GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

GM launched a program in the end of 2007 called Project Driveway.  This program allows ordinary people to have full-time use of Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles.  About 100 are in operation through the US, even through the vehicle isn’t in production.

According to vice chairman Bob Lutz, apparently GM is considering a similar program for early Chevy Volts.

“We might even do the same thing we did with the Chevrolet Equinox and have Project Driveway and have real Americans driving Volts where they use it as a daily car for a couple of months,” he said.

Lutz also told the reporter the demand for Volts is significant and indicated that over 50,000 people have registered on “websites” as being interested in the car.  Though the reporter did not specify the websites Lutz referred to, he admitted in an email after my request, “he did mention your site.”

The report also indicated that 10,000 Volts would be produced in year one, and 60,000 in year two, plans that have been often been published but never confirmed by GM. This numerical discrepancy has lead some authors to predict demand will far outweigh supply for the early Volts.  Recently, however, Dave Barthmuss from GM was quoted as saying GM would actually build “tens of thousands” of Volts in the first year.

Regardless of the potential for strong demand and limited supply, GM is building up to a Volt advertising blitz the likes of which we have never seen.

Once GM has a few hundred pre-production Volts on hand next year, they plan to “pull out the heavy artillery and get Volt buzz going with media and customer events,” said Lutz.

The marketing drive will begin to ratchet up starting at the LA Auto Show this December.

Can’t wait.

Source (Autonews sub. req.)

Alex Cattelan is head of the Volt propulsion engineering team.  I had the chance to discuss the current state of Chevy Volt development from her perspective.

What is your role in the Volt program?
I head up the team that does all of the propulsion systems for the Volt. That includes motors, power electronics, we don’t do the battery but we work extensively with the battery team to do the integration of the battery, and the EV propulsion system

Are you only working on the Volt?
I am dedicated to the Volt and I heave a team of people that are dedicated to the Volt and I’m extremely enthusiastic about the Volt. We have segregated a team of people that are working on the Volt and the Volt only.

What are you doing now?
The specific stage of the program that we are in, for powertrain, is building on our third level of hardware which is integrated in the the vehicles. We’re doing all of our validation testing on that level of hardware; we’ve got past development where the architecture needs to be, through two generations of hardware we’ve confirmed all of our performance requirements with that architecture.

There are three major areas I’m focused on right now. Making sure that all of our hardware that has been built to date, that third level of hardware is in testing. We are validating all of our parameters for it; durability, that’s the hugest piece, the reliability, making minor fixed to areas that we’d like to improve.

The other major area that we’re focused on is the calibration of the system which is huge, because it’s a very complex system from the perspective of the torque generators we have, the engine, the motors, the power electronics. So we’re tuning all of those systems to make the vehicle fun to drive, to meet all of our efficiency requirements, our drivability requirements, noise vibration and harshness requirements, and we are now entering the phase of program where we will do all of the development for certification. So that’s fuel economy label certification, and that will continue for some months now. We’re going to test per the procedures that are being developed for this program and verify that all of our calibration is tuned in for optimization of the driving experience along with the efficiency of the vehicles. And that’s really the stage that were tuning into now.

In addition the third element that we’re working on is tuning in the manufacturing systems. So we’ve been building our production in our manufacturing plant and we’re right now preparing for what we call pre-production level hardware. That before we build saleable parts we’re going to build pre-production parts in the assembly plant so that its ready for volume. Make sure that our suppliers are prepared for that, make sure that our supplier’s tools are prepared for that and tweaked for quality, our manufacturing plant is tweaked for quality. I was just there last week and walked through all of their systems and systems development to make sure there ready for the production phase.

So those are kind of my three major areas of focus right now.

When you mention the production plant are you talking about Detroit-Hamtramck (DHAM)?
No that’s vehicle assembly plant but ahead of that we’re going to our suppliers and their manufacturing plants for individual parts and systems. And in addition, our drive unit and engine have their own manufacturing facilities that we are walking through and making sure they are ready.

Is GM building its own electric motor for the Volt?
The motor is actually supplied to us but we will be integrating that motor in our drive unit so its encased in our drive unit, we provide tooling, rotating components and all of that which is built in a manufacturing plant owned by GM. We are getting ready to do all of that manufacturing , so the housings, for example we take the castings from a supplier we do all the machining of the housings, the bearing the gearing, all of that kind of stuff.

So you get some of the parts from outside but you put them all together?
Exactly, so it’s a manufacturing step that happens and we send that drive unit and that engine to the assembly plant in DHAM for installation into the vehicle.

Have they done anything at DHAM yet to get ready?
There’s a ton of work going on at DHAM to get ready, and we’ve built our what we call our integration vehicle, and we’re towards the end of that phase. That is being built in pre production operations, however the DHAM team has been very integral in those builds. They have been overseeing the builds they’ve been doing slow builds, they’ve been identifying all issues for their production processes. They’re currently working on tooling for the body. There’s a number of things that DHAM’s doing to get engaged and ready. Because the next phase of vehicle, which is not a saleable vehicle yet, but its our next phase of product, will be built in DHAM so they are getting all of their systems tuned, the personnel trained and ready to go.

When will the first vehicle be built at DHAM?
We’re tuned towards first quarter of next year for that date.

GM has just about finished production of 80 integration-vehicle version Chevy Volts. These are full production intent cars that are being used for extensive road testing to generate learning engineers can use to further refine the vehicle for production.

Part of that learning involves putting the car through rigorous real-world driving conditions. We have already heard the cars have performed well in the mountains of Tennessee and the heat of Death Valley.

A very storied and symbolic place to drive is Pike’s Peak. A GM engineer by the name of John Blanchard has written about and confirmed the Chevy Volt has climbed the peak.

This location is interesting because it is 14,115 feet high and has a 19 mile road going up to the summit. It represents the scenario of the car being in generator mode and requiring continuous sustained energy to climb the very long steep grade.

Blanchard confirmed “the Volt was in extended-range mode for the most part of this segment.” On the uphill portion the team was “making sure the Volt could climb the steep inclines and operate at a high altitude.”

As the picture shows, Volt made it to the top, and “climbed the mountain faster than we anticipated,” he wrote. How fast you say? Blanchard didn’t.

The team also evaluated the Volt’s downhill performance too which interestingly represents a long and continuous opportunity to regenerate energy.

“The regenerative feature produced a good amount of energy back into the battery,” said Blanchard. “We were also pleasantly surprised with the temperature of our brakes.”

Back in the summer of 2008 I speculated with the Volt’s chief engineer Andrew Farah whether the Volt (which didn’t exist then) would be limited in speed to due power limitations on Pike’s Peak.

He had said “it’s a problem if you want to do it at 90 mph, but it’s not a problem to get you to the top.”

“There are limitations to the E-REV concept,” he said. “But the people who will experience a problem with this are far and few between.”

It is great news to see that the day the Volt actually did climb Pike’s Peak has really arrived.

Source (GM)

The Chevy Volt has two configurable LCD screens, one behind the wheel where traditional gauges are typically found, and one atop the center stack. The latter will also be a touch screen. I have seen it in person in a pre-production car and was very impressed with its crispness, vividness and high definition.

We understand a lot of information will be available on those displays, they are configurable, and the driver will be able to choose among many options.

A primary function will be to provide the driver with feedback on how fuel efficient he/she is driving and utilizing accessory loads such as HVAC.

As anyone who like to hypermile hybrids knows, seeing real-time instantaneous MPG is a useful measure to adjust driving behavior as one moves along varying road conditions.

I asked Tony Posawatz who is the Volt vehicle line engineer if that value will be provided while the car is running in charge-sustaining (generator) mode.

“I don’t think we will show instantaneous mpg,” he said. “We are working a lot on what information to show and how to present it right now.”

“The OnStar capabilities with VOLT will be mind boggling,” he said. “Stay tuned.”

The following is a discussion I recently had about the Chevy Volt with Bob Kruse who was GM’s director of hybrids and EVs, just before his recent departure.

I would imagine driving style will affect the Volts’ electric range. Hyper-milers probably will try to get the car to go 100 miles without going into generator mode.
Yes. I can probably get it to do several hundred miles downhill with tailwind. To be honest with you there’s several driver interfaces that try to teach drivers. We’ve not talked too much about the man-machine interface, but it will have the necessary tools to allow drivers to modify their behavior for maximum electric range.

Will you have an interface like Ford or Honda that show these green leaves and things?
The Volt will have a very cool set of graphic interfaces for the drivers. We’ve got two different reconfigurable display areas, a primary right in front of the driver where the traditional cluster is and a secondary at the top of the center stack that will have content unique for a driver interfacing with an electric vehicle.

You haven’t shared what that’s going to look like yet.
No but it’s very well done. It’s very impressive.

Very similar to the charge sustaining story, ongoing refinement. While we have time were going to make it perfect. All the fundamental basic functions are already done, we’re making it perfect, cool, and sexy.

Some of these schedules that some of these companies make when they say they get hundreds of miles of electric range, the schedule that you’re on can help influence that.  In the Volt if you do 35 mph flat terrain steady state there’s upside potential over the 40 mile range. One thing we’ve got to look out for is that the US consumer is not happy with the EPA mpg ratings in that they don’t necessarily represent real world driving conditions. We’re being very careful to not allow the perception to exceed the reality. You don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver

It seems to me you feel you are going to underpromise and overdeliver?
That’s fair. Were being somewhat conservative again because we want to be successful with the technology.

IBM has a long history of putting its brainpower behind projects of significant societal importance.

Apparently they have chosen to focus a new endeavor on the electric car.

The so-called “Battery 500″ project is staffed by a consortium of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers, and the inaugural meeting kicked off last week in California.

IBM believes that the current target range of electric cars from 40 to 100 miles is too limiting and the focus of the group is to develop a 500 mile range practical electric car battery.

“Batteries technology has improved, but is still far inferior to gasoline in terms of how much energy they hold,” said Spike Narayan, an IBM scientist. “The energy density—which is the amount of energy a lithium-ion battery stores per unit weight—is really not enough to produce a family-sized sedan with a 300- to 500-mile range.”

The group has particularly focused on the lithium-air battery as the best option. The lithium-air battery isn’t sealed and uses atmospheric oxygen as the cathode, which flows into the cell as needed. By coupling this chemistry with IBM’s nanoscale manufacturing technologies it is projected that batteries with 10 times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion cells could be produced.

Lithium-air cells have already been demonstrated at the laboratory level, and IBM believes it will take about two years to determine if they can in fact mass produce a 500 mile battery of reasonable size and weight.

Cost may remain an issue as well as fast charging availability; it would take days to recharge a 500 mile battery at household current. Furthermore, if most people drive less than 40 miles per day, carrying around all that range may prove unnecessary.

All of this demonstrates the incredibly exciting flux of ideas and opportunities that the transformation of transportation technology is bringing with it.

Source (Smarter Technology)