GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The Volt can’t be all things to all people, but GM has aimed to make the car as widely applicable as possible. Certainly the presence of a ranger extender goes a long way in giving the car advantages over pure EVs while still allowing drivers to cover most of their daily miles without gas.

GM designed the Volt’s 400 pound lithium-ion battery to fit into a T-shaped container that runs down the midsection of the car. This heavy weight in the center lowers the center of gravity, improving handling as well as helping to create a near 50:50 weight balance.

When the car was initially being redesigned, in order to keep the roof line low, the battery was so tall that it had to be run through the center of the rear bench, reducing the typically 3-person row, and 5 person capacity to a 2 seat row and 4 person capacity.

We hope and want the Volt to sell in high volumes, but some question if being a four-seater will reduce the car’s potential marketability.

According to former Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle, GM doesn’t see that as the case at all.

“Generally when you look at a vehicle in the small to mid category and realistically look at that middle seat in the back row it is often times not all that functional of a middle seat,” says DiSalle. “So I don’t see that as a major detriment at all.”

DiSalle tries to see it as even adding value in terms of adding storage space. The top of the pack has cupholders and storage space in it.

“There are some packaging advantages of the vehicle,” he says. “The cargo space in the back is very roomy. There’s an ability to put quite a bit of stuff back there.”

DiSalle believes that the center rear seat in most cars in the Volt’s size class are not realistically usable anyway.

“I would specifically say that middle seat if you look around in a small mid vehicle and just look at the dimensionality of the middle seat typically you have to question how functional or realistic that is,” he says. “I don’t think we have any major disadvantage with that at all.”

He would not say if GM plans to open that space for seating in the next generation Volt, by redesigning the battery. “I can’t say in terms of the next generation Volts what the gameplan is, we’re just not given out any specifics on the next gen product,” said DiSalle.

DiSalle thinks people are buying Volts to be involved in new technology and to reduce gas consumption. “So while its certainly not a utility vehicle that’s not why people are buying it per se,” he says.

Nissan first revealed its 100-mile range Leaf pure electric car in August 2009, well into the four year Volt public birthing process.

The Japanese company took a different tactic than GM announcing pricing earlier (and lower) and opening up online reservations for the car for a $99 down payment.

At that time, GM was frequently criticized for being slow to announce price and for not having an online reservation process.

However, since the cars have started rolling out, GM is already well in the lead in numbers of deliveries.

Nissan capped it total reservations at 20,000, declaring that as the sales goal of Leafs in the US in 2011. At that early stage GM had only committed to building 10,000 Volts in the same timeframe, so it appeared that Nissan might take the sales lead.

Demand for the award-winning extremely flexible extended range electric Volt has been skyrocketing though, and GM has now upped its commitment to building 25,000 Volts in 2011.

Nissan at the same time is now starting to backpedal.

For every one Leaf so far delivered in the US, GM has delivered 6 Volts. Nissan says it will shortly ramp up sales making sure everyone who wants one will be able to have it by the end of the summer. “We’re going to make sure that customers get their cars well before the end of summer,” said Brian Carolin, Nissa VP of sales and marketing. “I’m confident during April, May you’re going to see (a) significant number of deliveries.”

Carolin said buyers should expect “a few hundred” deliveries in March.

He did admit however, for the first time, that it is unlikely Nissan will achieve its goal of 20,000 deliveries in 2011.

“Not every one of those reservations is going to turn into a firm order,” he said. “I think 20,000 will be too high.”

Source (Detroit News)

You know GM means business when it debuts a Chevrolet Volt television commercial during the Super Bowl, considering the 30 second spot costs $3 million to air.

The yearly football match is generally one of the most watched television events with over 100 million people expected to have tuned in.

The commercial, first airing prior to halftime called Discovery, illustrates a different perspective on the Volt than we have seen in previous commercials.

The intention is to describe the car as a historically disruptive breakthrough invention, which in fact it is. It nicely weaves quickly through several landmark historical milestones such as the discoveries of electricity, the lightbulb, the home computer, and the arrival of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.

An underlying theme to all these important advances is that electricity made them possible, the same being true of course for the Volt.

Tim Allen continues in his role as narrator, calling the car at the end the extended range electric Volt.

It will be interesting to see if the exposure of this commercial to such a wide audience, around one third of the US population, will  lead to increased attention to the car, which as it stands already seems to have garnered much interest.

And if you are new to this site after seeing the ad on the Superbowl, welcome.

You can see the whole catalog of this year’s Super Bowl ads here.

The Chevrolet Volt and Nissan LEAF rely heavily on government incentives to help bolster sales.

There is a $7500 federal tax credit available to offset the purchase price of these cars.  This credit currently applies to the first 250,000 units of each automakers plugin vehicles with large batteries of at least 16 kwh in size.  To obtain the credit, individuals with sufficient tax liability must report their purchase to the IRS.

According to a government audit, however, about 20% of the plugin  tax credits claimed so far are fraudulent.

The audit indicates that most of the fraudulent claims for the tax credit were requested for gas-powered cars that don’t qualify such as the Hyundai Sonata and Buick Enclave.

The total number of claies for the first seven month of 2010 was 4400 and amounted to $33 million in fraudulent credits.

“While IRS management did take corrective actions to reduce erroneous claims when TIGTA brought these process weaknesses to its attention, more clearly needs to be done,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.

The auditor recommnedat an obvious solution was to automatically reject claims for ineligible cars.  The IRS, however, did not agree with this strategy as they felt it would reduce the rate at which incoming returns could be handled.

Instead, the recommended dealing with the fraudulent requests later on.

The IRS has already moved to recover the money that was inappropriately received.

“The IRS took immediate action to put additional protections in place to stop improper vehicle payments,” said IRS spokesman J. Russell George. “We are also taking steps to recapture the credits people erroneously claimed.”

There is a new proposal in congress to extended these credits up to 500,000 vehicles per automaker and to allow the federal credit to be received by owners at the point of purchase.

Source (Detroit Free Press)

President Obama has stated and restated that it is the goal of his administration to put one million plugin cars on US roads by 2015.

It is both ambitious and hopeful, and according to a new academic report, unlikely.

The 80 page blue-ribbon study was published by the school of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University and released on Wednesday.

The report was generated by a 13 member expert panel including a former Ford executive and leading academics and relied on input from the major automakers including GM, BMW, and Nissan.

It was concluded that the country would fall short of the 1 million car goal unless bold moves were made. Mainly the production plans for electric vehicles are insufficient to meet that target and consumer demand remains uncertain and likely too low.

“President Obama’s dream is appealing and it may be achievable, but there are big barriers to overcome before the mass commercialization of electric vehicles will occur,” said John D. Graham, dean of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU.

Among the reports specific conclusions are:

• Obama’s goal, while achievable before the end of the decade, is unlikely to be met by 2015, both because automakers and suppliers do not have sufficient production targets, and the demand from consumers is not yet robust enough to hit the one-million target.
• Uncertainty about reliability and resale value, coupled with a general lack of consumer understanding of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs), contributes to a lack of demand for these new products.
• More importantly, the high cost of PEVs and challenges related to recharging the vehicles pose significant obstacles to broader adoption and acceptance of this new technology.

The panel’s recommendations are:

• The federal government should create a national PEV demonstration program in up to 20 communities around the country to help motorists and consumers become more familiar with plug-in hybrid electric and pure electric vehicles, and create an instructive “pilot program” for consumers, utilities, municipal officials, dealers and manufacturers.
• Additional cost-effective incentives to encourage more consumers to invest in these new vehicles should be enacted.
• Broader investment in PEV infrastructure technology, particularly in recharging capability at the homes of potential PEV buyers, should also be a priority.
• Long-term research and development investment by both government and the auto industry to help bring down the cost of batteries and related PEV technology must be enlarged.

You can read the entire study here (PDF)

January sales figures for GM were announced yesterday, and the automaker continued to see positive gains with overall sales coming in 22% greater than a year ago.

Included in the total of 178,897 cars and truck sold, GM announced that it had sold 321 Chevy Volts. This is in addition to the 326 Volts sold in December, indicating 647 have so far reached customers. Nissan for its part only sold 87 Leafs , and only 19 in December for a total of 106 units sold, less than one sixth as many as Volts.

Demand for the Volt has been red hot, and sales figures would be much higher if GM wasn’t deliberately pacing themselves. “Right now we’re selling every one we can make,” GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said, “so as shipments rise we expect sales to rise as well.”

Nissan has 20,000 people who placed $99 deposits for a Leaf, so they could have sold more as well but for the fact they are being exceptionally cautious.

GM has plans to continue building on the Volt’s  momentum. In addition to new plans to build 25,000 Volts this year and up to 120,000 next year, the Volt team is highly focused on reducing costs.  After all with demand at $41,000 it is certain more would be sold a a lower price point.  GM CEO Dan Akerson has charged his team with taking at least $7500 in cost out of the car by its next generation. With the federal tax credit still in place that would put the car well below $30,000 and in the reach of a far greater amount of people.

Auto journalist Peter Valdes-Dapena of CNN analyzed discussed several areas GM is working to cut cost from the Volt.

The battery is believed to cost $10,000 and could be made cheaper by reducing its size. Currently GM only uses 65% of the 16 kwh pack for driving duty. As they become more comfortable with the battery’s durability it is possible to move that band closer to 90%, possibly reducing lithium cost by a third. Also new advanced lithium cathode technology the company has invested in could amplify those reductions by increasing energy density. “You do extensive amounts of research and development and you get the same functionality or better with fewer cells,” said GM Ventures President Jon Lauckner, “and you take a whole lot of cost out of the vehicle.”

By increasing production volume costs will become lower due to economy of scale.  Units become less expensive the more that are built and sold.  Putting the Voltec drivetrain in other models will also help in that regard.

Electric motors are expensive because they rely on valuable rare earth elements like neodymium which are only available in limited quantities from places like China.  Engineers are designing new electric motors that do not require rare earths and will thus be less expensive.

The Volt contains specialized first generation accessories like air  conditioning, heating, power steering, and braking that are powered by electricity rather than by the gas engine as their traditional counterparts are.  For the first version of the Volt these parts are particularly expensive.  GM engineers are now simplifying and refining those components so that they will be less expensive by the next version

Finally there is the possibility some of the neat high tech features found in the current Volt, like the LCD screens and capacitive center stack, could be made optional to produce a more economical future version.

Source (CNN)