GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

GM CEO Ed Whitacre is scheduled to make an announcement at 1PM Eastern time tomorrow. He will be speaking at the Austin Texas Chamber of Commerce. GM has also announced the Volt will be in Austin to participate in some “activities.”

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Whitacre will be announcing an expansion of Volt rollout. Right now we know California, Washington DC, and Michigan are three places the Volt will go on sale later this year. According to the report, New York City and Austin Texas will be added on as well.

GM will provide a real-time video stream of Whitacre’s comments in the window below:

Furthermore at 4PM tomorrow GM’s Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle will be participating in a real-time video webcast. He is expected to discuss among other things Volt production volumes and rollout plans.

This is getting very interesting. Stay close to the site, as soon as more is known you will be able to find out here.

Source (WSJ, subscription required)

Recently there has been a lot of Internet controversey with at least a dozen articles covering a story out of the Telegraph in England. Of course, GM-Volt.com was the first to notice this claim and publish it, all the other sites followed.

The author, Andrew English, claimed the 65% calibration version Ampera/Volt prototype seemed to have a flat torque curve at high velocity. He wrote that an engineer claimed GM was planning to correct this by connecting the gas engine driectly to the drivetrain. I had checked in with Rob Peterson who said the claim was untrue and unfounded, and is not the case. Rob explained to us the Volt uses clutches and a planetary gear system to maximize performance and efficiency.

Despite this, English published a second report called “Volt Shock.”

In this repert he outed his source. “We are considering driving the wheels directly from the petrol engine,” said Andreas Voight, an Opel project engineer. There are a number of different ways we could do it, but the whole thing is subject to some intellectual property rights negotiations so I can’t say any more,” said Voight. “You will see an announcement this autumn.”

While that story may be shocking, it remains untrue. Sam Abuelsamid from Autobloggreen determined Voight is simply a technician whose job (?former) is to simply shuttle cars for journalists and who has no actual knowledge about Volt engineering. Know the type?

Another bad piece of journalism came out fo hybridcars.com, who won’t even publish authors’ names. The anonymous author claimed an “exclusive” interview with Rob Peterson. In that interview Peterson’s comments were taken out of context and distorted to make it seem the Volt would act like a parallel hybrid in range extended mode. Peterson was simply saying it was theoretically possible but the author left out the part where he said it wouldn’t. Anything is possible.

What many authors don’t know is that the Volt has two electric motors that can act either in parallel at times, in other cases one acts as the traction motor to drive the wheels and the other acts as a generator. The system uses 2-mode technology to determine which configuration is optimal for that driving moment. It never, however, includes a direct ICE to wheel configuration. For more deatils see my post with Volt powertrain engineer Alex Cattelan.

Finally to put this all to rest, I asked Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz if any of this rumor was true, if the ICE ever drives the wheels.

“No.” said Posawatz. “I don’t know how those folks got so confused.”

Got it?

We are about four months from the date of the first Volt deliveries, and you can just feel the excitement mounting.  GM remains quiet about the rollout process and pricing but we will soon know the truth.

Chevrolet dealers in the launch markets are starting to see a build-up of information and communciation from GM to get them prepared for Volt sales and servicing.  Just this week dealers became able to download  an early Volt Salesperson Reference Guide.  It is attached here.

I had the chance to discuss dealer certification with Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle.

How will you go about getting the first cars to people? How can you find a fair method with all these years of demand out there. Who gets the first ones?
That’s another story we’ll have for you at some point when the time is right. That is something we’re thinking through.

All these things have potential negative backlash and you don’t want to have that?
Right. For sure. What’s really key is being able to manage customer expectations and being really clear with consumers in terms of the markets that are eligible. We’re going to be crystal clear as dealers go through the certification process as to which ones are authorized Volt dealers.

When do they have to start doing that, it’s getting close isn’t it?
Yes it is getting close for sure. That will be much of next month as a matter of fact.

So they’re going to start next month?
Yes.

Do they voluntary choose to sell the Volt or will you direct it to certain dealerships?
We will be communicating with all of the dealers in the launch markets very shortly.

Everyone gets communicated to and some will choose to sell Volts and some won’t?
Yes. Based on the standards. We’ll have very clear standards for the dealerships.

We should soon know all the answers to these things?
You will, and believe me we’d love to just go shout it outright now, but there’s a lot here to communicate and communcaite very well and very purposefully and there’s certinaly an order that we have to go through, and there’s still some decisions that have to be made yet quite honestly.
Considering the high demand and low planned volume, how do you plan to manage that discordance?
The key I believe is through creating some pretty strong relationships with these intenders, communicating with them on aconsistent basis. We have a plan to do that and were encouraging as many as possible to come to Chevrolet.com to register with us so that we can communicate with them and so that everything thast ready to go public, they now.

And in terms of the product but more importantly certainly as you are inferring, the go to market timing and pricing when we’re ready to make that annoucnemnt and those sorts of things. Really when we get the question today, there are two things that we tell cusomters. One is what I just mentioned, go to Chevrolet.com register with us. That’s not a wait list for a car or anything like that but it makes sure that your in the know when we come out with new news so that we can get that new news to you and then secondly is contact a Chevrolet dealer and express your interest to that Chevroelt dealer for the Volt, because dealers are starting to take their own waitlists for customers right now.

So you’re advocating dealers to do that?
Well yeah and they have good relationships with their customers. Its important for customers to get with a dealer and then we know the dealers are maintinging their lists for the new Volt.

Will dealers have to do special training to be able to sell the car, is it not the intention for every Chevrolet dealer to have Volts for sale?
That is correct, there wil be a certification process for delaers string with those dealers in the launch markets. But quite frankly will be to a great extent depending on the dealers willingness to meet the requirements. The certification requirement in order to be eligible to sell and service the Volt.

So you imagine 50 percent or 75 percent will actually be certified to be able to sell Volts at the end of the day?
My sense it will probably be more than that but I cant give you a specific number.

A simple question that GM has always refused to answer publicly since the beginning is what the size of the Chevrolet Volt’s gas tank will be.

Long ago, then vehicle line director Frank Weber told me it would be between 6 and 10 gallons but would not be more specific.  One reason often given for the lack of specificity was that engineers were still refining what the car’s total range would be and would trade off size and weight of the full gas tank to acheive it.  Though never admitted, clearly fuel economy in range-extended mode has also been a critical variable.

A few weeks ago I received an email from Eric Evarts of Consumer Reports.  Eric wanted to know if I could help get them a test drive.  I provided him with one of the Volt communications people’s contacts, and last week two nearly fininalized Volt prototypes built off the DHAM line were driven 750 miles up to the CR test track in Connecticut to be put through some paces.

In his report, Evarts writes that the Volt’s tank would be nine gallons in size, allowing the car to achieve “well above,” the planned 300 miles of extended range, after the first 40 electric miles are depleted.

GM had always said they were aiming for a total of 340 or 350 miles of range.  The presence of a nine gallon tank either means the range will be nearly 500 miles, well above previous promises, or that mpg in extended range is only in the low 30s.  These facts remain to be disclosed.

I did confirm with Mr. Evarts the nine gallon number he published.  ”That’s what they tell us,” he said. “I imagine it’s rounded.”

Below is the CR video review.  It fair to say it was very glowing; the car is silent, handles nicely, and looks good are some things the reviewer said.  He also said it has a lot of torque and was surprsiging powerful, and that he found it roomly and comfortable as well.

The reviewer claimed the car will sell at around $40,000 before the $7500 tax break brings it to the low 30s.

We’ll see.

The Opel Ampera is the identical sister car to the Chevy Volt only sporting Opel design cues.  It will be built side-by-side with the Volt in Michigan for export to Europe where it will go on sale in 2011.

Like the Volt, only a little later, Opel is beginning to allow journalists to test drive an Ampera. Famed British publication Telegraph had its chance at the wheel and author Andrew English has produced an interesting review.  GM has been careful to only allow journalists, myself included, the chance to test drive Volts at modest sub-50 mph speeds, limited to pylon-flanked parking lot impromptu tracks.  English had the chance to take an Ampera out on the highway.

He was pleased with the spacious and attractive interior calling it “comfortable, classy and commodious.”

He found acceleration strong noting the car “charges hard” up to 50 mph. After that he perceived, “the single-speed electric motor’s flat torque curve has begun a nose dive and acceleration at high speeds is poor.” Perhaps this is why GM hasn’t allowed US drives beyond 50 MPH. That was the fastest speed I could hit on a roughly half mile track, though one US reporter was said to take a Volt to 92 MPH at the Warren Tech Center, on a side road.

English suspects the perceived power fade at high speed is because the Volt/Ampera’s top speed is100 mph which is lower than most similar-sized gas sedans which is typically 130 mph.

He claims GM has a solution forthcoming:

General Motors is working on the problem and this autumn plans to unveil a mechanical direct-drive from the engine to the front wheels through the existing twin-clutch planetary gearbox. This would reduce the energy losses of turning petrol power into electricity to drive the car at high speeds, and would also give the Ampera more spritely overtaking performance.

This claim, if true, is rather shocking because it flies in the face of everything GM has said in the past and would mean the gas engine could power on even during the first 40 miles.

I reached out to Volt spokesperson Rob Peterson who with utmost respect for the reporter denies this is the case.  He also notes the Ampera English drove is a 65% calibration build, whereas current Volt test cars are at a much more refined 99%.  This is what Peterson had to say about the powertrain change claim:

This report is inaccurate. First off, the Volt cannot be driven without electric power. It always makes use of electric power within the drive unit.

Secondly, we have no plans to make any mechanical or control strategy changes prior to launch.

The team is in the final stages of validation and durability and have not identified any reason to make any changes. We have a very innovative drive unit that includes a number of clutches and a planetary gear-set which is highly efficient and exists in our pre-production vehicles today. For competitive reasons we won’t provide more details on the operation at this point, but will soon.

Source (Telegraph)

Honda was the first automaker to sell a mainstream hybrid when it launched the first generation Insight in 1999 ahead of Toyota releasing the first Prius.
That car, being a tiny 2-seater, didn’t sell well and was ultimately discontinued. Meanwhile the Prius surged ahead through three generations and the became the world’s best selling hybrid by far.

After paltry interval sales of Civic and Accord hybrids, Honda re-entered the dedicated hybrid scene last year with its mild hybrid second generation Insight, offering 5 seats and 40/43 mpg fuel economy. Honda had hoped to sell 100,000 Insights that first year but only wound up selling about 25,000.

Now in a continued effort to pick up hybrid market share, the automaker has unveiled a new first-in-class dedicated sports hybrid called the CR-Z.

The CR-Z is another 2-seater that is built on the same platform as the Insight but with a more sporty exterior design, slight handling improvements, and a slight increase in horsepower.

The car will start at $19,200 for a manual transmission model, and the fully loaded automatic CVT version with navigation will go for $23,100. Official fuel economy rating comes in at 31 mpg city/37 mpg highway/34 mpg combined for the manual transmission and 35/39/37 for the CVT version (plus a $750 destination charge).

A 1.5 L V-Tec four cylinder engine is the powerplant and hybridization is achieved with Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) technology. This incorporates a small 13 hp (10 kw) ultrathin electric motor that operates in parallel with the combustion engine to add power during acceleration and to recapture energy during deceleration. Energy is stored in a 100 V nickel battery. This system is actually the sixth revision of the original IMA that debuted in the 2000 Insight.

The car has no ability to drive on the electric motor only, and additional fuel economy is achieved by stopping the engine during idling.

The gas engine produces 112 horsepower (125 hp total when combined with the electric motor) and the car can be driven in sport, normal, or economy mode. Economy mode dampens acceleration, and sports mode allows for full acceleration potential.

The car has been test driven by multiple media outlets who don’t seem particularly enthused overall. Zero to 60 time is about 10 seconds, not very impressive for a sports car. Curb weight, suspension, and handling is similar to albeit it a bit more sporty than the 5-seat Insight.

Honda executives were apparently uncertain about whether to release this car at all. Though it is selling well initially in Japan it remains to be seen how it does in the US market when it goes on sale here on August 24th.

Considering the more practical, higher fuel economy, Insight can only muster about 1500 units per month, chances are the CR-Z may not fare too well.

So while you may lament GM’s low production ramp up for the Volt, it appears Honda fans have much less to look forward to.