GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

GM’s successful restructuring hinges upon the ability to focus on its four core brands. Since the bankruptcy filing, GM has already announced it is in the late stages of selling the Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd of China.

Today they have announced that they have a proposed contract with the Penske Automotive Group to acquire the Saturn brand. The price tag will be between $100 and $200 million, and the sale, expected to be completed by the fall, would save 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs.

GM would continue to produce the current Aura, VUE, and Outlook for the brand for the next 2 years, discontinuing the Astra and Sky. After that Penske will look to outsource vehicle production and is already in talks with several global automakers with the most likely appearing to be Renault Samsung Motors of Korea.

“This is the combination of two iconic teams: Saturn and Penske,” said Saturn general manager Jill Lajdziak. “GM had the vision to create Saturn and has the desire to see it succeed in the future.”

“There has been a groundswell of support for Saturn, with our retailers and owners urging us to save the brand,” said Lajdziak. “We heard their call loud and clear, and it inspired us as we worked to secure Saturn’s future.”

“We have agreed upon a framework that we believe will build momentum for the Saturn brand,” said Penske Automotive Group Chairman Roger Penske. “Saturn has a passionate customer base and outstanding dealer network. For nearly 20 years Saturn has focused on treating the customer right. We share that philosophy, and we want to build on those strengths.”

In an interview, Roger Penske suggested that among the first cars the new Saturn might outsource could be electrics.  “Electric vehicles will be right at the forefront,” he said.  And in new agreements with foreign supplier those cars “might be the first vehicles produced in the U.S.”

Source (GM), (Bloomberg)

On Friday, Mitsubishi motors unveiled the production version of its i MiEV pure electric car. It begin production of the vehicle Thursday at its plant in Okayama Japan.

The car has a 16 kwh lithium-ion battery pack. The pack is 333 V and composed of 88 large format cells produced by a joint venture between Mitsubishi Motors and GS Yuasa of Japan.

The car has a 99 mile driving range and a top speed of 90 mph. The curb weight is 2200 pounds, seats four, and is rear wheel drive.

It offers a “multi entertainment system” via a 7 inch LCD screen, LED headlights, and specialized electric heating and air conditioning. There are three shift selector positions: D for gutsy torque, Eco for reduced power output and maximum range, and B for increased regenerative brake bias.

The on-board charger has 3 options: 120 v (15 amp) in 14 hours, 220 v (15 amp) in 7 hours, and quick charge 200v (3-phase, 50 kw) that will charge 80% in 30 minutes. A network of quick chargers are being installed in Japan.

Mitsubishi has said it will lease 1400 i MiEvs this year in Japan to fleet customers, and will begin taking orders in July. 5000 will be built in 2010 with the first customer sales in Japan starting in April 2010. Projected production volume for 2011 is 20,000 cars. Mitsubishi hopes to eventually bring the cars to North America.

The company calls the car “the pioneer that will open the door to the next 100 years of our automobile society.”

Pricing has been announced at 4,599,000 JY ($47 562 USD). Since the car is tax except in Japan the price effective becomes 4,380,000 JY ($45,660 USD), Furthermore the available Japanese government subsidy is an additional $14,490 off the price.

Source (Mitsubishi)

It has recently been disclosed that GM is in advanced talks with Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer Sichuan Tengzhong to purchase the Hummer brand. Shedding Hummer has been an important aspect of GM’s reorganization plan to be able to bring the automaker down to its four core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick.

Much has been made in the media about the irony of a Chinese company buying Hummer and the fact that it will give them a foothold in the US market as dealerships are taken over.

In more irony, the company has also indicated its interest in making Hummer a fuel efficient brand.

Tengzhong will keep the current Hummer executive team and continue to manufacture the vehicles in Shreveport, Louisiana. Jim Taylor is Hummer’s general manager and was recently interviewed about the transition.

Taylor confirmed the Hummer production would stay in the US at least in the short-term.

"We’re there until the end of 2010, for sure. After that, we have a lot of choices," he said. "As far as I can see in the next product development cycle, it would all come from here.

Of course Hummers sold in the US would have to achieve the newly approved federal CAFE regulations.
"We need to head towards CAFÉ compliance – which means smaller and more fuel efficient, or we’re dialed out," says Taylor. "Think of the smaller H4 we were showing at the auto show and it could safely conjectured we would enter into that space."

The reporter pointed out Raser’s recently unveiled plug-in hybrid hummer demonstration vehicle that could get 100 mpg and asked if the new company might pursue that course.

"It’s a big number to take on, a ground-up hybrid or electric vehicle, but it’d make a lot of sense for the Hummer brand," he said. "We just have to look at the financial side to see if it’s something we can stomach." He did note that there is a "100%" likelihood that in 5 years an alternative propulsion Hummer will hit the roads.

Source (TheDetroitBureau )

On June 3rd the world was notified of yet another new electric car start-up company along with its first vehilce of the same name.  Coda Automotive is the brainchild of  Miles Rubin who also founded Miles Automotive, the maker of low speed EVs.

Headquartered in Santa Monica California the new company stated its intentions to mass produce a pure electric sedan. The 4-door 5-passenger unassuming sedan will be powered by lithium ion batteries made by Lishen Co. of China.

The vehicle will have a 333 v 33.8 kwh battery pack composed of 728 prismatic 14.5Ah Li-ion cells. The pack will come with an 8 year 100,000 mile warranty.

Power comes from a 100 kw motor developing 221 foot-pounds of torque and delivers 0 to 60 under 11 seconds with a top speed of 80 mph. It is front wheel drive.

Driving range will be from 90 to 120 miles depending on driving behavior. There is a 6 kw on-board smart charger that will allow recharge in 12 hours at 120V, 6 hours at 240V.

Lishen is already one of the world’s largest lithium-ion battery producers and the new Lishen-Coda joint venture has already filed a grant application with the US DOE to build a battery plant in the United States.

Coda intends to deliver 2700 cars in the end of 2010 and has a capacity goal of 20,000 in 2011. Cars will be sold directly and for now only in California.

The vehicle will be priced at $45,000 and come with a “green screen” AM/FM/XM radio, bluetooth, iPod connector, and power windows and locks.

Source (Coda Automotive)

The GM bankruptcy is independent of its foreign subsidiaries. This includes GM Europe which makes Opel products.

GM Europe has itself been rescued through a German government brokered deal selling portions of the company to Canadian auto parts maker Magna and Russian lender Sberbank.  Magna will own 20%, Sberbank 35%, GM 35%, and Opel auto workers 10%.

Magna CEO Frank Stronach has strongly voiced his plans to move his company into electrification of the automobile, and indeed the company is already known to be partnering with Ford to bring their EV Focus to market in 2012.

“About two and a half years ago we made a commitment to be in the electric car business in a very serious way,” said Stronach. “First of all we’d like to supply all car companies with electrical systems but we also have the intention to build electric cars.”

And in time says Stronach “I am very confident that Magna will be amongst the leaders in selling and building electric cars.”

Where it gets interesting and potentially threatening to the Volt’s competitiveness is that the fact that the Opel Ampera is the sister car to the Chevy Volt and therefore contains the same proprietary Voltec drivetrain. Production of the Ampera remains on track for a European launch in 2012.

A consideration for speculation is whether Magna’s ownership position could give them access to proprietary Voltec intellectual property and competitive information which the company could then use in either building its own electric cars or those of other automakers like Ford.

“Certainly it would be too early to make any judgments about that, but I don’t think it would make an impact,” said Jon Lauckner, GM’s VP of product development. “Magna is acting as a supplier to Ford, so we are going to have to wait and see, quite frankly we haven’t had any discussion on it.”

Emails to representatives at Magna have gone unanswered.

Magna expects to close the deal by September, and Opel Chairman Carl Peter-Forster told Reuters they write “a lot of details of Canadian auto parts group Magna International’s deal to buy the company still needed to be clarified.”

GM’s bankruptcy filing doesn’t spell an end to the company but actually a new beginning. The Chevy Volt remains a critical element of GM’s future and therefore the program will not be affected in any way by the filing.

Jon Lauckner is GM’s VP of product development and along with Bob Lutz, co-inventor of the Chevy Volt.

“We’re closing one chapter and opening a new chapter,” he said. “This is really a defining moment for us. Its new future for the company. It going to let us solve problems that have been with us for many many years and really its a once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvent the company for the next 100 years.”

“We in product development really need to stay focused on the future,” said Lauckner. “We are moving valuable assets into the new GM, we’re going to have a more focused product portfolio, a smaller, nimbler, faster moving company; and that’s all part of the reinvention of GM. Over the next 60 to 90 days all of that will take place and we’ll emerge a faster leaner enterprise.”

“We are still open for business,” he said.  “We are out there to make sure that we satisfy customers and that we are backing all of our vehicles with warranty coverage and that we are working on our future portfolio.”

I asked the following questions of Mr. Lauckner.

Are you confident if everything goes to plan and made lean that GM will be able to be profitable even at 10 million SAAR?
Yes, because the viability plan has GM downsized to the point where we can break even at an industry volume of 10 million units, more or less where we are running today. That means as the economy recovers in the US, and industry volumes increase, that really sets the stage for us to generate significant profitability and cash flow. When you look at how the company is going to be resized and refocused we really have a tremendous opportunity to generate the kind of profitability the old company wouldn’t have been able to generate.

How will bankruptcy and government intervention affect the Volt program or will it in any way?
It won’t in any way impact the Volt program.

Production volume plans wont be affected?
Anything material that we’ve had as the plan for the Volt will not be changed. This does not change anything that we’ve set up in terms of the Volt.

The government questioned the Volt’s profitability at one point, does the government now support it fully?
I don’t know if it makes sense for me to speak for the government. The point is that everybody understands the Volt shows the way forward. You go back to the original introduction of the car in 2007 and you look at what’s taken place since then and every one agrees that the the question of electrification of the automobile is not a question of if, it has changed to a question of when.

It makes no sense for us to take a fundamentally different approach on the Volt as compared to where we were before today.

In 5 to 10 years what percentage of GM’s total portfolio will be Voltec vehicles?
That’s almost impossible for me to forecast with any certainty. We’re out there with the Volt and we are working on other potential applications of the Voltec propulsion system, and those studies continue. We’ll just have to see how the whole story develops. Its more fundamental than talking about what the Volt is going to do by itself, but more how the whole environment develops over the next few years.

Are you hopeful Voltec could become quickly a large segment of vehilce sales?
We see it as a very key technology going forward, and while we are in  the late stages of the development of the generation one Volt, we are already looking into generation two that would have technology that might  allow us to have better performance and lower cost.

This is something that we’re going to continue to work on. We know that no doubt as good as the Volt is in employing the very latest and greatest technology that’s out there, things will move forward in the next few years and there will be future developments that we will incorporate into the next generation of the car.

What is the time line of generation 2?
It depends on what you want to characterize as generation 2. There is the car and the technology and they may not line up. We have the propulsion system and it may make sense to make some interim improvements in some of the elements of the propulsion system within a year or two after start of production. And then longer term you talk about the lifecycle of the car itself. I don’t think you can make the evolutionary improvements that may take place in the propulsion system and just roll that up to the car level.

We have to take a look at it and we haven’t got all the work done, and we know we have to make cost reductions and that will involve changes and then of course you have the next generation of the complete car that we typically have on longer lifecycles than 1 to 2 years.

Will GM leapfrog to Volt and skip the small sedan hybrid?
We haven’t excluded any sort of hybrid propulsion systems from our thinking process in terms of what we might do in the future.

What about a pure EV without the generator?
We haven’t announced anything like that.

Is the Cadillac Converj greenlighted?
No the status of the Converj hasn’t changed.