GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

On Friday June 12th I took delivery of an electric MINI Cooper, car #412.

After registering on a waiting list, I was chosen as one of the 100 people in New York State who would get to participate in a one-year close-ended lease of the pure electric car.  BMW, the parent of MINI, is calling this a field test.  They plan to take back all 450 cars (100 in NY and NJ, 250 IN CA) at the end of the lease and dismantle them.  The purpose in to learn about how electric cars will fare on public roads and in the public’s hands.

Truth be told, I’m not a MINI fan, its the powertrain Im after here.

In my opinion, the cars are best described as mules.  They are converted standard MINIs and weigh in at 3656 pounds.  They have not been built from the ground up as an electric car. The rear seat has been removed and replaced with a very large 573 pound 35 kwh lithium-ion battery (28 kwh usable) supplied by E-One Moli.  The drivetrain was engineered and installed by A/C Propulsion.

The car is strikingly styled with silver and bright yellow accents including stylized plug decals on the sided and roof.  It is a head-turner as I can attest.

Inside the cockpit is comfortable, eclectic, and interesting.  The MINI controls are unusual and unique among cars, taking a little getting used to.  There is a large dial ahead showing the battery state of charge (SOC) and in the center stack an even larger dial displaying velocity (mph).  A small LED display can be toggled through screens that shows battery SOC, temperature, and miles remaining.

Placing in a keyfob primes the car, and then there is an engine on/off button.  Like all electric cars you know its running when lights on the dash go on, there is no roar of an engine.

The car is very silent and stepping on the accelerator lightly allows you to creep off electrically.

The 150 kw motor develops a whopping 205 hp that is capable of pinning you into the seat.  For some reason, there is a built-in minimal delay before take-off from stop which ever so slightly dampens the rush of instantaneous torque.  0 to 60 is 8.5 seconds but feels a lot faster. Nicely, once moving even when traveling at highway speed, a stomp on the accelerator instantly springs the car forward in a way most combustion cars cannot, like silently leaping through space. The car is front wheel drive.

The regenerative braking is very intense and the car rapidly grinds to a stop just by lifting one’s foot off the accelerator.  Brakes are almost unnecessary.  This takes a little getting used to but I actually came to enjoy it.

The car handled a bit skittishly.  It was easy to chirp the tires especially if taking off on a slight turn.  The car has a go-cart like road feel, low to the ground and very fun around turns if not a little disconcerting to some drivers.

There is a 94 mile (when fully charged) electric range.  Charging is simple and can be done at 120 V though a specialized J1772 adapter.  As part of the program MINI installed an EV charger wallbox in my garage that operates at 240V and 32 or 50 amps, which can fully recharge the car in 4 hours. At 120V it takes 24 hours.

I’ll have the car for one year.  The lease fee was supposed to be $850/month but because the cord for the wallbox hasn’t gotten UL certification yet, MINI is giving one of the months for free, bringing the actual cost to $780/month.  For me, driving  about 1800 miles/month the vehicle will save about $250 in gas. Collision insurance is paid for by MIIN and the wallbox is installed for free, effectively putting the monthly cost in the $400-$500 range. Yes there is a significant premium but being able to drive all electric is worth that to me.

There are some slight imperfections being the car is a mule.  The door locks are a little sticky, rarely the car won’t start and the key has to be removed and replaced.  The big battery has a loud ventilation system and produces noticeable heat.  There is also essentially no storage space, and as mentioned handling is a bit awkward.

The car hasn’t been engineered from scratch as an electric car as has the Volt, and range is limited, but the fact is I am driving electrically in 2009 and I’ve got nothing to complain about.

And by the way this is the 1000th post on GM-Volt.com, another milestone.

Since 2006, GM has been developing a front-wheel drive 2-mode plugin hybrid (PHEV) vehicle. The 2-mode plugin Saturn VUE was to be that car but bankruptcy and divestment of the Saturn brand has ended that plan.

GM’s contract negotiations with Penske could in theory enable that car to still be built and sourced, however that is highly unlikely.

Yet GM has said it still plans to put the plug-in 2-mode powertrain into a production vehicle but hasn’t said which one.   Development work is ongoing.

Writers have speculated the new Chevrolet Equinox which gets 32 mpg highway using a direct injection 4 cylinder engine would be the likely host for the powertrain. Other speculation includes the new GMC Terrain or Cadillac SRX.

These ideas may be wrong.

GM-Volt.com has learned the new vehicle will be a Buick.

GM has designed a new small crossover (CUV) Buick which has yet to be named or unveiled. Footage of a clay model of the vehicle was leaked when CBS news filmed an interview with GM VP of Design Ed Welburn, and is shown above.

This new car shares the same platform the Saturn VUE uses and therefore is properly configured for the 2-mode hybrid and plug-in 2 mode hybrid drivetrain. The body design will be unique.

It is expected the car will make its appearance in 2011.

[UPDATE: GM has not officially confirmed this information, so should be taken as rumor at this point.]

Researchers at the Argonne National Lab studied four plug-in hybrid car configurations and determined the fuel economy they would get using real-world driving cycles.

The four configurations studied were a 4 kwh and 8 kwh PHEV and a 12 kwh and 16 kwh EREV.

The researchers modelled the cars’ fuel economy if they were driven over cycles taken from 100 actual Kansas city drivers in 2005, collected by the EPA.

The following results were obtained:

1.  Split 4 kWh: 71.9 mpg US

2.  Split 8 kWh: 101.4 mpg US

3.  Series 12 kWh: 156.8 mpg US

4.  Series 16 kWh: 191.2 mpg US

The study assumed the EREV would operate electrically from 30 to 90% state of charge (SOC), amounting to 7.2 kwh in the 12 kwh model, slightly less but closest to the Volt’s 8 kwh.

The split hybrids were assumed to operate as a fixed ratio power split between the gas engine and electric motor.

Not only do the results show that the Volt would get 157 mpg in real-world driving, but also shows that as battery pack size increases, efficiency improvements diminish.

“The larger the battery, the more fuel saved, however, what we also noticed was that the delta for consumption is not linear,” said lead investigator Aymeric Rousseau. “The fuel we save by going from 4 to 8 kWh is much greater than the fuel saved going from 12 to 16.”

Looking specifically at financial payback, the researchers concluded that at 9 cents/kwh electricity and $4.00/gallon gas, standard hybrids pay back their cost in 7 years, whereas PHEVs take from 7.5 to 12 years to recoup their additional cost.  Payback time was decreased for drivers who drive more than 30 miles per day to a 6 to 8 year timeframe.  Each additional $1 per gallon of gas reduced payback time by one year.

“Based on the assumptions considered, for the mid-term, the cost of PHEVs remains high, requiring further research and development for batteries and electric vehicles,” said Rousseau.

Source (GreenCarCongress)

GM has announced that the Chevy Malibu mild hybrid will be discontinued. They have also terminated 2-mode strong hybrid Saturn Vue.

2010 Malibu hybrids are no longer being produced because of low sales volumes and a glut of 2009 models on dealer lots.  Estimates suggest only 2142 Malibu hybrids were sold from its release in April 2008 through April 2009. This in the setting of about 64,363 standard Malibu sales.

The hybrid Malibu which essentially only switches the engine off at stops to save gas, delivers 26 mpg city|34 mpg hwy while the standard model delivers 22 mpg city|33 mpg hwy. And that for a $4000 premium.

The 2-mode Vue was aborted because the Saturn brand is being sold. It was originally supposed to launch this Spring, but the bankruptcy process delayed those plans. Although not finalized, it is unlikely Penske will source these vehicles.

GM already offers the 2-mode system in its large trucks. The VUE is a smaller front wheel drive vehicle.

The smaller platform 2-mode strong hybrid drivetrain will live on however in a different vehicle and to be launched in 2010 as a 2011 model year. GM also says it intends to launch a plug-in version in 2011.

New mild hybrids will also arrive in 2011 using GM’s second generation BAS+ system which contain high power Hitachi next generation 120V lithium-ion batteries. That system will deliver a 20% improvement in efficiency over the current generation.  These will be three times as powerful and more cost-effective. The system in addition to stopping the engine at stops also offers electric boost during acceleration.

Will these next generation hybrids sell well? We will all have to wait and see.

It is known that no one outside GM at this point has been allowed to witness the Chevy Volt prototypes running in generator mode.

Previously it was reported that the reason for this is that the car isn’t soundproofed and GM doesn’t want people to hear the engine. Jon Lauckner has also told me the reason is that the mules were designed to evaluate performance and not man-machine interface and therefore aren’t meant for public consumption. GM would rather wait for reporters to experience the real cars not a subpar mule.

John McElroy of Autoline, has either conjectured or discovered another intriguing reason.

He reports that the way the generator is configured it will snap on at 4500 RPM should the car be going uphill or at highway speed at the time. This would then cause the driver to be “suddenly assaulted by the sound of a roaring engine.”

He further writes that GM engineers figured an easy solution to this was to have the generator go on sooner at a lower RPM at a higher battery state of charge.

Those people claim, he reports, that the EPA “frowns on this idea” because they would like to see the car get the highest fuel efficiency estimate possible. If the car were to spend more time than necessary converting gas to electricity those estimates would be lower.

Thus GM engineers he says are still “playing around with calibration strategies” to maximize efficiency while minimizing engine noise and thus the generator mode is still not ready for primetime display.

GM sources have not confirmed this to GM-Volt.com, characterizing the report as “inaccurate”.

GM writes on the Volt media site “the battery will continue to generate some power and work together with the engine-generator to provide peak performance when it’s required, such as driving up a steep incline or for high acceleration maneuvers.”

McElroy has the idea the generator would have to power on independently (and at 4500 RPM) if the battery were “drained.” We know it never really is drained though.  If the 30% SOC is hit at a point of peak power demand, the battery will continue to contribute energy along with the generator making lower RPMs possible.

What do you think?

Source (Autoline)

While in Detroit for the Battery Lab opening, I had the chance for a brief interview with GM’s CEO Fritz Henderson. I could only ask a few questions and took them from reader suggestions on this site. The video is below the post.

First I asked whether he thought the primary reason for GM’s failure was bad management, economic collapse, or insurmountable debt.

He said the amount of leverage on the balance sheet was unsustainable, noting $103 billion was spent over a 15 year period on healthcare and pension through 2007. The auto market collapse was a factor he said, and he admitted “GM made mistakes too.”

Next I asked him how confident he was the new post-bankruptcy GM would be successful or whether it too could have a problem achieving profitability. He said the risk and breakeven point of the business were substantially lowered, and thus GM would “not bleed’ even if the market stayed at 10 million units. He was confident that the market would improve and there would thus be a “tremendous upside” He was confident GM cuold succeed in the future and said “we’re not interested in doing this twice, we’re doing this once.”

Third I asked him what he felt were the limitations to large production volumes of the Volt. He said “the primary challenge to the vehilce was cost.” He admits the warranty provision on the car is “fairly large” because GM doesn’t know what it will be and admits “there are a lot of uncertainties with the vehicle.” He says GM has “capacity for much more than 10,000″ Volts, and that GM could capacitize and tool for 50,000 or 60,000 but will start up slow and ramp up.

He explains even more effort will go into developing generations two and three of the car in parallel to gets costs down and make it more affordable, while the first generation cars will be aimed at satisfying customers.

He said he intends the Volt to be “the finest GM can do.”

I asked him what percentage of GM’s vehicles he expects to be electric in 10 years and if he is fully committed to electrification of the automobile and getting this country off of oil.

He replied that GM is “committed to being a part of the solution.” The commitment he advised is broad beyond purely electrics but also improving gas car fuel efficiency. He said that even in 10 years “the lion’s share” of GM vehicles will use the internal combustion engine, yet they will be “far more efficient.”

Finally I asked him if the Volt will be his own personal car and he said “Yes”, but that GM would satisfy all customers first before he got one, and that he would be “last on the line.”

Check out the video, and note sound quality improves dramatically after 1:13.