from GM.

2,000 clock hours might be the equivalent time-frame range of 10 to 20 years (if you needed to run it) for what I would expect to be the tasking for a Volt (excepting for wattage of course). Parts are still readily available for it. (GM parts for whatever they ever built are also readily available still, for whatever you have. Another advantage of GM.)

This Genset uses a voltage regulator to control and vary the field strength of the armature. It has a governor that adjusts the throttle of a side-draft carburetor. It has an extremely-easily replaceable armature brush set that is accessed by releasing a flip-clip-band that goes all around the main casing of the generator.

When the roof AC is turned on, the demand load slows the armature about 5 percent. The governor opens the throttle in response to maintain the required-steady-state1800 rpm’s (at all times), so as to maintain 55 to 63 cycles per second (hertz).

At the same time, the voltage regulator increases voltage to the armature at the same time as the governor opens the throttle to compensate for the demand, and, to increase the magnetic field strength of the armature which is being held at 1800 rpms for 60 cycles per second. Increased field strength is what makes more watts (not the rpm’s).

There are always methods with which we can taper loads up and down with generators when you have excellent software management, and, of course, a very large reserve of energy in the pack even at a 30% state-of-charge. This software might be “real-driving-location” updated based on flat locations “for the next 10 miles”, or hilly locations “for the next 100 miles” to anticipate
*everything*, and, I do mean “everything” at all load-demands.

While certainly the Volt generator is a different design than that of an Onan, (which works with fixed-analog-logic electronics and mechanical governor), the near-infinite variabilities which software engineering bring to the table far, far exceed any need for the silly concerns that competing “marketers” (sometimes posting here) might wish or be tempted to throw out for “public consumption”.

*ALL* the open discussions here on this very valuable site are of *THE* strongest-possible value to help everyone alive that can read it to begin to understand the critical role GM is performing in accelerating the global transition to green electric motoring.

GM is *exactly* in the perfect situation to be doing this.
Hindsight in 2 years from now will be the 20/20 retrospective that many will need to feel that this statement is indeed the accurate history here, at this moment in time, and as well for the past ten years of ALL automotive history.

If it were not for every single aspect for where GM had been and is now, no other OEM would be getting off their duffs and out of their ruts, out of their “inside the box” collective mindsets to start this changeover set of processes.

This is why I relentlessly commend GM.

Just stop paying *as much* attention to those who want everyone to remain doing the same
*********
insane
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financially-unfeasible and unsustainable things. Although there is “educational-argument merit” even in that “marketer’s silliness”.

Other OEM execs and management ought *never* to feel embarrassed to begin to more broadly and openly discuss their plans for EREV, just because GM is doing it first. Everyone understands that you can not ever do an entire industry changeover as easily as changing a set of brushes in an Onan.

Dan.