Posted by AutoGuide.com in: Battery, Engineering, Financial, General, Production with 56 Comments
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The ongoing crisis in Japan may disrupt the supply of transmissions for the Chevrolet Volt, with GM President Mark Reuss stating that the supply of transmissions may be interrupted.
According to the New York Times, Reuss stated “We just don’t know from a supply standpoint,” when pressed about possible supply chain interruptions regarding the Volt. The Volt’s window sticker states that its electric drive unit comes from Japan.
A GM spokesman told Inside Line that “Volt production is currently not impacted by the crisis in Japan. We continue to monitor the situation closely as we do for all GM products.” Nevertheless, the possibility of a disruption remains, as Reuss went on to state in the Detroit Free Press that contingency plans are being created. Reuss also noted that one possibility is that shipments from Japan arrive at U.S. ports with unacceptable radiation levels.
On a positive note, Reuss said that GM’s plan to hire 1,000 engineers to work on electric cars in Michigan is still in place, but could change based on future events.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 11:10 am and is filed under Battery, Engineering, Financial, General, Production. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
+30
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:19 am)wish the whole car was “made in america”….wishfull thinking…..sigh….
+35
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:32 am)Ford got bitten in the butt by sourcing their Ford Escape Hybrid CVT’s from Aisin, which is partially owned by Toyota. In 2008 when Ford was selling the FEH as fast as they could build them, Aisin was ‘unable’ to build more than 2,000 a month. I wonder how many CVT’s GM will be able to buy if the Volt gets popular?
More importantly, best wishes to the Fukushima 50 and all the Japanese people in the horrendous week. They may be economic competitors of the US but no one deserves what they are getting from fate this week. And they are handling incredible adversity with a calm grace that is impressive to behold.
+21
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:33 am)Wish the people of Japan well and Gods Speed.
Tom
+9
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:38 am)#2
I totally agree. +1
The people are indeed deeply impressive. Their government and TEPCO not so much. It only goes to show that Washington, DC has no monopoly on spin. If Anderson Cooper and his whole gang are there on the ground and they can’t figure out what’s going on, “transparency” is not part of the equation.
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:40 am)#1
Amen. +1
Maybe it will be now………… Or maybe at least more of it.
+10
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:48 am)This should be incentive for GM to source from the US or build them themselves!!!
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:49 am)Let’s see. GM applied for several patents for the Volt transmission. Then they source it to a Japanese sub contractor when they are trying to compete directly with a major Japanese car company (Toyota).
The thing isn’t super high tech. It’s a bunch of gears and a few electric clutches. You can’t build that yourself with 50Billion tax dollars????
+14
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:51 am)I’m wondering two things:
1. How many more JOBS would be created here if Americans made all of the parts?
2. With so much radiation getting loose, how come we haven’t seen a single new Super-Hero?
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:53 am)#7
No s**t! +1
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:54 am)Jeff,
I thought that you were going dark today. What a pleasant surprise. I would have given you a pass to test electric motorcycles, LOL. I wish I was going with you. Thanks.
+11
Mar 18th, 2011 (12:04 pm)None of this would have happened if GM stuck to the original plan of not having a transmission.
———————-
As a fellow human being, I feel for the Japanese. They really are good people and are not our enemies. When I watch TV, all I see is sadness, despair, and a destroyed infrastructure. I want to help, be feel helpless. But they are a strong people and will recover.
+2
Mar 18th, 2011 (12:17 pm)Where in Japan are the transmissions made? Here is a list of all factories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_General_Motors_factories
Searching the web has shown results that possible plant sites are far from the epicenter.
When Disney reopens their Tokyo amusement parks, that will be a good sign.
http://www.tokyodisneyresort.co.jp/en/index.html
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (1:22 pm)#12
Weill don’t look now, but I think they’re outsourced to a Japanese company.
Mar 18th, 2011 (1:45 pm)AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!
OMG Noel, you got me OTFLMAO!!!
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (2:28 pm)What really troubles me, is the possible rise of anti-nuclear movement
Still, the fact that 8.9 earthquake have done almost no damage looks like a miracle (for such powerful quake, there were almost no damage). I admire Japanese engineers. We have buildings that collapse without any quakes at all.
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (3:13 pm)We in this country have 104 nuclear power plants in 31 states that is 40 plus year’s old and has never had any repairs too them. Think aout that.
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (3:45 pm)Going nuclear…
When I was teaching at Navy Nuke School, the detailed report on this incident was classified
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1
No one ever talks about this when discussing nuclear accidents- and it was the worst US accident by far.
And what exactly is the purpose of the ‘black box’ on an aircraft? It certainly doesn’t help THAT particular aircraft. While the events in Japan are ugly, we will learn from them and move forward (if the same left wingers who effectively killed new US nuke plants for three decades don’t get too much control). Moving forward from SL-1 to what would be designed with lessons learned from this accident, we will indeed have a very safe reactor design for the future. BTW, navy plants would have not required electricity to remove decay heat from the shut down reactor. Smarter designs (which I trust will certainly be in place in the future) will employ natural circulation (warming water rises naturally) to remove the heat that is so worrisome at the moment.
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (4:41 pm)I’ll be in Japan next week. I’ll give you guys an update of what I see. The airline wouldn’t let me change my flight back from Tokyo to another airport (I’m flying into Nagoya), so I’m sticking with my original itinerary of 4 days in Tokyo.
I’ve spoke w/a few of our Japanese co-workers residing in Nagoya now, and they are saying to avoid Tokyo at all costs, but I think they know as much as everyone else, which isn’t very much.
+4
Mar 18th, 2011 (4:43 pm)A lot! Based on a stat I saw recently, if American’s spent just $64 more each year on US made products, it would create 100,000 US Jobs.
+3
Mar 18th, 2011 (5:30 pm)If people will become completely mad after CNN antinuclear propaganda the supplies from Japan could be disrupted. The fact is that coal we are burning in the coal power plants is radioactive as well. You can easaly mesure that at the caol storage. In 40 years coal power plant emits the same amout of radioactivity as Chernobil NPP did just once.
+5
Mar 18th, 2011 (5:33 pm)Thank you, but actually this short piece was posted for me, not by me.
I think my byline was the default, and they did not change it.
Got to ride new Zeros today and yesterday. Rain stopped it around 2 o’clock. Got my last two test rides and photos taken in a downpour!
These electric bikes are better than they were in 2010.
I will not post Monday and Tuesday. Still on assignment.
Had some good conversations with Jay Friedland of Plug in America and Zero, who I’ve talked to before and finally met face to face.
Cultivating good sources and making friends too here in the epicenter of EV technology, Silicon Valley area.
Mar 18th, 2011 (6:29 pm)I posted this in the last thread but never saw an answer, so I’ll throw it out again.
Question for Volt owners, or someone that may know; does the toucscreen have multitouch? Meaning, can you push two things at one time (like Iphones & Droid Phones)? Also, is the LCD behind the steering column a touchscreen too, or just a display.
Thanks
+2
Mar 18th, 2011 (7:14 pm)They would not have sold as many now, or in the future, without those performance enhancing gears and clutches. Especially that one “special” clutch.
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (7:20 pm)Sounds like you may have a trip on a Bullet Train in the works. Those things are great for a long skinny country. Drink some 100% orange juice for me. Oh how I love that stuff.
+8
Mar 18th, 2011 (8:31 pm)Already Done.
PWR
http://www.ap1000.westinghousenuclear.com/ap1000_glance.html
BWR
http://www.gepower.com/prod_serv/products/nuclear_energy/en/new_reactors/esbwr.htm#
See passive safety system animation.
The existing plants have a core damage (severe accident where the core melts some) frequency in the neighborhood of 1/10,000 per year (10^-4 per year) So if the world has 400 nuclear plants, we would expect a core damage accident (i.e. Three Mile Island) about once every 25 years.
A core damage accident does not have to be lethal to humans but it does essentially destroy the plant in most cases.
The new plants lower this risk by 1/100. The core damage frequency will be 1/1,000,000 per year. This is a very low number. The new plants have been designed. We just need to build them.
Something to think about. We are running old plants will full fuel pools also.
While we are waiting to build nuclear plants again, ours have gotten old. They should have been put down at 40 years and new plants built. Since we have not had the nerve to build new plants, we are granting life extensions to our 40 year old plants now out to 60 years (We simply need the electricity). In addition, we are upgrading the power ratings on these old things to get an additional 10-15% of power out of them. Some of the uprated plants have had parts brake under the additional loads.
The Govt is supposed to take the fuel from the plants and store it at a national repository. We built one at Yucca mountain and thousands of DOE scientists worked on it and deemed it safe. Politics won’t let the old fuel into Nevada (Harry Reid), and therefor each plant stores the fuel on site (where it can cause trouble as we see in Japan)
Bottom line, new plants are ready and much much safer. We probably should build them and retire some of the antiques.
Mar 18th, 2011 (8:49 pm)First, I doubt the transmission is made by a Japanese supplier. It’s more likely that the supplier is buying some smaller parts or commodities from Japan. That’s what the story implies. In other words, the “supply chain” is made up of suppliers that sell to other suppliers that sell to GM.
Second, remember that GM has already paid back most of the tax money used for the bankruptcy, and when the government sells it’s remaining GM shares, it’s very likely all of that money will be repaid. In fact, it’s possible the government will make a small profit on the deal. How come so many people don’t know this? Is there some rabid dis-information campaign?
Mar 18th, 2011 (9:10 pm)kdawg
It’s a stretch to say it’s a multitouch screen, but if you press with two fingers, it selects a point between the two fingers!
There is a curved plastic shield in front of the steering wheel LCD display. No touch screen.
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (9:40 pm)HaroldC,
no car is made entirely in one country. the toyota models like the venza comes from 70 percent us parts.
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (9:41 pm)On question number two, maybe the real Godzilla will appear. But after it sees the damage done already, it will probably go back to the sea.
Or were you expecting a Japanese version of the Hulk?
Raymond
+1
Mar 18th, 2011 (9:47 pm)The supposed “black box” is really a bright orange, and its real name is “flight recorder” (voice or instrumentation). I wonder who was the “idiot” that started that wrong color phrase. We should not continue the error.
I know the history of the “black box” but that is a very long story.
Raymond
Mar 18th, 2011 (10:30 pm)If GM can’t get everything on time (well ahead of time), they’ll more likely just start making anything with a possible supply risk right here instead, and just not mess with outside risks. OEM’s ***always*** have back up supply options and alternatives all over the place.
Although I hope Japan can get the dangerous situation with the reactors alleviated.
It would also be no surprise that all of Japan’s resources are now going to be needed to restructure. Their own supply chains may be severely disrupted somehow for the parts needed in making of these transmissions. Unfortunately, I would also tend to begin to be concerned and to question their ability to **afford** to maintain quality. We’ll just have to see.
+7
Mar 18th, 2011 (11:59 pm)This is possibly the most important OT comment at gm-volt.com EVER… As a physicist with extensive nuclear science/engineering experience, I sincerely hope our unusually cerebral folks here at gm-volt.com will take note and help educate/persuade others to support both the building of new nuclear power plants and the replacing of these old, unsafe, out-dated power plants with the extraordinarily-safe, clean designs of modern nuclear power plants!
+1
Mar 19th, 2011 (12:15 am)CG…. shhhhh… I’m trying to keep a low profile.
+2
Mar 19th, 2011 (12:25 am)I had assumed it was already done. Interesting reuse of water already escaped from coolant loop. My knowledge is no more recent than S8G (used to teach S5W), so the update was interesting to see. It would be nice if more people understood this so that the fear factor dissipated. Up to and including the men killed on the Gulf oil rig last year (and lets not forget the homes blown up from the gas main explosions), I wonder how many people have died as of a result of using fossil fuels as an energy source. The death toll in the nuclear power world is miniscule. Good point about extending- and expanding- these old plants. I trust that if ignorance were overcome, we could retire these plants and move on to the next generation as demonstrated in your links. Lets hope.
+6
Mar 19th, 2011 (12:41 am)Amen and Amen. While I was typing on the concept so were you.
If the world uses its collective head, it will realize it can’t decide to ditch nuclear in favor of fossil fuel EXPANSION. If one good thing can come from the Japan nuclear situation, it is the realization that it is time to dump the outdated and embrace the newer, better version of nuclear. The current approach to nuclear is like building factories just to keep up the supply of vacuum tubes for TV sets (of the same freakin era as these nuke plants) (at about 12 inches of CRT screen) compared to buying a new 60+ inch hi def LED beauty that hangs on a wall. Condemn ‘em all and lets move on to the 21st century nuke model.
Mar 19th, 2011 (8:34 am)kdawg,
The display behind the steering column is NOT a touch screen.
The display on the console is NOT multi-touch.
+2
Mar 19th, 2011 (8:44 am)CorvetteGuy,
Wait… do I hear Godzilla approaching?
Mar 19th, 2011 (8:54 am)OT, but more pleasant than some of this.
Web Chat: Female Leaders of the Chevrolet Volt – Tuesday at 3 p.m. EDT
“In celebration of Women’s History Month, [GM is] hosting a web chat on Tuesday, March 22 from 3 – 4 p.m. EDT with four women involved in the design, development, manufacture and marketing of the Chevrolet Volt. Joining [them] will be:
* Pamela Fletcher, Chief Engineer for Volt and Plug-In Hybrid Propulsion Systems
* Teri Quigley, Plant Manager at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly
* Britta Gross, Director of Global Energy Systems and Infrastructure Commercialization
* Cristi Landy, Product Marketing Manager
The ladies will answer as many questions as they can during the hour-long chat. [GM] hope[s] you can join [them].”
This is, of course, on GM’s Voltage dot com web site. I don’t know if the new owners of this site can set it up here like Lyle used to be able to do. (hint, hint)
+2
Mar 19th, 2011 (9:55 am)I agree 100%. I took two elective courses in Nuclear Engineering and I understand very well what was happening in Japan. I also believe that the U.S. must invest in newer systems and begin retiring the old systems in stages. This will reduce our dependency in petroleum and coal for thermoelectric generators.
Raymond
+4
Mar 19th, 2011 (10:27 am)I’m working on my own small nuclear plant to power my home. So far I just have a glow stick a bathtub full of water and an extension cord. Any advice on a next step would be great.
+5
Mar 19th, 2011 (11:36 am)Critical Advice: 1) Don’t electrocute yourself! 2) See a psychiatrist ASAP!
Mar 19th, 2011 (12:51 pm)Nuclear … maybe not. We are sure to see advances in hydrogen use very soon. Not a make and store system. But a produce and use on demand system.
=D-Volt
Mar 19th, 2011 (1:32 pm)Yeah, I have a 7 day rail pass, I’ll be all over the country. I just wanted to avoid Tokyo. Oh well. At least it wont be till April 6th that I’ll be there. Maybe the situation will have improved by then.
+1
Mar 19th, 2011 (1:34 pm)Thanks for the reply. I hope GM updates the software/hardware to a multi-touch at some point. I’m thinking it will be useful for navigation maps. Also, most people with smartphones such as Droids & Iphones are aldready used to a multi-touch.
Mar 19th, 2011 (1:35 pm)Jeff,
Thank you.
Mar 19th, 2011 (1:43 pm)You could use this stuff (Litroenergy). It’s a little radioactive material inside a phosphorous microscopic ball that creates light for 12-20 years w/out recharging. They are looking at ways to pair it w/photovoltaic cells to make a battery that last for 12-20 years.
http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:MPK_Co's_Litroenergy
Mar 19th, 2011 (1:51 pm)Over 100 nuclear plants provide over 20% the US massive electrical generation needs. Competing interests are vying for limited opportunities to replace and hopefully expand with updated technologies. I can’t help but feel many of the techniques advocated are not fundamentally exploiting nuclears potential. They are instead extending technology developed to foster cold war needs so the existing industry, investor and government hierarchy will support their updates.
Unfortunately with billions invested, an industry cannot simply turn on a dime. If you could dial back the investments to the early 1960′s and see the Soviet Union would be defeated anyway, you could dump the cold war era technology and invest your limited resources in LIFTER technology using thorium, instead of grafting on engineering solutions to very difficult fundamental problems. For example, fail safe for a thorium based reactor is to turn the power switch off to the reactor as the last person exits the building. Upon returning, scientists in the 1960′s no less, would find materials far less harmful than todays reactors, encased in a solid block of salt.
Unfortunately technologies that don’t exhibit fundamental problems were ignored, and cold war needs led to adopting the technology that we have inherited. There is no clear leader (a financing problem) to replace those technologies today. There is no consensus on support and funding.
Mar 20th, 2011 (10:30 am)Here’s another reality of the world wide economy. A disaster on the other side of the world can bring your operations to a halt.
+2
Mar 20th, 2011 (1:41 pm)Thought for the Day:
+2
Mar 20th, 2011 (4:48 pm)It’s man made, and I hope it doesn’t end up being a disaster, but it looks like it’s fun and games time again for the World’s Top Guns over Libya. This time we’ll see what the French and British and the rest of NATO can do.
If you’re an American and speak English, thank a veteran.
+6
Mar 20th, 2011 (7:25 pm)I can assure you that was NEVER the plan!
WOT
Mar 21st, 2011 (10:42 am)WooHooo, lets here it for globization, I guess if we ever have to go to war in a big way, lets say China or Russia it won’t happen because we probably have to get the parts from them to fuel our war machine (DUH). Thank-you Japan for building reactors on an active fault line, U.S. nuclear engineers warned them when they built these reactors that the containment vessels were to small and not heavy enough to survive a meltdown and also that the cooling ponds were to small. SO MUCH FOR SUPERIOR JAPANESE ENGINEERING. This outsource of parts only proves that Americans are fools full of pie in the sky attitudes and blind trust, Oh they will never steal our designs. Would someone anyone please tell me which freakin car has the largest % of actual parts MADE IN AMERICA?????
+1
Mar 21st, 2011 (10:56 am)This is kind of useful (updated Feb 2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/19/automobiles/20090619-auto-plants-4.html
And here’s an entertaining article from 2007 USA today
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-22-american-usat_N.htm
“Arguably, the most American of all vehicles right now is Ford’s hulking 2007 Ford Expedition, a USA TODAY check of government listings, manufacturers and dealer sales lots reveals. The SUV is composed of 95% U.S. or Canadian parts, and it was made in Michigan. Ford’s new Edge crossover and the Crown Victoria sedan also have 95% components, but both they and their corporate cousins are assembled in Canada.”
+1
Mar 21st, 2011 (12:16 pm)Chevonly,
I think that would be a FORD I think a Ford Focus with about 87% US content… not far behind would be the Buick Lucerne.. from what I remember reading somewhere… Transplants don’t even go on my list… transplants are getting away without paying US taxes and they suck billions in profits OUT of our economy while keeping THEIR markets closed to US products… for every job in a transplant we lose thousands of jobs… just try to build a chevy plant in Japan Korea or Germany… they will laugh at you.
Mar 21st, 2011 (12:27 pm)Now if we could get our Anti Amercan media to stop supporting foreign companies… but since they are now owned by foreign companies … I don’t see that happening.
Mar 21st, 2011 (2:51 pm)I’m just a little surprised that GM does not have a 2nd source of supply for a critical component.