AND 
CNBC Test Drive of the Chevy Volt in Charge Sustaining Mode
A long awaited milestone has just been achieved, sort of.
For many months we’ve discussed, debated, deduced, asked about and imagined what it would be like to drive the Chevy Volt while its generator is running.
This mode is so critical because it represent the first mass market application an electric car operating at the same time an on-board gas engine is running to generate electricity once the battery low point is reached. We’ve heard for months the process has been under refinement but that GM executives and engineers were already quite pleased with the experience.
Phil LeBeau of NBC’s nationally broadcast Today Show became the first person outside of GM to have the experience and be able to report on it. He was given an exclusive test drive of an advanced integration Chevy Volt prototype.
The report did give us some new observations and knowledge. You can view the two minute video at the bottom of this article.
We found out the driver side LCD screen tells how efficient one is driving by showing a traffic light symbol that changes from green to yellow when efficiency reduces.
Chief engineer Andrew Farah demonstrates it; when he floors the car he says “it felt really great wonder full and responsive, it was terrible for overall energy efficiency ”
LeBeau also says on the screen the MPG is demonstrated and for example while driving around the Milford proving grounds on his exclusive test drive it showed he was getting over 200 mpg.
The report also claims JD Power thinks only 50,000 electric cars will be sold in 2015, a far cry less than Obama’s pledge of 1 million or the several million hoped for by the Electrification Coalition
Also, for the first time ever the pedestrian alert was demonstrated. The Volt is nearly silent and wont make artificial sounds. Instead a driver activated alert will be available to let people know the car is nearby The alert is activated by pushing a lever and emits a pleasant light horn-like chirping sound.
In his written report, Lebeau comments on the driving experience:
When you go from driving all-electric to running the gas-assist engine, the transition is disconcerting.
It needs to be smoothed out, and GM engineers know it.
When you’re driving on the gas assist engine, there’s no fall off in power, handling, etc. and perhaps I found it jarring because I went from the silent electric drive to hearing the engine. Whatever the reason, it needs to be improved.
60 Responses to “CNBC Test Drive of the Chevy Volt in Charge Sustaining Mode”
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November 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Hmmmm
November 20th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Any press is good. The technical aspects will be slower to come out.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Every time I see a video of it in motion it makes me want one even more. I’m still driving my 1989 Ford Tempo just waiting for the day I can get a car with a plug. While I have always preferred Ford cars the Volt has made me a believer. Go GM go USA!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Crap. I missed the live broadcast, but thanks for the link.
I have been critical of the CS mode for quite some time. In a small sliver of optimism, I would say that the fact that Phil said nothing about it, may indicate that he did not even notice any difference. (Which is exactly what GM wants)
Ok, enough optimism for one day!
Lets just get Lyle behind the wheel, and let him give us his impression of CS mode. Then I will be satisfied, one way or the other.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Maybe it compliments the system because to him CS mode may not have felt like anything special
November 20th, 2009 at 10:07 am
It’s called bad reporting! The incompetence of the non-automotive so called main stream media has been astonishing. There has been a lot of bad reporting when it comes to the Volt and how it works. The worst stories are the ones that compare Volt to Prius and then say its drawback is the 40 mile range without even mentioning that it works in Generator mode. Many in the press reporting on Volt do not do their homework and seem not even to consult people at GM to do their fact checking. I’m sure the Today Show reporter was not even aware that Generator mode operation had never been revealed to anyone outside GM. I actually see this as good because if something had been bad about it, they certainly would have wasted no time bashing GM on the quality of it new car. So in my opinion no news is Excellent News for Volt. The car I’m sure performed flawlessly and normally as GM Said it would.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:13 am
They need to let our expert Journalist take the drive.
Come On GM…give Lyle the keys [oh wait...does it have keys?
]
November 20th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I’m reserving any judgement on CSM until Lyle “the Man” Dennis gets behind the wheel. It is disappointing and curious that Phil Lebeau said nothing about CSM, although the driving experience didn’t seem like it was the main thrust of his video. He seemed more to focus on EV adoption as a whole rather than the technical aspects of the Volt. He missed a golden opportunity IMO.
side note: Anyone notice our posts are all being numbered as number “2″? Not important, just wondering if there’s a glitch?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Is JD Power so narrow-minded to make a statement that only 50k electric cars will be produced in 2015?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I don’t know who Phil LeBeau is.
Does he know anything about cars for about EREVs?
The guy over on CNBC seems to know quite a bit.
So why not get a journalist who has a clue. Shoot, they don’t even need one.
Lyle, I volunteer to sit in the back seat when you take your test drive.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I thought the same thing.
Funny how I don’t equate the Volt with an EV. I can see 50,000 or less EVs sold by 2015. But I see a ton more of EREVs being sold. My guess would be around 500,000 by then with the Volt selling a projected 240,000.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Well, obviously the reporter isn’t a car guy, but importantly nothing bad was said about the drive.
I LIKE the green/yellow power indicator. Nice and subtle.
David K (CT)
I’m betting on one of those little stay in your pocket fob’s.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:34 am
That was my first thought — that it really didn’t feel that different. But he intimated the Volt was silent, which seems unlikely in CS mode. The other thought was GM asked him not to write about it or something. But given that GM had to think CS was ready for prime time, else why do the test drive, I’m going to check your “Optimistic Box”.
If you look at the video he didn’t mention anything about the driving experience. He just talked about the mileage. The other issue is that he’s been on a bunch of test drives before — on CNBC — so I’m unsure why this was an “unveiling”.
Hopefully Lyle will be able to get some clarification.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:37 am
That’s the same guy Rashiid. You know, NBC and CNBC.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I think 50k is a decent guess. The move toward pure EVs is paved on a road of EREVs. It’ll take several years of EREVs and people getting used to them before pure EVs become more popular.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I this a joke? We need an independent evaluation of the car’s performance over say 100 miles, followed by a fill up to calculate fuel economy. We do not need more “test loop” drives with perhaps the engine running when the driver first slides behind the wheel and stays at one operating point for the entire drive. I say again, is this a joke?
November 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
I agree that it is EXCELLENT news that it wasn’t noticed. Maybe they were talking when it went on and “covered” any perceivable shift in tone/noise – I don’t know, but it certainly was an odd person to let have the first CS mode drive (imo). Maybe they WANTED someone who wouldn’t be looking like a hawk for the change (and this guy certainly fit).
Get Lyle’s seat in the car and let us know.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Boy did Phil mail that one in. The Today show would have been much better served – as would Volt enthusiasts – if they had asked Lyle to do a guest segment, in place of Phil.
Come on Phil, do your homework.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I have to disagree in that I think that once word of mouth starts singing the praises of the cool factors of electric drive, it’ll spike like the Iphone did.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Phil Lebeau is CNBC’s resident Auto Industry correspondent. I think he knows a great deal about cars and the industry, just that his focus at times isn’t so much the technical angle of the machines, but more the big picture of the car companies, i.e. their financial health, etc. No slight intended towards Phil, but I have to wonder why in the
world he was given the test drive, and then reports of things that are of little value in terms of the overall driving experience. Of course Lyle would be the best candidate for a first drive, as would some of the guys at Motor Trend, or Car & Driver magazines as well, IMO.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:47 am
At the VERY least, we *have* to be getting close to the point where they let a conscious person drive and report in CS mode.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 10:51 am
Lyle, what makes you think Phil was ever IN CS mode? Maybe it was in CD mode the entire time.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:01 am
The report also claims JD Power thinks only 50,000 electric cars will be sold in 2015, a far cry less than Obama’s pledge of 1 million or the several million hoped for by the Electrification Coalition
—————–
Once again, define “electric car”. Technically a Focus and a Prius are electric cars (along w/other hybrids). Toyota sells about 100K Prius’s a year. Does an electric car have to be a BEV, or maybe it just needs a plug, or maybe its dependent on the battery size? Obama, JD Power, and everyone else for that matter that makes these statements really needs to clarify exactly what they are saying.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:07 am
J.D. Power and Associates is just a marketing firm. They talk to customers about “satisfaction”, listen closely to auto executives and auto dealers, and project future trends based on that.
They have already grossly under-predicted the growth in hybrid cars, because they were way off in predicting gasoline prices (in 2006, they assumed gasoline prices would never top $3.50 before 2012). They probably are under-predicting the price of gasoline in 2015, again, and will be way off on their prediction of electric cars produced.
http://www.hybridcars.com/hybrid-drivers/hybrid-market-forecasts.html
November 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Yep, it gets a bit murky. Personally, if it doesn’t have a plug it ain’t an electric car, but I can see the reasoning re the Prius. *Technically* my Jeep has a battery too though.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 11:11 am
It’s mentioned in the review in the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/automobiles/autoreviews/22-chevy-volt.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
November 20th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Well, we were all hoping Lyle would be the first non-GM person to drive the Volt in range-extended mode. Maybe he will be the first one to really give the real low-down on its operation. Good report.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I’m sure Lyle already drove it in range-extended mode. He probably just can’t talk about it.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:17 am
My hope is that Lyle has already had his CS ride and has been sworn to silence by GM until such time that they allow him to pipe up.
JMO.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Two great minds with a single thought….
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 11:24 am
May be the below report seems better
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34062113
Volt Drive: Great Ride, Interesting Interior and a Friendly Chirp
seems points are :
1) The transition to the gas assist engine needs to be smoothed out
2) Comfortable interior, but center stack needs refining.
Final dialogs are “It’s not perfect and its price (estimated $40,000) could keep many people from being interested in the car.” and because GM gave him drive “But based on what I’ve seen so far, GM should get a charge out the Volt.”
November 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
O.k. Time for more speculation. Did anyone notice the range data displayed on the dash? It states that at that moment, the car had 224 miles of total range left, and 1 mile of electric range left. The upper number next to the little gas pump showed 222mi. This must be the range the car would have on fuel only.
Here is where the speculation comes in. If we assume the tank to be full, and that the size of the tank is around 8 gallons, we eek out a paltry 28 MPG. Despite a rigorous examination of the video, I couldn’t ever see a shot of the fuel gauge. If we assume the tank was 3/4 full, we get 37 MPG.
There is still no way to know what it is really getting on average. I hope it is a really nice and fat number.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Thanks for the link. It gives a *much* more detailed description of the CS mode and some wrinkles that still need to be ironed out.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
I’m a bit surprised that GM let someone drive it in this mode if the transition was noticeable. Perhaps it is because Frank Weber is not in charge anymore. He seemed pretty insistent that it be unnoticeable before he would let the press try it out. Clearly from this report it has a ways to go before it is unnoticeable.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Well, you will never get all of the noise out of the ICE. Hello, it’s a standard car at that point. Of course it’s going to be different than using an electric-only car. I think we can all get use to that.
Nice chirp system. Much better than the always-on alternative.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Question: Was the radio on? If 3000rpm bothers him that much, maybe he should get a Leaf. When you are trying to hear something… you will.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Amul, how much do you weigh?
November 20th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Kdawg,
You’re right about attending for a sound and then being able to sort it out from other sounds. He seemed to have the biggest problem of the hearing the high pitched rpm that didn’t correspond with A) what he was used to and B) that it wasn’t linked to what he or the car was doing. In other words he’d only heard high RPM noises associated with acceleration, rather than the high rpm that was just supplying electrons to the system, and could have just as easily been going on while DEcelerating.
Be well,
Tagamet
Let’s Just Get The Volts’ Wheels On The Road!!**********NPNS
November 20th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Unni #30,
Thanks for that link.
When I read the part about the ICE turning on, it reminded me of the Prius I rode in. I hope it is possible for GM to make it seamless.
I would love the car to always be nice and quiet.
November 20th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I don’t see the engine noise as an issue. The RPM transition has to be very very slow/gradual. I wonder if engineers have dabbled with sound cancelling technology via ICE exhaust.
If we all e-mailed Farah and promoted Lyles test drive, maybe it would expedite. Does anybody know his e-mail address?
November 20th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
#4
Right. This is really a non–issue for me. If the driving experience is a little different from what I am used to, I can adjust to it. Just show me the AER and the mpg!
LJGTVWOTR!!
November 20th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I think GM has to let all the various “department heads” of all the various auto entities get a chance to drive CS mode firstly, so that there are some rather neutral benchmarks of commentary that generally turn out to be very mundane descriptions. This is likely a very calibrated set of priorities which have probably yielded a measured response from these same outside reports.
Of course, on the positive side, we just can’t have everyone wanting a Volt all at once now, can we. If that happened, then the chance of many of us here who want one is diminished ever much more so, is it not?
November 20th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Fancy way of saying they don’t know squat or they know about as much as Moody’s and S&P know about rating exotic packaged loan financial instruments.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Interesting what avenues GM uses to release info on the Volt. Definitely not the person I would have picked. Though, the info on the development of the Volt is still one of the most open I’ve ever seen. The more bits and pieces we (gm-volt users) put together, the more I want it.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
OT.
I don’t know what was going on today, but, this site was unavailable all day from work. (500 errors and dbase errors). Anybody else have issues today?
November 20th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Yep, had the same issues reaching the site today. Maybe it was too many gm-volt lovers trying to hit the site after they heard about the CS mode articles.
Did anybody else notice that right under the odometer it said, “Sport”? I wonder if this means there is a CS mode button or how aggressive the generator kicks in.
November 20th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I hope that GM is doing everything they can possibly do to make that IC engine as QUIET and VIBRATION-FREE as possible. They should use the latest and greatest sound dampening materials and all that.
Some of the journalists like Phil LeBeau who test drive it are going to expect the Volt to be “library quiet” ALL the time since the Volt is an electric car. It would be awesome if GM could make the IC engine so quiet and vibration-free that people don’t notice the transition to charge-sustaining mode AT ALL.
I’m sure GM knows who the best suppliers are for noise reduction products for automobiles. Hopefully, GM will get the best sound deadeners for the money. I’m sure the suppliers will sell a LOT of their products if EREVs like the Volt become mainstream bestsellers. Maybe this is one of them:
http://www.secondskinaudio.com/products/Sound-Deadening-Materials.php
November 20th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Shoot, I volunteer to sit in the TRUNK.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Not only that, but Edmunds had an article somewhere that seemed very critical of the Volt while not mentioning it by name. It seemed like they had a definite agenda, but were trying to sound authoritative while actually being very parochial.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
I too was unable to get to GM-Volt.com most of the day.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I actually think that NYT review was very fair and complimentary, for the most part. I think GM fairly acknowledged that there is still more fine-tuning to be done on the character of the CS mode. The car I drive right now has an aftermarket exhaust and intake, so a little engine noise is nothing foreign to me. I’m sure the Volt will seem like an isolation chamber by comparison!
November 20th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Wow, dude. I once owned a 1989 Ford Tempo, and it was the worst car I’ve ever owned — though its frequent repairs were very cheap!
I started shopping for a new car when, on a 3-hour trip to the airport, the serpentine belt finally broke (after the non-functioning air conditioner seized) and one of the rear brakes seized. I pulled off the Interstate in a cloud of smoke. I called the fire department, and the smoke stopped pouring off of the brake before they got there. They checked out the car, told me to have a nice day, and I caught my flight.
On the return trip, I went around town waving around my credit card, and no mechanic would touch the car. The 3rd mechanic I talked to, a Mexican mechanic named Angel told me that I could probably make the 3-hour drive home without the serpentine belt, and that he’d recently driven from Nashville to Charlotte in a vehicle in similar condition — he was the right man to talk to about my problem. The water pump on the Tempo is driven by a separate belt, and the battery had nearly a full charge, so I headed home (during the middle of the day) with the lights off, the windows open, the air system off, using hand signals, minimal braking (I didn’t want to drain the battery by using the brake-lights), and no power steering.
It turned out he was right — I got home, without any real problems. My best friend and I spent two days attempting to remove the seized air conditioner and replace the serpentine belt. The car was designed for dealers and fleets and not for people, so it turns out that you’re supposed use an engine hoist to replace the serpentine belt. We managed to kludge the new (and just slightly too small) belt on there using a truck that all kids learn to re-attach their bicycle chains, but it still strikes me as wrong. But, it was good enough to run the engine while I shopped for my next car.
The car was a piece of crap, but it did have a few redeeming qualities. I bought it for $3k, drive it for 5 years and 50k miles, and it got me through college without breaking the bank. I spent hours and hours wrenching on it, and learned quite a lot in the process. I spent a few thousand dollars on maintenance — but I also recovered the car’s value several times over by taking it on work-related road-trips and getting re-reimbursed for the mileage. It also took me a surprisingly long time to find a used car that sucked less than this car.
Driving a 1989 Ford Tempo after all this time is hard-core, and I salute you! Or at least your tolerance for aggravation, anyway.
-Luke
P.S. Another clue that it was time to sell it was when my female friends stopped riding in it. I started taping a carbon monoxide detector over top of the check-engine light, since the carbon monoxide detector actually had information that I needed. I found this to be quite comforting, since the carbon monoxide detector usually indicated — but one particular girl didn’t agree, despite what I thought at the time was ironclad logic…
P.P.S. Having the generator rev up to 3000 rpm when there’s a big demand for power is no biggy! The ol’ Tempo had to be in 3rd gear just to go uphill!
November 21st, 2009 at 8:26 am
I like that so much of the remaining work is all software, meaning it can be improved and upgraded continuously up to, through and after the purchase of the vehicle. Just download it through On-Star.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:43 am
Jason,
We do not know if these or other issues can be solved by pure software alone.
While everyone likes to hear “Hey, all I need to do is update the software”, but sometimes it just is not so.
I actually would be more likely to believe that this issue is more deeply rooted, than just a minor software update. GM has been working on this CS mode for quite some time, and if this was such an easy thing to fix, it would have been fixed by now.
The CS mode was not demonstrated until now, and I remember hearing GM saying many times, that they had it working but were just making a few minor adjustments to make it imperceptible to the driver. Well, I guess they are not there yet.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:52 am
The great thing about owning the old turds, was that you had an opportunity to learn how a car was put together. I do not know how many times I have had to repair some of my old classics (1970 Ford Maverick, 1975 Duster, 1976 Duster, 1964 Simca, 1980 Cutlass 440….).
I guess I would like to take the opportunity to thank Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, and GM for making me a fairly handy, backyard mechanic.
Kind of sad that today’s cars tend to not allow as much tinkering. So, tomorrows backyard mechanics will likely be rare and probably more likely an electronic type geek, then a grease monkey.
I guess it is just a sign of the times…hey, I am starting to sound like my Dad, that’s scary!
November 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I like that last little bit where the volt takes a dive in the turn, looks very composed for a hybrid sedan. I just cant wait to take the volt to VIR and trash it around a little!
November 22nd, 2009 at 11:21 am
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November 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
“When you’re driving on the gas assist engine, there’s no fall off in
power, handling, etc. and perhaps I found it jarring because I went from the silent electric drive to hearing the engine. Whatever the reason, it needs to be improved.”
There’s no fall-off in power, that’s a good thing. Is it really so vital to hide the switchover? It’s not an avoidable thing… YOU’RE OUT OF JUICE. What does he want? A little voice saying “SWITCHING TO EVIL FOSSIL FUEL MODE IN 60 SECONDS”?
That jounalist is an imbecile
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I really annot get excited about the Volt going 40 miles on electric powere when we have had the technology for 200+ mile/single charges for more than a decade. We are pouring billions of tax payer dollars into battery research for batteries that are one fifth as effective as the NiMH batteries of the 1990s. (The NiMH powered the EV-1s and the RAV4-EVs). Chevron AN OIL COMPANY holds all the patents on the NiMH technology and isn’t giving it up until they convert us over to a “hydrogen economy”. The Volt and other hybrids/plug-ins are just a distraction in the meantime. Give us back the NiMH and I will be firstin line to buy a new car. Meanwhile, I will never buy another new gas-powered or hybrid car out of sheer protest of Big Oil, Big Automotive and the Department of Energy getting in bed together to decide our future transportation needs while the NiMH sits on a shelf at Chevron gathering dust.
November 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am
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