GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Recently I traveled to GM’s Milford Proving Grounds for the opportunity with many other journalists to test drive the company’s entire fleet of production cars which were all laid out across a large swath of pavement called back lake.

To our surprise, in the middle of the event, suddenly Frank Weber pulled up in a pre-production Chevy Volt integration vehicle fresh off the assembly line.  Presently there are about 30 of these IVers built out of a total of 89 that will be completed in roughly 6 weeks.

Though we were not permitted to drive the car, nor experience the generator mode operation, Frank did give some journalists test rides.

I was afforded the shotgun position and had two additional riders in the back seat including Sam Abuelsamid from Autoblog.

The experience of actually sitting in a bonafide running fully functional and operational Chevrolet Volt was an absolute pinnacle of the incredible long 2-1/2 year journey I’ve been on since this site began in January 2007.

To all those thousands of naysayers who said it couldn’t or wouldn’t been done, I guess you were wrong.

Below you can enjoy my high-def video of the experience.

First of all the car was sharp and sleek, and the interior was dazzling. The LCD displays were bright and high definition. There was plenty of room on the passenger side, and Frank Weber at about 6’4″ seemed to fit into the driver side without difficulty. The two journalists in the back were comfortable as well. As Sam put it “The Volt is considered a compact, but in spite of the sloping roof-line, it still felt surprisingly roomy. Both leg and headroom were more than adequate for this journ’s long-torsoed 5’10″ frame.”

Acceleration was startling. The car took off like a rocket even with all four of us in it.

Amazing as well was the absolute silence. Clearly the final design and soundproofing has had remarkable results compared to the mules. This was simply the quietest electric car I’ve ever been in.

It was smooth and nimble and did not feel weighted down.

It took quick turns with certainty.

Frank even said there was a bit of a delay programmed into the instant torque so that the final production cars would be even quicker, and would have better ride and handling.  Hard to believe.

All I can say is no one will be disappointed with this car, destined to become, if it hasn’t already, the next American icon.

On Thursday GM CEO Fritz Henderson announced that GM has begun construction work on a factory in Brownstown Township Michigan in which the Chevy Volt battery packs will be assembled.

GM invested $43 million to develop the plant where packs for the Volt and “other extended range electric vehicles” will be assembled.

The 160,000 square foot facility will be landfill-free and provide 100 jobs. It is the first US based lithium ion battery plant operated by an automaker and will be part of a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM called GM Subsystem Manufacturing LLC.

Equipment installation there is already underway and series production will start in the fourth quarter of 2010 to support Volt launch. Prototypes will be built earlier next year.

“Developing and producing advanced batteries is a key step in GM’s journey to become the leader in electric vehicles,” said Fritz Henderson, GM president and CEO. “This state-of-the-art battery manufacturing site reinforces our commitment to achieve that goal and to deliver clean, fuel-efficient vehicles to our customers.”

GM VP Gary Cowger provided pack details:

- 400 pounds, 5 feet long (next generation will be smaller and lighter)

- 16 kwh, 360 Volts, over 220 cells

- 400 amp peak level

- Cells provided by LG Chem

The plant consist of three areas:

- The Battery Module Pre-assembly

- The Battery Module Final Assembly

- The Pack Main Line

The goal is to process 70,000 cells per day or one every 2.7 seconds.

Press Release

Here is an animation of the Battery Pack Assembly Plant in Operation:

When GM announced the Chevy Volt should be rated at 230 MPG in city driving, they also divulged another efficiency rating.

Pure electric cars are generally rated in terms of kwh per 100 miles to show how efficient the vehilce is at using electrical energy. Since the Volt will drive the first 40 miles without gas it is appropriate to apply that metric to those miles.

Per GM’s press release, “applying EPA’s methodology, GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving.” GM noted that this methodology is new and still under development in draft form.

Since we know the Volt will be able to use a maximum of 8 kwh of energy storage, then it could be concluded the Volt’s all electric range (AER) should come out only to 32 miles in city driving [100 mi/25 kwh x 8 kwh = 32 mi]. This is lower than the omnipresent 40 miles GM has stated since the beginning.

I sought clarification from Volt executive Frank Weber.

“The Volt is achieving 40 miles in the city and highway cycle, ” he said. “Nothing has changed.”

He noted however that in the new testing methodology “EPA is assuming a daily charge and is applying some real world factors that will degrade the EV range.”

“EPA has considered varying temperature and drive style conditions in their methodology,” explains Weber defining what he means by real world factors, and distinguishing how the new test differs from the old one.

“The cycle tests are run at a single temp and would not reflect range variation due to accessory loads,” said Weber referring to the older methodology from which the 40 mile designation was originally estimated.

I contacted Andrew Simpson, who is a Senior Research Fellow in plug-in vehicle technology at Curtin University, Australia, and previously worked at Tesla Motors and completed the EPA range certification testing of the Tesla Roadster. He said the older method is called “the SAE Recommended Practice J1634 “Electric Vehicle Energy Consumption and Range Test Procedure”. However, he notes “the standard is a bit outdated and SAE have formed a committee to revise it.” It is this committee that has written the draft.

“The revised 1634 procedure is an abbreviated version of the previous and consists of a battery capacity/characterization test followed by an finite number of drive cycles to measure energy consumption and estimate range,” said Vineet Mehta also of Tesla Motors.

The original J1634 procedure was written in 1993 and technically discontinued in 2003. The revised SAE J1634 draft is expected to be completed by December 2009.

So will the Volt still get 40 miles under real world standard conditions in the city? And what will the number be on the highway? These facts as well as the Volt’s MPG in generator node remain undisclosed.

It is important realize that EV ranges will vary considerably from what the manufacturer claims just as MPG does, and depend considerably on driving aggressiveness and use of accessory loads.

The sticker shown above was for the original EV-1 showing how the car got 30 kwh/100 miles in the city and a 20% more efficient 25 kwh/100 miles on the highway.

Yesterday was the highest traffic day in the history of GM-Volt.com, with over 60,000 visitors, and I apologize for the slowness of the site.

Why was this? Of course because GM announced that the Volt would get an EPA rating of more than 230 MPG. As exciting and compelling as that number is, it has raised as many questions as answers.

GM has not enunciated in exact detail how that number was arrived at.

But, while at the GM event I had the chance to get the answer from Larry Nitz, GM’s executive director of hybrid powertrain engineering

Can you explain how GM and the EPA arrived at the 230 MPG city estimate for the Volt?

In a conventional car there is two things that cause your efficiency to vary. The speed and intensity of your driving, and the environment; do you need HVAC, lights, etc.

With the Volt, you add two more things that makes your mileage vary, how far you drive, and how many times you plug in during the day.

So on any given day if you have plugged in your EV, range at low intensity driving, like the EPA city cycle is, is 40 miles. If you drive more aggressively your EV distance will be reduced.

Now, after you’ve depleted the battery, in the case of the Volt, the engine will start and the engine will keep the vehicle running for as long as you have fuel in the tank, and the fuel economy you have there matters too.

So in the calculation of the label, for that 230 you take into account the EV distance, the fuel economy after you depleted the charge, and the EPA used a traffic survey that was done in 2001 to create a composite.

They looked an an aggregate sample of the population and how far they drove in a day.

With the data we have and the data we shared with the EPA, from that value, they’ve created what’s called a utility factor.

It was a snapshot in time and based on this dataset we will weight the value on an aggregated probabilistic way what the value of the EV distance is, and we’ll also weight one minus that for the charge sustaining distance.

You go through this calculation that accounts for the fuel use and you come out with a number and the number is 230.

That’s a big number and you ask, will I ever get that number?, and its kind of interesting. In a normal car if you drive it high intensity you can never get the EPA , but in the Volt you always could, it just depends how far you have to drive. If you drive under the EV distance its infinite.

What was the percentage of time or miles in EV mode that was used?

The number was calculated by the EPA using this probabilistic curve and it had the statistics of the population in it.

How about the petroleum equivalence factor (PEF), is that included?
There will be on the label itself an accounting for the gasoline equivalent of KWH used. That’s a separate conversion that will get melded in another way and is not included in the MPG estimate.

So in summary, Nitz explains that the average Volt driver charging his car nightly can expect to burn one gallon of gas for every 230 miles traveled over time based on the behavior of a particular random population that was studied in 2001.

The highway calculation will be lower but the composite average is expected to be greater than 100 MPG.

The EPA has not confirmed this number yet because they haven’t tested the car, but they agreed to the testing method and GM is confident these are the numbers that will eventually become official.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson announced today that the Chevrolet Volt extended range electric car has been given an official EPA rating of more than 230 MPG city and a combined city/highway average fuel economy of more than 100 MPG.

The photo above is the first ever of the production Volt charger.

Henderson mentioned that GM has been quietly promoting the numbers 2 and 2 with a happy outlet and today owned up to it.

He said the EPA has developed a new federal fuel economy methodology draft for PHEVs.

Using this technique, the Volt will become the first mass produced vehicle to obtain a triple digit MPG rating. He also noted using this system the Volt is determined to have an efficiency of 25 kwh/100 miles. Considering the cost of electricity this amounts to 3 cents per mile.

“From the data we’ve seen, many Chevy Volt drivers may be able to be in pure electric mode on a daily basis without having to use any gas,” said GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson. “EPA labels are a yardstick for customers to compare the fuel efficiency of vehicles. So, a vehicle like the Volt that achieves a composite triple-digit fuel economy is a game-changer.”

The methodology assumes in city driving the car will mostly operate on electricity but some degree of gas operation is taken into account. The petroleum equivalence of electricity and a utility factor weighing in the population’s driving behavior are also included in the calculation.

Press Release:

Chevrolet Volt Expects 230 mpg in City Driving

* First mass-produced vehicle to claim more than 100 mpg composite fuel economy
* Tentative EPA methodology results show 25 kilowatt hours/100 miles electrical efficiency in city cycle
* Plugging in daily is key to high-mileage performance

WARREN, Mich. – The Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle is expected to achieve city fuel economy of at least 230 miles per gallon, based on development testing using a draft EPA federal fuel economy methodology for labeling for plug-in electric vehicles.

The Volt, which is scheduled to start production in late 2010 as a 2011 model, is expected to travel up to 40 miles on electricity from a single battery charge and be able to extend its overall range to more than 300 miles with its flex fuel-powered engine-generator.

“From the data we’ve seen, many Chevy Volt drivers may be able to be in pure electric mode on a daily basis without having to use any gas,” said GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson. “EPA labels are a yardstick for customers to compare the fuel efficiency of vehicles. So, a vehicle like the Volt that achieves a composite triple-digit fuel economy is a game-changer.”

According to U.S. Department of Transportation data, nearly eight of 10 Americans commute fewer than 40 miles a day http://tinyurl.com/U-S-DOTStudy .

“The key to high-mileage performance is for a Volt driver to plug into the electric grid at least once each day,” Henderson said.

Volt drivers’ actual gas-free mileage will vary depending on how far they travel and other factors, such as how much cargo or how many passengers they carry and how much the air conditioner or other accessories are used. Based on the results of unofficial development testing of pre-production prototypes, the Volt has achieved 40 miles of electric-only, petroleum-free driving in both EPA city and highway test cycles.

Under the new methodology being developed, EPA weights plug-in electric vehicles as traveling more city miles than highway miles on only electricity. The EPA methodology uses kilowatt hours per 100 miles traveled to define the electrical efficiency of plug-ins. Applying EPA’s methodology, GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving. At the U.S. average cost of electricity (approximately 11 cents per kWh), a typical Volt driver would pay about $2.75 for electricity to travel 100 miles, or less than 3 cents per mile.

The Chevrolet Volt uses grid electricity as its primary source of energy to propel the car. There are two modes of operation: Electric and Extended-Range. In electric mode, the Volt will not use gasoline or produce tailpipe emissions when driving. During this primary mode of operation, the Volt is powered by electrical energy stored in its 16 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

When the battery reaches a minimum state of charge, the Volt automatically switches to Extended-Range mode. In this secondary mode of operation, an engine-generator produces electricity to power the vehicle. The energy stored in the battery supplements the engine-generator when additional power is needed during heavy accelerations or on steep inclines.

“The 230 city mpg number is a great indication of the capabilities of the Volt’s electric propulsion system and its ability to displace gasoline,” said Frank Weber, global vehicle line executive for the Volt. “Actual testing with production vehicles will occur next year closer to vehicle launch. However, we are very encouraged by this development, and we also think that it is important to continue to share our findings in real time, as we have with other aspects of the Volt’s development.”

When the Volt concept was first debuted it caught the world by surprise and was cause for inspiration. Sure there had been the EV-1 and the Tesla Roadster was in prototype stage, but most of the US population was not well exposed to the idea of electric cars.

Since the Volt subsequently garnered so much attention and good will, it has undoubtedly contributed to most of the major automakers announcing their own electric car programs, and launching marketing machines to match.

Some such as Nissan with its LEAF EV are particularly promoting pure electric cars. This could affect potential Volt buyers.

As an example, I was speaking with a well-educated and knowledgeable friend who currently drives a Camry hybrid. He explained to me that he wouldn’t want a Volt because of its 40 mile range. I of course explained the virtues of the car, the ability to drive limitlessly when needed, and the ability to avoid range anxiety.

He replied, “Yes but I don’t want to use any gas at all.”

Though he has a good point, the infrastructure doesn’t exist yet to drive electric cars exclusively and the Volt is an effective solution to begin weaning the country off of oil at this time

Yet it has dawned on me that all the marketing being done by those companies who are planning pure electrics without range extenders maybe having a negative effect on perception of the Chevy Volt.

I had the chance to discuss this with GM’s Director of EVs and Hybrids, Bob Kruse.

In bringing the Volt to market, despite all these years there are still people focused on range and I wonder if the carmakers going with pure electrics are making it harder to market the Volt?
Let me give you some perspective. In battery electric vehicles we talk about range anxiety. Voltec was done to mitigate that. We were able to do that with conventional technology. 78% of the US population drives less than 40 miles per day. Competitors are talking about pure battery electrics with a hundred of miles of electric range. Pick any technology and I can assure you several things. A 200 mile battery will cost more than a 40 mile battery, a 200 mile battery will weigh more than a 40 mile battery. When you’re balancing a vehicle you want to optimize around a particular solution. So heavier vehicle needs more chassis structure, bigger brakes, etc. We say mass begets mass. We have optimized the Volt and the Volt’s battery around this 40 mile promise. That’s with the assumption that the vehicle is going to be connected to the power grid once a day. Remember the first brick cell phones? One of the things that enabled cell phones to get smaller is battery technology. These all had NiCads at the time. You charge your phone once a day. You could buy a phone that you only had to plug in once a week, but you have to carry around this brick. Would you make this trade off? First generation technology is very expensive so why would you want more battery than you are going to use once a day? Why would you want to carry around and push around more battery than you need once a day.

Could people be misled about the Volt by looking at the marketing of the other carmakers pushing pure electrics and just focusing on range. I’m wondering if GM has a mechanism to educate people?
I’ve had this conversation with lots of reporters. Its analogous to a flat screen TV. What is the diagonal? 52 inch. It replaced something with a 25 inch diagonal. So if you spent all this money on a flat screen television could you imagine only using a quarter of it and displaying a 25 inch picture on it? If you buy a 200 mile range electric vehicle and your only going to drive 40 miles a day that’s the equivalent of watching a 25 inch picture on a 52 inch TV.

Its important as we look to moving to vehicles that don’t use petroleum and with the convenience of refueling in your garage. Part of the reason our gas cars have 400 mile range tanks is that its inconvenient to go to a gas station. With a Volt you don’t have to go to the service station and many will never go because they can have their needs met by plugging in once per day.

Part of what we have to do with the Volt is we have to balance being innovative and first to market with the expense of first generation technology. Could we have put a bigger battery in the Volt? Yes. Would it have cost more? Yes. Would it have weighed more? Yes. Would it have helped 78% of the customer who drive less than 40 miles per day? No. Its very important as we regularize electric vehicles that we balance them properly. You’ve seen and driven some of the west coat start up EVs with more EV range than the Volt. You recognize what those cost. We’ve not announced the price of the Volt but there’s orders of magnitude between them. As we’re trying to regularize and make these available to larger and larger consumer groups this is a very key point.

Maybe we will be judging this wrong and people will brag ‘I have a 200 miles EV and you only have a 40 mile EV’

What if people look at it at the surface and they miss GM’s message?
This is perhaps one of the disadvantages of talking so much about this so early, but the other thing I think you will find is that the consumer is really smart. They do make trade off decisions in fuel economy and the cost of the vehicle. Look what happened to hybrid sales when gas was $4 or so a gallon versus when it was $1.50 a gallon. That’s the marketplace working.