GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

When the Volt concept was first unveiled Ed Peper was the manager for Chevrolet.  He was replaced in 2009 by Brent Dewar who only held the postion for a couple of weeks.  At the same time Maria Rhorer was given the new position of Chevrolet Volt director of marketing.  She was reassigned after the infamous Chevy Volt dance.  Next Jim Campbell was named Chevroelt brand manager and most recetnly Tony DiSalle was named product marketing director for the Chevrolet Volt.  DiSalle previously was the VP of OnStar and it seems likely he will stay in place though the car’s launch.

Mr DiSalle recently was profiled in a GM YouTube video and provides us with some insight to his line of thinking and plans for this critical last push to the finish line of getting the car into consumers’ hands.

DiSalle says the overall marketing strategy for the Volt is to “inform and educate customers,” who themselves “will then inform and educate others.”

He says the car has a tendency to inspire people who understand how it works to want to talk to others about it. Thus, he says, “if we can get the car close to key influencers..they will go online and write about it.”

The reason GM chose Washington DC, California, and Michigan as initial launch markets , he explains, was to put the car “close to people who would have a strong propensity to talk about it.” This group as GM sees it includes “influencers, early adopters, politicians, and other high profile people.”

The burning question of when GM will finally announced the official price was sort of answered.”We’ll announce pricing late this summer or early fall,” he said.

DiSalle also says the Volt ownership experience will be unique, starting with the “connected customer concept,” created by the rich content of the dual screen displays in the car, extending outside the car through smartphone app interaction, Volt-specific OnStar diagnostics, and an innovative “web-based owners site with “with some pretty neat functionality as well”

“Its a total connected customer experience,” he adds.

The Chevrolet Cruze is a very important car for GM.  It is their long-awaited new compact sedan said to be high in quality, amenities, and driveability.  GM hopes it will sell in high volume too, and is head and shoulders above the current compact Cobalt.  It is intended to compete well against the popular Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic.

It is also a sister car to the Volt, in a way, sitting atop the same global compact car platform and using as its engine in some trims a turbocharged version of the 1.4 L Ecotec engine the Volt will use as its generator.

Today GM announced that the Cruze will go on sale in the US in September, two months before the Volt, and for the first time in years of hearing about this car have announced pricing.  We might consider this an exercise of what will happen when the Volt is finally priced, perhaps two months from today.

The standard Cruze LS will start at $16,995, and includes a 1.8L engine with 6-speed manual transmission, 10 airbags, stability control and OnStar. Air conditioning and power windows and locks are included.

The LT model with the 1.4L turbo engine, 6-speed automatic transmission, and 16 inch wheels will start at $18,995.

The Cruze Eco model, expected to hit 40 mpg on the highway, will also come in at $18,995.

The high-end LTZ model including leather, steering-wheel mounted controls, bluetooth, and automatic climate control starts at $22,695.

With automotive sales finally recovering, and GM posting a 37% increase in sales in May and 1st quarter profit, this car and its reachable price looks well-positioned to help brighten GM’s future.

Also with the Volt in short early supply, some visitors to Chevrolet showrooms, going in to look at a Volt, might just leave with a Cruze, at least I imagine that’s what GM hopes.

Source (GM)

Coulomb Technologies is a Silicon Valley start-up founded by former mayor of Cupertino and serial entrepreneur Richard Lowethal.

The company has developed electric car charging stations embedded with special propriety networking software that lets those stations communicate with a central office and utility companies as well as providing a billing platform.

In 2009 Coulomb sold and installed over 700 stations to 130 customers globally, and earlier today, they announced a huge new public infrastructure initiative.

The company will be providing 4600 free electric car charging stations for home and public use. The “ChargePoint America program” will provide charging stations to participants in nine regions in the United States: Austin, Texas, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Fla., Sacramento, Calif., the San Jose/San Francisco Bay Area, Redmond, Wash., and Washington DC in a strategic partnership with three leading automobile brands including, Ford, Chevrolet and smart USA.

The funds to pay for this $37 million program are coming in part from a $15 federal government DOE grant and an additional $22 million in other grants.  Coloumb plans to install 1000 new stations by the end of 2010 and the rest by the end of 2011. Of the total, 2000 will be for residential use and 2600 will be for public locations such as parking garages, retail centers, apartments and curbsides.

Chevrolet and Ford have committed to deliver electric vehicles to these regions through this timeframe including the Chevrolet Volt and Ford Focus Electric pure EV.

“The Obama Administration has set significant and considerable goals for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles in the coming years,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “This grant will bring thousands of networked charging stations to nine US regions that are slated to receive the first electric vehicles from our automobile partners. These charging stations will build upon our already growing and established network of infrastructure and will accelerate the deployment of public and private charging infrastructure which will in turn encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles. Our Department of Energy grant, also known as the stimulus bill, was funded to provide jobs for Americans. Our products are built and installed with American labor. Every time we ship a ChargePoint charging station, three Americans go to work for a day.”

The Coulomb ChargePoint networked charging stations offer the following features:

• Providing open access for all drivers using any standards-based RFID card
• Generating revenue for station owners to offset electricity and maintenance costs
• Sending SMS or Email notifications to drivers for charging complete or interruptions in charging
• Controlling access to eliminate energy theft and to enhance safety
• Integrating with the utility Smart Grid for demand side management and preferred pricing

Individuals or businesses that are in one of the nine locations and interested in signing up  up for a free charging station can register on Coulomb’s  ChargePoint America web site.  Installation is not free, though may be in some areas.

The charging stations can of course be used to charge the Chevrolet Volt through the standard SAE J1772 interface, and may be used in lieu of GMs proprietary charger.  GM hasn’t committed to rolling out the Volt in all nine locations by the end of 2011, but all those locations will have at least one of the three partnering company’s electric cars by then.

“Our priority is charging at home ensuring our customers have a positive charging experince,” says Volt spokesperson Rob Peterson.  ”We are pleased that Coulomb and the DOE are working to enhance that experience.”

“Though studies show public charging can effectively double the electric range of the Volt, it isn’t necessary,” says Peterson.  ”The Volt has its infrastructure under its hood.”

Source (Coulomb Technologies)

Chevrolet and OnStar announced the formation of the first automaker-sponsored training program to educate the nation’s first responders on how to manage electric vehicles in an accidents.

The announcement is being made by General Motors in San Francisco jointly with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).

“We believe a first responder educational program is a needed step toward helping this very important group of life-savers understand electric vehicles in the event of a crash or other emergency,” said Carmen Benavides, director, Chevrolet Safety. “The team at Chevrolet and OnStar along with first responder organizations are taking the lead as we introduce electric vehicles and other advanced technologies to the roads.”

The inaugural training sessions will take place in Chicago in August at the IAFC’s Fire-Rescue International Conference, and will feature the Chevrolet Volt. Local first responder training workshops will begin to roll out with the car in San Francisco, Los Angles, Detroit, and Washington DC when the Volt sales begin there later this year. Throughout this year Chevrolet has worked with various national first responder representatives from national safety organizations to develop the appropriate training and education materials to be used in these sessions.

The training will include an animation and illustrations of the Chevrolet Volt highlighting locations of high-strength steel, cut points for extrication, first responder labeling, automatic and manual electrical shut-off and more.

The Chevrolet Volt’s safety features include safeguards before, during and, thanks to OnStar, after a crash. Before a crash, the vehicle’s technology helps the driver stay on track with an antilock brake system, Stabilitrak and traction control. Additional crash avoidance features include daytime running lamps and hands-free calling capability through OnStar and Bluetooth. During a crash the Volt can reduce injuries with safety cage construction, sensors, crush zones, eight air bags standard and safety belts. And after a crash Chevrolet Volt has the added protection of OnStar which, in certain types of collisions, uses built-in vehicle sensors to automatically alert an OnStar Advisor who is immediately connected into the vehicle and can request emergency help to be sent to its location.

More than 50 crash tests at various speeds and angles have been conducted to date in the development of the Chevrolet Volt, including front, side and rear impacts as well as rollovers. There is extensive use of high strength steel in the body structure in order to achieve outstanding safety performance.

-General Motors

Benavides explains that the Chevy Volt’s high voltage system runs at 360 volts, similar to GMs current 2-mode hybrids which run at 300 volts.  Not much will be different when dealing with the Volt in an accident scenario as compared to hybrids already on the road.

She also explains that just because the Volt has a large lithium-ion battery it doesn’t not behave differently or more dangerously in accidents than conventional cars.  This is a fact GM has verified on its dozens of Volt crash tests to date.  Theses tests have included front, side, and rear collisions as well as  roll-overs and roof crushes.

After three and a half years of daily Volt posting on this site is it possible to lose sight of the larger forces in play?  This site was started to convince GM to build the Volt from a desire both to get our country off of oil as well as to help promote the purchase of cars from an American manufacturer.

Volt hype has had a very very long ramp up, and the majority of the US population are probably aware Chevy is working on an electric car.  Nissan publicly entered the space much later, just last year, and only officially announced its pure electric LEAF in August of 2009.  Yet they have been marketing aggressively, having announced pricing, launch markets and having begun taking pre-orders.   Furthermore Nissan’s CEO is vocally very bullish on electric cars, projecting a 10% market share for them by 2020, and with plans in place to build 500,000 LEAFs per year within a few years.

We often get into comparisons between pure EVs and electric cars with range extenders on this site.  From a practical utilitarian standpoint, the EREV would likely be more popular, something GMs internal research also suggests.  One study concluded 83% of respondents would prefer a 40 mile EREV to a 100 mile EV.  Recently, a large consulting group determined range anxiety will be a significant issue and that the majority of people beleive an electric ar needed 300 miles of range to be practical.

Nissan marketing is pushing the idea of no gas anytime, and no tailpipe emissions.  They are equating the car with good health too, like choosing Lance Armstrong as its sponsor.

It is odd to consider a car’s popularity since no-one has ever actually bought or test driven one, but at this unusual turing point in automotive history, it is possible.  Using publicly available Internet measures of popularity it could be concluded that there is more interest and enthusiasm for the LEAF.  Google handles 60% of all Internet searches.  Using their Trend tool, searches for the LEAF have now surpassed those for the Volt and are almost double the volume (graphic above).

Furthermore, the official Leaf Facebook page has 54,000 members while the Volt Facebook page has just 24,000.

Finally, Nissan’s official interest list has 130,000 people on it, and they have gotten 13,000 pre-orders.  The size of the offical Chevrolet.com Volt interest list has just been disclosed, and stands at 42,000.  The GM-Volt.com unofficial interest list has 52,000 on it, many of whom may appear on both lists.

So is the LEAF more popular with the American public than the Volt?  And what does this mean for the Volt?

One could argue that none of this really matters now, because once the vehicles are in the public space and people begin to live with them only then can true popularity be determined as it equates to sales.

And in the end it really doesn’t matter, because both cars reduce the use of petroleum and that after all is what its all about.  Some people will probably even buy both cars for their home.