GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Generally we only cover topics related to electric cars, but the buzz this week has been so intense, its worth a look at something new called the Bloom Box.

More specifically the Bloom Energy Server was first unveiled last week to the world.

The device is a scalable fuel cell stack.  It receives natural gas or biofuel and electrochemically combines it with oxygen producing electricity as a result, in a clean non-combustive process.

The device operates at extremely high temperatures (800 degrees) and uses solid oxide fuel cells made of low cost ceramic materials. This is in significant distinction to older technology fuel cells that rely on expensive precious metals such as platinum.

Bloom Energy Systems is the Silicon Valley start-up company funded in part by Kleiner-Perkins that has secretively been developing these competitively prices fuel cells over the last decade and has already sold and installed 100 kw units at major corporations such as Wal Mart and Google, at a cost of $700,000 to $800,000 each. These units are powerful enough to power 100 homes 24/7 and yet take up only roughly the size of a single parking space.

These devices have already been operating nearly flawlessly for several months.  EBay is one customer that has switched on three units that now provide 15% of the company’s electricity needs.

The electricity is produced at a cost of 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, which is significantly lower than rates in some parts of the country.

CEO KR Sridhar was previously a fuel cell scientist at NASA and has led the creation of these new devices using a special amped up R&D program.  Bloom Energy’s key breakthrough has been developing a commercialization process of making these solid oxide cells affordably.

Sridhar envisions the day in the next few year a Bloom Box the size of a brick, at a cost a few thousand dollars could be purchased by the public for powering their individual homes.

When the electricity is produced from natural gas, emissions of just 773 lbs/MW-hr of CO2 is created, and natural gas supply is already abundant in this country.  When running on biofuel, electricity is carbon neutral.  Furthermore, since power will be produced locally , the role of the grid is reduced and excess energy could be even sold back to power companies.  The company plans to make future generation devices also capable of storing energy.

Certainly electric cars could be charged by Bloom energy servers as well, eliminating the need for coal-buring powerplants.

So will the Bloom Box change the world over the next decade?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Source (Bloom Energy)

The Opel Ampera is the sister car to the Chevy Volt, sharing the same powertrain, interior and basic sheet metal, but with unique styling cues germaine to GM’s European brand.

Though we have seen several Chevrolet Volt preproduction vehilces on the road, only now are the first Amperas hitting the pavement.

The car is expected to begin series production in late 2011 for sales in Europe.

The Geneva Auto Show is set to open in Switzerland on Sunday.

GM is launching a real-world road trip of an Opel Ampera leaving from Opel’s headquarters in Russelheim Gernmanay, and travelling non stop 370 miles to Geneva. The first 40 miles will be purely electric, and the remainder covered by the gas generator.

AutoExpress claims the car will complete the trip from Germany “producing around 40g/km of CO2 and managing 176mpg economy.” Not sure how they came up with that, unless recharging is planned along the way.

“I am really looking forward to putting a lot of “miles” on our first Ampera prototype during this maiden test on public roads,” said Opel/Vauxhall Director of Electric Vehicle Implementation, Gherardo Corsini who will be at the wheel. “With 370 Nm of instantaneous, electric torque under my right foot, it promises to be an interesting and almost silent drive to Geneva.”

I aked Opel spokesperson Andrew Marshall whether they expeced to cover the distance on a single tank of gas.

“The drive to Geneva is a first for us in every way,” he replied. “We don’t know exactly what to expect.”

Sounds like fun. The car embarks on Sunday at 930AM CET. We’ll be watching.  You can follow them here.  Its a small world after all.

I suspect Nissan won’t be trying this trip in its Leaf EV.

Source (Opel)

Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP) is a company out of Cincinnati Ohio that specializes in producing all-electric conversions of GM vehicles. They have been producing electric versions of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky since 2007.

The company has just annoucend and plan to unveil a new all electric Chevy Equinox conversion based on the current 2010 model.

AMP has signed a deal with REMY motors, a company that already supplies GM with its 2-mode hybrid electric motors, and is in fact using two of those same motors, the HVH250, for the conversion.

They motors will sit side by side, each turning one of the rear wheels, with no transmission, and have a combined peak power of 200kw. They are powered by a 37 kwh lithium-ion battery pack that enables the car to go from 0 to 60 in under 8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 90 mph. It will reportedly have a 150 mile driving range.

Steve Burns, CEO of Advanced Mechanical Products, said, “In a growing electric vehicle market, we believe AMP has clearly established itself as a pioneer. Not only will AMP be the first to reach the market, but we will also be breaking the mold in terms of what the public expects from an all-electric vehicle.”

“Pre-conversion, the Chevy Equinox is an outstanding vehicle in its own right – winner of the Consumer Digest Best Buy award and a five-star frontal and side-impact crash safety ratings. This vehicle is truly a modern day car, with all the features and stringent safety requirements the Chevy Equinox is extolled for. We are thrilled to bring our next 100% electric vehicle platform to market, as this latest offering is a clear display of our true passion for, and an unyielding commitment to, the environment and sustainability,” Burns added.

Burns told GM-Volt that the batteries are air-cooled, will have 80% capacity after 100,000 miles, and that the battery warranty is 3 years. Burns would not disclose the battery vendor at this time.

Through a local GM dealer AMP is currently taking orders for the vehicle, and they plan to begin deliveries in June of this year.

“We will be selling nationwide,” Burns added.

The price is expected to be under $50,000 after government tax credits.

Source (AMP)

Deja Vu.

Those were Bob Lutz’ words back in 2007 when he first stated GMs intention to sell the Chevy Volt comfortably below $30,000.

In the ensuing months and years we’ve been through a see-saw of predictions about how much people would eventually be able to buy the car for.

GM has not officially, and will not officially release a price until closer to launch.

Back in March of last year, GM VP Jon Lauckner stated “we won’t set the price of the Volt until 6 months prior to start of production.”

Although announcing the purchase process, Nissan has not announced the LEAF EV pricing either though claims it should cost around as much as a comparable gas sedan.

In the most recent twist of the Chevy Volt Price tale, volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz responded to the question when pressed by Globe and Mail reporter Jeremy Cato.

“We have not priced it yet,” Posawatz said initially.

After being asked again he finally said that the real or effective cost to consumers “is easily less than $30,000.”

The figure used was US, not Canadian dollars.

Posawatz was not talking purely about MSRP but net effective cost including the $7500 US tax credit given to consumers who will purchase a Volt.

“The reference was accounting for the US tax credits and effective savings in electricity and other benefits,” Posawatz told GM-Volt.  ”It was a comparative statistic, not an exact number, to position the VOLT as a bit more expensive than an equivalent compact car.”

Source (Globe and Mail)

Denise Gray is GM’s director of global battery systems. She has been instrumental in the development of the Volt having started in the program in 2006. She was there when the first lithium-ion Volt prototype pack arrived from Compact Power in October 2007 as has been in charge of developing all of GM’s EREV and plugin batteries as well as acting as strategic leader for the next generation Volt.

Today she announced to a small group of reporters including myself that she is leaving GM.

She will be joining a new stealth-mode start-up battery company in California. She will not say at this point which company she is going to, but notes her last day at GM is March 5th and will start with the new company in the next couple of weeks.

She describes the new position as a “great opportunity” for her and is “an opportunity to continue on with clean technology and battery technology.”

She says it is a small company and she will be able to play a larger business and leadership role there where she can “create and shape, and plant seeds,” which she said is similar to what she did with GM originally in the Volt program. The new company is venture-capital funded.

Gray said there have been no negative surprises in the Volt program, and that program’s success is what made the decision to leave extremely hard for her.  She is not leaving for lack of success but for new opportunity. She was very satisfied to see the first battery roll of the line on January 7th at GM’s new dedicated battery assembly plant, “is rooting for the Volt” and feels comfortable leaving “her baby” in others’ hands.  Under Gray’s leadership the Volt battery program went from 25 to 200 employees over the past 3 years.  She’s been a GM employee for more than 25 years.

Ronn Jamieson has been director of Global Battery Systems Engineering, and will temporarily assume all reporting responsibilities for her staff while Bill Wallace, current Volt Battery System Engineering Group Manager, will assume all technical and program management responsibilities relative to the Volt battery and its launch.

Gray said she learned at GM “not to turn a blind eye to new opportunity,” something she’s exercising in taking this new position.

In a limitation for her GM, she said, is focused on on their own portfolio of vehicles but her new assignment will allow her to see other types of applications of electrification of the automobile

The Volt  battery program she notes is right on schedule and GM has been building production packs since January 7.  Gray notes there are multiple packs from the plant that are now in the lab undergoing tests.

When the first production pack came to the lab for testing earlier this year, one of Gray’s colleagues noted it was “the best battery we’ve seen so far.”

Gray notes at this point “the heavy lifting is over” and for the Volt program only  the finishing touches remain.

And no, Gray will not be joining EEStor. I would speculate it is possible she could be joining Stanford silicon nanowire battery expert Yi Cui in his start-up company, Amprius.

Good luck and farewell Denise, and thanks for all the education you have provided me and the GM-Volt.com readership. It is likely we’ll be hearing from you again very soon.

How often has the car buying public been subjected to a headline like “Big Auto Company Introduces it Fabulous Concept Electric Show Car With 22″ Wheels…That Is Coming Soon-ish,” only to have that be the last word we ever hear on it? Fifty? A Hundred Times?

Personally, when I spot a new concept EV, I think to myself, ‘it looks like somebody had a couple thousand pounds of modelling clay getting old somewhere and this is the end result. Or perhaps there was just too many design interns last summer, and they didn’t know how to keep them all busy.’

I doubt the thought of, ‘I wonder what the demand for this car will be once they start producing it,’ crosses many people’s minds. That is of course until recently.

With GM currently ramping up for production of the Volt at its Hamtramck facility in Michigan, and Nissan on the cusp of actually taking orders in a few weeks, we can now focus somewhat on the acceptance of electric vehicles themselves once they hit the market.

Given the Volt’s very low initial production levels (8,000-10,000 for the first year), it is assured that it will be a virtual sell-out heading into 2012. But what happens when full line utilization is reached?

GM hopes to be producing 50,000-60,000 copies a year starting sometime in 2012. Looking even further out to 2015, Bob Lutz (GM’s vice chairman) predicted that the total market for the plug-in vehicles “will reach 250,000-300,000 units annually,” and added “they will mostly be our products.” /that is a lot of Volts Bob.

These are lofty goals, but are they reasonable?

Brent Dewar, while having his ‘cup of tea’ as head of Chevrolet, put it pretty succinctly, “There definitely is demand. We just need to get the cost and infrastructure in balance. Our biggest problem (right now) is infrastructure.” Brent ‘elected to retire’ a few days after making this statement, so we never got a chance for him to expound on just what he saw ongoing demand for the Volt to be…and new boss James Campbell seems to have his hands full catching up with the demands of Volt’s roll out to be making his own predictions at this point. /fortunately I have all the time in the world to do some armchair quarterbacking

For the Volt to achieve a level of 60,000 units per year in 2012, GM would have to sell 5,000/month. To achieve Lutz’s goal of more than half of his estimated plug in market for 2015, GM would have to sell 12,500 copies per month in five years time.

Demand will come from one of three main areas:
-existing customers currently buying vehicles at a similar price point
-current hybrid/eco sensitive buyers
-price trade ups in the same size (middle/compact) class

Existing High End Customers (Luxury/Sedans Over 30K)
This segment is the playground of the more affluent among us. According to NADA (National Automobile Dealer’s Association), 1 in every 13 cars sold in January (7.8%) were in the luxury car segment. More specifically than that, there was 46,000+ 4 door sedans sold in the month that had a starting MSRP of over $30,000 (only 7,000 of which were domestics). At a $40,000 price tag, that number drops to under 15,000. The Volt with a estimated MSRP around $40,000 (pre-rebate) would seem likely to take a portion of this segment.

The most likely casualty from the arrival of the Volt in this niche would probably be the Nissan Maxima, which tips the scales starting at $30,460. (The Maxima also sells the most of any non series/class car priced at this level, with 4,016 units sold last month)

Hybrid/Eco Customers

While this is the smallest of the three groups, statistically the Volt stands to gain the most ground as a percentage here by far. The hybrid group is growing at a year over year rate of almost 30%, and adding electric vehicles into the mix will only expand it further. (Last month there were 14,511 hybrid passenger cars sold compared to 11,221 the year previous)

While it is hard to judge at this point whether the Prius’ numbers (8,484 units sold in January) will take a direct hit from the Volt, it would seem likely that its sibling, the Lexus HS 250h (think suped up Prius with a trunk) will certainly lose some business to Chevy’s extended range car. The hybrid Lexus sold a not insignificant (considering the base price point of $34,650) 1,247 units. That was good for 3rd spot on the hybrid best sellers list. (156 ahead of the Fusion)

The Sell-Up
This is the wild card, and where ultimately the future success or failure of the Volt will be judged. The willingness of a customer to expand their price range to make the massive jump into MSRPs that start with a 3. This is where the Volt’s eventual MSRP and the government rebate ($7,500) really comes into play. At a pre-rebate starting price of $40,000, you are not likely to convert a lot of Honda Accord/Toyota Corolla buyers…but at $35,000, many will choose Volt over traditional best sellers.

The most likely casualty of the Volt’s success in this category, would be GM’s own Chevy Malibu/Impala. (Which I’m sure they would be ok with in the long run)

So What Is the Secret to Demand?
No secrets here at all. Even Brent Dewar knew it in his short stay at the top of the Chevrolet pecking order; GM has to “get the cost in balance with the market.”

With gas prices hovering at $2.60 nationally, the economy not going so well, and Nissan now threatening to make good on the rumor to set the price of the Leaf in the mid 20s after rebate, (“…we promise there will be a “wow” factor with how affordable it is!”) GM will have to do a lot better than $39,999 to sell at the volumes they are looking for.

Hopefully with the benefit of scale, good engineering, and falling battery prices, GM can find a way to get to market with a MSRP in the mid 30s and be a leader in this new segment. But then again…maybe they really don’t want to be. Maybe selling 2,000 Volts a month plus a few hundred even more pricey Volt-based EREVs is good enough for them. /I hope not

There is no debate that GM is years ahead of the competition in getting a extended range EV to market. The platform’s advantages are obvious. Hopefully, GM management doesn’t use this opportunity for short term gain by over pricing a handful of cars (relatively speaking) in lieu of owning a big piece of the future of the automobile.

(My own ‘guesstimate’ for ongoing sales (post initial demand) for the Volt follows below)