GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

A number of important GM related news items recently broke that are worth recognizing.

General Electric Commits to Deploying 25,000 Electric Cars
The first was an announcement from General Electric that the company plans to deploy 25,000 electric cars into its global fleet by 2015.

It will acheive this goal both by converting half of its global fleet of 30,000 cars to electric and by purchasing electric cars from autmotkers.

Its initial purchase will be 12,000 Chevrolet Volts from GM. Cars from other automakers will be added as they become available.

“Electric vehicle technology is real and ready for deployment and we are embracing the transformation with partners like GM and our fleet customers,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt. “By electrifying our own fleet, we will accelerate the adoption curve, drive scale, and move electric vehicles from anticipation to action.

GM CEO Dan Akerson said, “GE’s commitment reflects confidence that electric vehicles are a real-world technology that can reduce both emissions and our dependence on oil. It is also a vote of confidence in the Chevrolet Volt, which we will begin delivering to retail customers by the end of this year. We are pleased that the Volt will play a major role in this program, which will spur innovation and benefit our companies, our customers, and society as a whole.”

Dont worry about GE taking all the Volts away from consumers. “It’s between now and 2015,” says GM spokesperson Rob Peterson. “So the volumes are manageable.”

Cruze Eco Officially Gets 42 MPG Highway

GM also announced that its Chevrolet Cruze Eco model had been given an official fuel economy designation by the EPA. The $18,995 sedan received an impressive 42 MPG on the highway, and 28 MPG city, the highest of any non-hybrid vehilce on the roads.  These impressive numbers are only for the manual transmission.

GM points out this compact car’s fuel economy is better than the Ford Fiesta sub-compact, the Honda Civic, and hybrids including the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, and Nissan Altima hybrids.

The Cruze Eco achieves its success though a combination of aerodynamics tweaks similar to the Volt that give it a CD of .298.  It is also mass optimized and uses the efficient 1.4 L turbo Ecotec 4-cylinder engine which can produce up to 138 horsepower.

“Chevrolet Cruze continues to redefine the compact segment, offering class-leading standard safety features, upscale amenities – as well as hybrid-like fuel economy without the price,” said Chuck Russell, vehicle line director. “The Cruze Eco is in a league of its own and will challenge perceptions of the efficiency available in a more affordable non-hybrid.”

Opel Ampera Pricing Released

Finally GM announced pricing on the European version of the Chevrolet Volt known as the Opel Ampera.  The car is identical from an engineering perspective though exterior design as mildly different, and tailored to the Opel brand and the European market.

Unfortunately for them, our European brethren will have to fork up quite a few Euros for the pleasure of Voltec-based driving.  The car will start at 45,900 Euros which translates to almost $59,000 dollars.  There is a 19% value added tax (VAT) in Germany which brings the cost to 36,050 Euros or about $49,000.

Online reservations started on Thursday on opel-ampera.com.

Living with the Volt Update

In my second day of driving the Volt, my love for the car grew stronger.  It’s really an amazing car.   Solid, sleek, satisfying and brimming with technology and real-time connectedness.

I began the day with a charged battery reading 36 miles of EV range.  I reached my first destination 22.7 miles away with 15 miles shown remaining.  My office was another 7.5 miles and I got there with 7 miles EV range remaining.  I was able to charge at 120-v at my office from 9:30AM to 5:00 PM and when I left for home, 33 miles of EV range remained.  I made it home for a total daily drive of 59.3 miles with 4 miles of range left, and never burned any gas.

Thus for my first two days in total I drove 122.8 miles using .32 gallons of gas, or 384 MPG.

—————————————————————————————————————–

DON’T MISS the NJ Volt Meetup with myself and three other CAB members and our Volts. It will be on Sat 11-13 at 11AM here: Nauna’s Bella Casa 148 Valley Road Montclair, NJ 07042 www.naunas.com

On Wednesday November 10th, I had my first full day of living with the Chevrolet Volt. I would like to take you through it as if you were there.

First for those who asked, no I didn’t sleep in my Volt the night before, but when I awoke in the AM I was sure very excited and looking forward to going out to my garage and getting in it.

On my arrival there, I found the car had successfully fully charged while it was plugged in overnight. The display showed charging time was complete at 11:15 PM; I had plugged it in to the 240-v charger in the fully depleted state at 5:15PM.

The night before I was unsuccessful at activating my OnStar/MyVolt.com/iPhone app system. I spent some time talking to an OnStar operator, and we were able to determine the car’s OnStar ID number, and the VIN number was on the car, but there were apparently several captured test fleet Volts attached to that ID, and the operator wasn’t sure how to connect to mine. As of this writing my GM liaison is still “working on it.”

When I booted up the car, that’s really what it is like turning it on though quicker, the battery showed I had 36 miles of EV range. That was determined based on previous driving behavior in a miles per kwh estimation. The car at that point had 133 mpg lifetime efficiency which was based on the more than 1200 engineering validation miles GM had put on it prior to my delivery.

The first leg of my journey was from my home to the first hospital I work at. The actual distance was 22.8 miles, and when I arrived, the car showed 15 miles of EV range were left. That drive took place mostly on the highway at 70 + MPH. Outside temperature was 49 degrees, and I kept the cabin at 72 degrees using ECO mode. Comfort mode setting indicated it would drain twice as much power if I had chosen it.

The car was a charm on the highway. It was more than fast enough to deal with all types of merges, entrances, and passes, and handled very sprightly. I looked to see if anyone stared or noticed the car, and interestingly I didn’t see one person do so.

The second leg of my journey was from my first hospital to my second hospital. Upon arriving there I had traveled a total of 32 miles, and the display showed 6 EV miles remained. I spent most of the morning rounding at that hospital, and had no place to charge the car. After that I drove to my office and plugged in at 120-v via the portable charger at 12:15 PM. At that point I had travelled 34.4 miles and the display showed there were 3 EV miles left.

I left the office at 5:15 PM, and over the five hours of 120-v charging the car had accumulated 21 miles of EV range.

The ride back home was pure highway and in the high 60 MPH range. The engine turned on 18.4 miles later.

At that point, I spent some time analyzing the sound of the engine on the highway and the roads. It could be heard and felt but wasn’t at all unpleasant, it was muted and subtle. In fact I really had to strain and focus to analyze it.

One could feel the RPMs matching the accelerator for the most part although with a slight delay. The engine became most noticeable (highest revving) above around 67-70 MPH. I didn’t push it beyond that level on this drive. The engine turned off gently, and without a shudder whenever coming to a stop, and stayed off below 30 MPH. It could be heard revving back on at 30 MPH.

Thus mostly its behaviour was predictable which is what once would expect, and felt cognitively comfortable.

I arrived back home having traversed a total of 63.5 miles and having achieved an effective 200.7 MPG for the day.  Back calculating revealed that I had achieved 33.8 mpg in the 10.7 miles spent in charge sustaining mode.

If I had spent the whole day at the office which I often do, I would have had enough time to charge such that I wouldn’t have used any gas. If I had a 240-v charger at work, the same would have also been true.

I found only minor issues. The front end ground clearance is very low.  This is needed for aerodynamic efficiency.  Going down a steep decline, such as my driveway, however, even at a crawl still led to scraping on the road.

Also when pulling into a parking spot up to a wall, when letting off the brakes and gently re-applying them to creep to the wall, I found they had to be hit harder than I anticipated, making me slam them a bit for fear of hitting the wall.

I think these two idiosyncrasies are just minor variants I will just need to get used to in that they are different than the last car I was driving.

Overall, as you might imagine it was a spectacular  experience. I very easily connected my cell phone to the in-car bluetooth system which worked flawlessly. It also automatically pulled my contact list off my iPhone and into the dash which was a terrific surprise.

The car apparently has a significant vocabulary of voice commands I haven tapped into yet. I also haven’t programmed the garage door opener, the radio, or interacted with the on on-board hard drive.

Much more to do and see…

Also my fellow Volt CAB member Eric Rotbard who is also in New York has published his first 24 hour impression with the car in the GM-Volt CAB Forum.  Check it out!

And a reminder to anyone who is interested, we are having a Volt meetup with myself and the other three NY CAB members, and our Volts, at Tom M’s restaurant in northern NJ (Nauna’s Bella Casa at 148 Valley Road Montclair, NJ 07042) on 11/13 a from 11am to 2 pm.  Register below.

Enter your information below to register for the Volt Meetup.

Powered by Fast Secure Contact Form

Three years and ten months have passed since I first learned of GM’s Chevy Volt concept.  Relentlessly and rigorously I have followed the path that concept has taken from that early revelation all the way to this very most crucial, almost historic day.

I have been gifted with a large group of you dedicated readers whose interesting comments and discussion have kept me going all this time, and together we have dreamed of driving without the use of gasoline.

The hour of reckoning has finally dawned upon us. Last night around 5 PM Eastern time I picked up my Chevy Volt captured fleet test car and drove it home to my garage.

As many here know, I was chosen to participate in a 90 day test drive experience living with a production model Chevy Volt.  That time has now just begun.

I along with 14 other people in New York, Washington DC, and California, as part of the Volt consumer advisory board (CAB,) have begun picking up our cars this week. They are identical fully-loaded Viridian Joule models.

Though I’ve driven a Volt on several occasions including a 199 mile extended test drive, nothing can compare to bringing this beautiful prize home and plugging it into the official Voltec charger that had been installed in my garage.

I almost cannot put into words how unbelievably ecstatic I am to have this chance. It is almost surreal considering how long I’ve been blogging about this car to actually have one in my possession.

I only hope it was your and my effort here that helped push GM to build this car and to demonstrate to all the automakers the strong and widespread demand for EVs that exists in this country. For now not only is there a Volt in my driveway but many more tens of thousands of them and other electric cars shall make their way onto public roads over the coming months and years.

This is all great great news indeed.

I do wish you all could have this chance I have been afforded, and though that is not possible you can share the experience with me as I report here day by day, and one day you too may take home your own Volt.

When I took possession of the car it had 1214 miles on the odometer, accrued as engineers performed extensive validation tests before GM allowed us first members of the public to take the cars home.  It was only charged up to 13 miles of EV range, and the gas tank readout showed there was 244 miles of gas range on-board. I had a 23.7 mile trip from GM’s facility in Ardsley, NY back to my home in Rockland county.

The ride was phenomenal, emotional, and filled with pride.

The engine switched over at 11.6 miles, and by the end of the 23.7 miles my average fuel economy read 74.3 mpg. I could hear the engine most of the time in generator mode, but it wasn’t bothersome. Also if I kept my speed less than 30 mpg, the car stayed in EV mode even after CS mode began (no engine). The pure electric drive and power, and handling and braking, were expectedly delightful.

The car is packed with loads of incredible high-tech features, and I’m like a kid on Christmas morning with lots of pleasant work to do figuring and configuring it all out. Also it is the first time I’ve seen the car’s interior at night, and marveled at how the center stack shines with a futuristic blue backlight…very, very nice.

I finally have the 2011 Chevrolet Volt Owner’s Manual (draft) in my hand which I will study, and my first task is to get the MyVolt.com/OnStar/iPhone app system configured.

The charger is working beautifully, it has the car give a little chirp when charging commences and a green light on the dash lights up.

Today I am taking the car to work, 26 miles away, this time with a full battery, and will plug in  at 120-v at my office parking spot.

For those of you in the New York metro area or otherwise who are interested, we plan to have a Volt meetup with myself and the other three NY area Volt CAB members all of whom now have their cars.

We will be meeting at a restaurant called Nauna’s Bella Casa at 148 Valley Road Montclair, NJ 07042 which is owned by MINI E driver Tom Moloughney (Tom M) who has graciously offered to let us gather there. It is expected to be nice weather.  We will meet on Saturday November 13th from 11AM to 2PM.

The first 100 people who RSVP by entering their information in the form below are invited to attend.

Also feel free to tell me everything you want to see and hear about as I live with the car in the comments below, or if you prefer, this forum thread. Also enjoy my brief video below called Bringing Home the Volt

A deep hearftul thank you to all the loyal GM-Volt readers without who this would never have been possible, and of course to GM. I would also like to recall the title of my very first GM-Volt blog post on January 12th 2007, The Revolution Has Begun!, and now add that this time it’s for real.

Enter your information below to register for the Volt Meetup.

Powered by Fast Secure Contact Form

Video of bringing home the Volt:

The key advantage of the Volt is being able to drive for the majority of daily needs using only electricity.  The gas-powered generator is there only for back-up purposes, and for the majority of owners may only rarely if ever get used.

Since the generator may only be rarely used, it is significantly possible oil change requirements could be much more rare than in conventional cars.

The Volt automatically measures oil life and sends this information to users via the OnStar diagnostic email and smartphone app . The life of oil depends on both number of engine cycles, temperature exposure, and age of the oil.

GMs executive director of EVs and batteries Micky Bly explains how this will work in the Volt.

“We have adapted our patented oil life monitor (used on most GM vehicles the last 8-10 years) to the Volt’s unique operating conditions and its interactions with the engine oil quality,” he says. “We have added a maximum calendar life of 2 years as a cap on the oil life…so that would be the maximum period before an oil change is needed.”

“By using the oil life monitor it insures the customer will optimize the engine performance and be notified if an oil change is needed,” he says. “As we learn more about the Volt in field usage, we may increase that cap.”

A driver who drives primarily in EV mode will after about six weeks get a dashboard message telling him or her to allow engine maintenance mode. This process burns some gas to prevent it from going stale, but also lubricates the engine with oil.

“Oil likes to run at a certain temperature, and to burn off some of the water and some of the ligands that gather in oil,” says Bly. “We call it engine maintenance mode. We’ll ask if you mind if we run the engine a couple of miles just to freshen up basically, and then that will be fine.”

One of the problems inherent in electric cars is the fact that their batteries degrade. Lithium-ion cells work best when they are new, but over time their ability to hold a charge continually lessens. GM estimates the Volt battery will degrade by 10 to 30% after 8 years/100,000 miles. The company has worked hard to develop methods keep the cells as healthy as possible, and minimize degradation. These methods include keeping the temperature of cells in the ideal (roughly room temperature) range, and not permitting full charges and depletion.

Nonetheless, loss of function is inevitable, and batteries will eventually need to be replaced.

To maximize the potentiating for used cells, GM apparently has significant internal plans to refurbish used cells, as evidenced by a patent application submitted last year.

In the patent application called METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REJUVENATION OF DEGRADED POUCH-TYPE LITHIUM ION BATTERY CELLS, the automaker spells out a system that would take used lithium-ion pouch cells and restore their function.

It is explained that at cells age, the electrolyte material in them breaks down and leads to the deposit of lithium salts and other polymeric materials on the surfaces of both the positive and negative electrodes. As well, magnesium may be deposited on the negative electrodes. It is believed that both these deposits as well as breakdown of the electrolyte solution itself causes the cells to lose power over time.

In the invention, old cells would be hooked up to a manifold and a specialized solvent would be pumped in under pressure and then heated for up to one hour. A series of potential solvents or mixtures thereof is given.

This treatment is expected to remove the contaminants from the surface of the electrodes, and allow infusion of fresh electrolyte. It is suggested that such treatment may restore the cells to their original level of function.

Much of the patent describes the various ways the tubing and pumping could be designed to fit variety of cells and work under variety of conditions.

The patent concludes that rejuvenation of cells would be much less expensive than manufacturing new ones. One vision describes vehicle owners waiting at a facility while their car battery is rejuvenated on-site. Another vision describes replacing an owner’s battery with a new one, and then rejuvenating the old one for secondary use.

You can read the whole patent here.

Over the years, and increasing at an ever-quickening pace, various research firms and other pundits publish prognostications of how many electric cars people will buy in the future.

Of course no one can predict the future, but electrifying the automotive fleet has tremendous cost associated with it, and automakers need some type of roadmap for planning. Those of us who want to get the country off of oil also look to these reports for guidance as well.

Recently the research company Bloomberg New Energy Finance issued a report, which come on the heels of the recent JD Power study that only concluded 100,000 EVs would be sold in the US in 2020 . The Bloomberg study was a bit more optimistic.

The authors also conclude as did JD Powers that high rates of adoption of EVs will depend critically on two factors: the rise of gas prices and the reduction of battery prices, however did more to find the ceiling for the market based on today’s costs.

To do so, the study used an interesting  two step model: first identifying the addressable market, or hose who could actually afford the cars, and second determining what percentage of that market actually would buy such a car.

Specifically Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Volt sales were analyzed. The addressable market was determined solely as a function of price and the percentage of the car buying market which could pay it. It was determined that in 2011, 11% of US auto buyers could afford the $32,780 LEAF, and only 7% of buyers could afford the $41,000 Volt.  The $7500 tax credit was taken into account.

Seven percent of ten million in total sales would be 700,000 Volts.  The report does go on to say, however, “actual sales will be much lower and limited by vehicle availability.”

By 2030, plugin cars is predicted to account for 22% of auto sales.

“2011 will see the launch of a large number of new plug‐in hybrid and electric vehicle models around the world,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “It’s not just car companies who have a lot riding on their success ‐ utilities; oil companies; whole countries will feel the impact if there is rapid uptake.”

“Once we’ve seen the launch of mainstream plug‐in electric vehicles, we’ll have much more empirical data on consumer reactions, which will be vital in future forecasts,” said Glen Walker, lead transportation analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Source (Bloomberg NEF) bia (Edmunds)