GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The Chevy Volt show car has always been demonstrated with a white glossy iPod-like center stack console.

Shortly after it was unveiled the GM design team noted the stack would also be available in black and green finishes as well.

I have personally seen the new black stack while touring the Volt IVer production facility, and thought it looked excellent.

In one of GM’s videos showing the Volt IVers being built, one can catch a glimpse of the black stack, captured in the image above.

Although it looks gray in the shot it is indeed black.

I cannot get an official high resolution photo but am told it will be coming next week.

Source (Auotbloggreen)

The Chevy Volt concept was first unveiled in January 2007 to much fanfare and great national enthusiasm. Soon after, the typically outspoken GM vice chairman Bob Lutz told the world he expected the Volt to be sold for under $30,000. This further stoked the enthusiasm.
Later, he had to take those words back. In a newly published interview, he explains why.

It turns out he figured GM could use off-the-shelf components for everything but the battery.

“When I said I hope to sell it in the 20s, I just thought, well, if a conventional car of that size with a conventional four-cylinder engine, we can sell it for $15,000 or $16,000, then let’s notionally add $8,000 for the battery and we’re at $25,000,” said Lutz. “That’s the way my brain worked on that one.”

It was determined during development that the Volt would need many specialized and custom components including an expensive drivetrain, microprocessor controllers, and electrified AC compressor and brakes. Parts like these were not easy to find or cheap in the supplier market.

“You have to go to suppliers that you think have the experience, the capability and the manufacturing scale to do this,” said GM VP Jon Lauckner, co-creator of the Volt. “In many cases, it’s less than the number of fingers on your hand, with some fingers to spare.”

Another major cost factor for the car is guaranteeing the brand new high-tech battery pack for 10 years, 150,000 miles that is required by CARB.  Lutz noted that if warranty costs don’t reach projected values, “the car is OK almost from day one.”

The author if this report claims to know the Volt’s battery pack will be $8000, and that the car will retail for $40,000, with GM selling them to dealers at a loss, in the mid to upper 30s.  The average transaction price including tax and destination charges with thus be about $43,000.

It was also mentioned that the $1 billion development cost for the car almost killed the program as that is the same cost to develop three conventional cars. It was the tremendous public pressure, which I daresay this site had a lot to do with, that kept the program alive.

Experts expect the battery pack cost to be cut in half in 5 to 10 years at that point allowing the car to sell for under $30,000.  For those future versions, Lutz expects GM to keep the same 40 mile range, using the reductions in battery price instead to lower the vehicle’s cost to consumers.

“I think it’s all going to head in the direction of a smaller, lighter battery at much lower cost delivering the same range,” said Lutz.

Though costs could also be reduced by spreading Voltec into multiple vehicles, like the Orlando we just mentioned, or the Cadillac Converj, these cars remain in limbo.  Lutz said he expects GM to move slowly on these, stating “vehicle price is going to be a big issue for a long time to come.”

Source (AdAge)

As you may be aware, it is not possible to find a high efficiency hybrid people mover. There is a glaring complete absence of hybrid minivans, large or small in the marketplace.  Needless to say, this is a popular and useful vehicle type in American society yet the creation of a fuel efficient version has been neglected by all automakers.

You might be interested in reading a piece I wrote about this on AllCarsElectric.com called Hybrid Minivans: the road not taken.

Inspired and concerned, I reached out to GM vice chairman Bob Lutz to share with him what I see as a significant need, and wrote him the following in an email:

I wanted to point out the lack of a aerodynamic high-tech hybrid people mover with seating for 6 or 7 in the marketplace.

Families looking for a crossover/minivan/microvan size car that can hold 3 adults + 3 or 4 children and contain a strong hybrid drivetrain, getting > 40MPG will find nothing at all.

Previously, GM had unveiled the Chevrolet Orlando concept.  It is a 7 seat multipurpose vehicle (MPV) that is built on the same compact Delta frame the Volt is.  Through the creative use of space, the car has significant storage potential and three rows of theater-style seating.  The concept was demonstrated as having a 2.0 L turbo diesel engine.

In January 2009, GM confirmed the Orlando would go to production and arrive in the US in 2011, but no mention was made of what powertrain it would get.

Although it would seem logical that the Orlando might work well for a Voltec extended range electric propulsion system, no such project has ever been confirmed…until now that is.

“We are actually studying the adaptation of Volt technology to the upcoming Orlando,” said Lutz.  “Which would be close to what you describe.”

It looks like I just found my next second car.

Nissan has opened a new chapter in its ambitious plans to be a global leader in pure electric zero emissions vehicles.

At their new headquarters in Japan on Sunday August 2nd, the Nissan LEAF pure electric car was unveiled.

The car is a compact or C-class sedan with distinctive and special styling.  It is a 5 door hatch with seating for 5, and utilizes unique LED headlamps that use 10% as much energy as traditional headlamps.  The lights are also designed to slice the wind and direct it away from the side mirrors to improve aerodynamics.

The vehicle uses Nissan/NEC proprietary large format laminate batteries that total 24 kwh.  They power an 80 kw/280 Nm torque electric motor that gives the car a top speed of 90 MPH.  Charging is through a port on the front hood and takes 8 hours at 220 though is capable of 80% in 30 minute fast charging where available.

The car also has a wireless IT system that connects it to a global monitoring center 24 hours per day.

“Nissan LEAF is a tremendous accomplishment – one in which all Nissan employees can take great pride,” said Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn. “We have been working tirelessly to make this day a reality – the unveiling of a real-world car that has zero – not simply reduced – emissions. It’s the first step in what is sure to be an exciting journey – for people all over the world, for Nissan and for the industry.”

Nissan plans to begin selling the car in the selected US markets in late 2010 and plans to build 50,000 in its first year of production.

Pricing has not been announced, but Nissan claims it will be comparable to a well-equipped gas powered C class sedan.

Nissan is hoping this car will serve as a realistic everyday car that will sere people’s needs without producing emissions.  It will of course like any limited range EV not be practical for all uses though Nissan claims this range will satisfy 70% of global and 98% of US drivers daily needs.

Here we eagerly await the arrival of the Chevy Volt and the ability to drive without gasoline. As well, nearly all the major automakers are placing their bets on electrified vehicles of several varieties. Very soon, Nissan will unveil it’s mainstream EV that it hopes to sell 50,000 of globally in its first year of production, and 100,000 per year in the US by 2012. President Obama has called for 1 million plugin cars on US roads by 2015, and Nissan predicts 10% of its sales will be electric cars by 2020.

Yet in spite of these ambitious expectations and our hopes for a world without oil, automotive forecasters are taking a more conservative view.

CSM Worldwide predicts that instead of the 10 million global EVs Nissan predicts by 2016, there will only be 2.9 million electrics and hybrids combined, with only 400,000 them being pure electric cars by that year.  This amounts to a paltry 0.5 percent share of the global market.

Famed forecaster JD Power concurs with that 0.5% prediction.

“10 million pure electric vehicles annually from 2016 would equate to approximately 12.5 percent of the global market, compared with our forecast of 0.5 percent (including plug-ins),” said Andrew Fulbrook, Senior Manager, European Powertrain Forecasts at CSM Worldwide.

Part of the issue is despite the automakers’ hype, forecasters suspect 100 mile range EVs won’t wind up being very popular, especially in America.

“None of these battery vehicles offer a realistic range. The claim is often for 100 miles, but you’ll get less on a cold day if you need the heater on, or the air conditioning in the summer. For these reasons, we have a very conservative forecast,” said Al Bedwell, senior manager of J.D. Power automotive forecasting.

However, by 2020 he predicts battery technology and fast charging infrastructure will have advanced enough to allow electric cars to begin to prevail.

“(The forecast) accelerates towards the end of the decade when batteries will improve and get cheaper — we forecast 700,000 by 2020 in Western Europe, including hybrid electric range extender and battery electric. By 2020, electric vehicles will beat plug-ins and hybrids,” he says.

Even by then he still predicts gas cars will be far more predominant.  “Despite all the battery electric cars and range extenders and hybrids, this will still only make up about 15 percent of the market by 2020,” says Bedwell.

Eventually the combustion engine will begin to ride off in the sunset though not until the late 2030s.

“If I was forced to put a decade on it, I doubt it will be until perhaps the late 2030s that we’ll see the first signs of the internal combustion engine in its current form going away, but then we didn’t get rid of the horse when steam came along, we just changed its use somewhat,” said Fulbrook.

Source (Detroit News)