GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

President Obama visited Holland Michigan on Thursday to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the new LG Chem battery plant. This plant was funded in part by a DOE stimulus grant of $151 million with a matching $151 million provided by LG Chem. Once fully operational in 2012, the plant will be capable of producing enough cells for 200,000 hybrids and electric cars, and will specifically be making the cells both for the Chevrolet Volt and the upcoming Ford Focus Electric, expected to go on sale in 2011.

“This is about more than just building a new factory,” said Obama. “It’s about building a better future for this city, for this state, and for this country.”

The Obama administration has pledged a goal of putting 1 million electric cars on US roads by 2015. So far the Recovery Act has contributed $2.5 billion towards United States electric car battery and component plants, 26 of which are already in some stage of construction. Nine of these are battery plants, including ones from A123 Systems and Johnson Controls. These facilities can collectively expect to produce 500,000 electric cars annually, and are expected to help transform Michigan into the electric car battery capital of the country.

The 650,000 square foot LG Chem plant is expected to produce 300 jobs.

“The workers at this plant, already slated to produce batteries for the new Chevy Volt, learned the other day that they’re also going to be supplying batteries for the new electric Ford Focus as soon as this operation gears up,” said Obama. “That means that by 2012, the batteries will be manufactured here in Holland, Michigan. So when you buy one of these vehicles, the battery could be stamped “Made in America” -– just like the car.”

Obama also predicted that all this investment in electrification of the automobile, will lead to more affordable electric cars in the future.

“Because of advances in the manufacture of these batteries, their costs are expected to come down by nearly 70 percent in the next few years,” he said. “That’s going to make electric and hybrid cars and trucks more affordable for more Americans.”

“It also means we’re going to be less dependent on foreign oil,” he added.

During the event, Obama got to check out and sit in both the Ford Focus Electric and for the first time, the Chevrolet Volt.

We have come a very, very long way from January 2007.

Obama Meets President and Vice President of LG Chem

After years of speculation, General Motors has finally announced the terms of the warranty on the Chevrolet Volt’s lithium ion battery pack; eight years/100,000 miles.

The 16 total kwh pack stores sufficient energy in a band from roughly 30% to 80% state-of-charge to propel the car for up to 40 miles at ambient temperature and with moderate driving style.

Since first working with the LG Chem lithium-manganese spinel cells in October 2007, GM has definitively proven their safe and robust nature. In these nearly three years of testing, GM has completed more than 1 million miles of driving and 4 million hours of validation of Volt battery packs, which include exactly nine modules and 288 cells.

“The Chevrolet Volt’s batteries have exceeded our performance targets and are ready to hit the road,” said Micky Bly, GM executive director, global electrical systems. “Our customers are making a commitment to technology that will help reduce our dependence on petroleum. In turn, we are making a commitment to our customers to deliver the highest standards for value, safety, quality, performance and reliability for an unprecedented eight years/100,000 miles.”

GM stresses the following key features of the Volt’s battery that allow this unprecedented in the industry warranty:

Thermal Management: the intrinsic thermal management system allows the pack and car to operate flawlessly from -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 C) and as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit (+50 C). In cold weather the cells are warmed by the generator and in warm weather they are chilled.

Diagnostics: there are more than 500 diagnostic tests on the pack that run 10 times per second. 85 percent ensure the pack is operating safely, 15 percent ensure durability.

Cell design: the LG chemistry ensures high power and long life.

Energy Management: by not fully charging or discharging the battery ensures the longest possible life.

GM is on track to deliver the Volt to customers later this year.

“We’re moving fast to deliver for the customer and ensure the Volt launch stays on track,” said Nancy Laubenthal, plant manager of the Brownstown Battery Plant. “Last August we announced the investment in the Brownstown facility and in January built our first completed battery pack. Now we are finishing pre-production batteries and soon we will begin building production batteries for Chevrolet Volts that will be delivered to dealers before the end of the year.”

In addition to this battery warranty, GM is also offering the following additional warranties on the car:

• 100,000 mile/5-year transferable Engine Limited Warranty (for Range Extender)

• 100,000 mile/5-year 24/7 Roadside Assistance Program

• 100,000 mile/5-year 24/7 Courtesy Transportation Program

• 36,000 mile/ 3-year no deductible Bumper-to-Bumper transferable warranty

• 100,000 mile/6-year corrosion protection

At 4PM Eastern you can ask questions directly of Volt vehicle line executive Doug Parks and Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle in the chat box below:

GM has issued a brief press statement indicating that some major Volt news will be announced Wednesday at 2 PM Eastern time. The news will be reported from GMs Brownstown battery assembly plant. This is the facility where GM has been manufacturing Chevrolet Volt battery packs using the prismatic lithium ion cells provided by LG Chem. Hundreds of prototype packs have been assembled since the first rolled off the line in January.

This facility is of sufficient size to support full mass production of the Volt, slated at 30,000 cars per year for 2012.

On Thursday it is known that President Obama will be coming to Michigan to visit the groundbreaking ceremony of LG Chem’s battery plant in Holland Michigan. This plant will be capable of building enough lithium-ion cells for about 50,000 plug-in hybrids per year, one of which is the Volt.  Ford has just announced it will also source lithium-ion cells from LG Chem for its upcoming Ford Focus Electric which.  These cells will eventually also come from this plant.

GM has stated that the media briefing will provide the following three details:
1. A “major consumer initiative”
2. “Details on the validation and testing of the Chevrolet Volt’s lithium-ion battery ”
3. Details on “the start of regular production”

Information will be announced by Tom Stephens who is GM’s vice chairman of Global Product Operations and Micky Bly who is GM’s executive director of Global Electrical Systems.

It might be fun to speculate what great news we will be hearing. Sources tell GM-Volt the consumer initiative is indeed Volt-related and the Detroit News has reported GM will be releasing the terms of the Volt’s battery warranty.

Stay tuned to this site and we will provide all the details later in the day, including a webchat with Volt vehicle line executive Doug Parks and Volt marketing director Tony DiSalle.

Exciting times folks.

Source (GM)

Lithium-air is the holy grail technology of lithium-ion batteries.

In current lithium ion batteries, lithium ions move between anode and cathode within the cell. As they move in one direction the cell becomes charged, in the other direction it discharges or provides electron flow to do work external to the battery, such as powering an electric motor.

Critical factors about these lithium cells besides their cost is their energy and power density. Energy density refers to how much energy the cell can carry per unit weight. The LG Chem cells being used for the Volt, for example, are 150 watt-hours per kilogram. That means a fully charged 2.2 pound block of these cells could run a 150 watt light bulb for an hour. The 240 pounds of it in the 440 pound pack can propel the Chevy Volt for up to 40 miles.

Lithium air batteries skip incorporating metal as a cathode and use atmospheric oxygen molecules to bind directly to lithium. This allows them to be extraordinarily energy dense. Functioning cells have been produced in the laboratory and have a theoretical energy density of over 5000 watt-hours per kilogram. Most experts believe 10 fold energy density improvement is obtainable. Thus if the technology can be commercialized, the Volt could get by on less than 30 pounds of batteries!

A few hundred pounds of these cells would be adequate to electrify large trucks and give sedans many hundreds of miles if not a thousand miles of electric range.

“Lithium-air is where we’re going,” said Donald Hillebrand director of the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory . “You can’t foresee the future, but right now, that’s the place where I think we see the endpoint, the end solution for … the battery. The battery everybody’s looking for.”

GM has made a conscious decision not to joint venture with a battery maker or to produce their own cells in house.  They opted to contract suppliers instead, such as LG Chem.  This offers them the option of putting any vendor’s cells in their cars whenever they become available.

Supporting that strategy has been the development of their own recently expanding advanced battery testing lab.  The facility, which I’ve visited, receives specimens from all over the world for testing.

GM has already tested cells from over a hundred vendors and knows about literally hundreds of technologies from companies, universities, and laboratories worldwide.  Samples are tested regularly and specifically to determine if they are sufficient for automotive use.

Among the technologies GM is working on according to the New York Times, is lithium air:

GM said it’s working on lithium-air, next-generation lithium-ion, and other chemistries.

GM battery lab director Ronn Jamieson says the first step in evaluating a cell is confirming its science.  ”Is it physically possible? Does it defy the laws of physics or thermodynamics or anything else?” says Jamieson.  Next the lab subjects cells to a rigorous and grueling battery of function and abuse testing for more than a year.  ”Theoretically, if it can happen, you’ve got to at least assess and understand what will happen,” he said.

Experts vary in predicting how long it will take to commercialize this technology, but most estimates range between 10 and 20 years.

But when they do arrive, thanks to a nimble open door policy and an early foot in the door, GM could be the first to benefit.

Source (NY Times)

There has been much discussion over the past three years about the battery of the Chevrolet Volt. We watched LG Chem and A123 compete for almost two years to win the affections of GM to supply them with cells; a battle eventually won by LG in January of 2009. Then the discussion switched to the actual cost of the cells inside the battery pack that would be built by GM themselves in Michigan.

For a time, the number thrown about was $1,000 per kWh, until Jon Lauckner (GM Vice President) was asked about this price point estimate, to which he responded that GM was paying “many hundreds of dollars less” than a thousand.

Then a study put out by Deutsche Bank in early March of this year seemed to pinpoint exactly what that ‘many hundreds’ less worked out to be, citing the average cell price per kWh in 2009 was $650. It also put out forward looking estimates of a 25% reduction in that cost over 5 years, and 50% over 10 ($325 per kWh in 2020), with some companies seeing bids at around $450 for 2012.

Adding to GM’s cost of the cells is the fabrication of the pack itself, along with the advanced temperature management system, which GM is doing themselves at a assembly plant in Brownstown Township in Michigan.

What had been forgotten over time was whether or not the initial decision to purchase 3rd party cells over producing them themselves was a good one. It has long been GM’s stance to produce a very small quantity of cars at first, then bring on new production (and eventually models) as demand is validated. Obviously, by consciously making a decision to limit your exposure to this new segment in case of failure, buying 3rd party cells seemed like the prudent way to go.

In a recent interview by the Times of London, Nissan senior vice president, Andy Palmer (who is responsible for the company’s global EV strategy), dropped a bomb on the rest of the industry, by being the first to put a dollar figure on the cost of the battery, by saying the Leaf’s battery costs £6,000 ($8,950 USD) to produce right now.

At 24 kWh per pack, that comes to around $370 per kWh, out the door, finished product. This is quite simply a stunning revelation, and Mr. Palmer was not done there, he continues by saying that “our battery is good for 100 miles and will soon be good for 200 miles,” alluding to the next generation which is reportedly due out in 2013. Just for fun he adds that Nissan will make money on the Leaf from day 1, saying, “We not going to lose money on this. I don’t have a boss who would endure that.”

It would seem that Nissan’s decision to partner with NEC to form AESC – Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (of which Nissan owns 51%) back in April of 2007 to produce their own batteries was the right way to go and is delivering a huge competitive advantage.

None of the domestic auto makers followed Nissan’s move to invest in producing the batteries themselves, with Chrysler tying up with A123, and Ford forming a strategic alliance with Magna to produce EVs, with packs supplied by Johnson Controls-Saft.

The only other company to strongly commit to prduction of a complete battery is Mitsubishi, and like Nissan, has a joint venture of their own, with GS Yuasa Corp to produce cells under the name Lithium Energy Japan.

It is thought Mitsu’s pricing position is not nearly as strong as Nissan’s, because they have the minority ownership stake in the company, which is also much smaller than AESC, with a capacity of around 18,000 packs for 2011, and up to 68,000 for 2012 when their main plant comes online in Ritto City, Japan.

While no estimates on the cost of the 16 kWh pack that sits inside Mitsu’s i-MiEV has been given, under pressure from Nissan to be competitive, Mitsubishi spokesperson Maurice Durand at the New York auto show last month confirmed that not only would the i-MiEV be on sale in the US in April of 2011, but also that they “we’re targeting sub $30,000 (msrp) for the U.S. when it launches” before rebates.

GM now finds itself in a bit of a problem dealing with two companies that not only have in-house battery production, but also huge amounts of scale to bring costs down, while GM themselves are left to deal with the problem of a existing contract being in place, and the markup of a 3rd party supplier.

To GM’s credit, the Volt extended range concept may insulate them for a time against the cost advantages of the two other competitors on the market in 2011, as the limited range and lack of recharging infrastructure behind BEVs hurts adoption. But as companies like Nissan bring 200+ mile ranges to market in three or four years, they could be in some real trouble.

And what if demand is strong for the Volt when they announce pricing and start taking deposits this summer? GM is not bringing full production online until 2012…what is to stop Nissan from developing their own extended range vehicle over those same 18 months to compete with GM if the Volt is met with a strong order book?

As Bob Lutz put it in his exit interview with GM-Volt, “I think what we all (at GM) want to do is to let us see how this works…let’s see how customers react” before we move forward.

With Nissan being as aggressive and optimistic as they are, and if GM’s attitude is still wait and see at this point, why get into the business at all? Regardless of the Volt’s reception, it seems like it is turning into a lose-lose scenario when you look into the future.

If I can steal part of one of Bob Lutz’s last quotes at GM to us here, hopefully his “successors at GM would (will) say ‘hey maybe its time to expand’” the program right now, while the opportunity still presents itself.

Job one is the term used in the automotive industry referring to the first vehicle off an assembly line that is intended for retail sale.

That Job one Volt is the one we have been patiently waiting for for over three years.

Ward’s Auto interviewed Volt vehicle line director Tony Posawatz, and found out things are on track, as well as some other interesting details.

“The hardware is pretty tight,” Posawatz told Ward’s. “All our testing shows we’re ready to launch at the end of the year.”

He also claimed GM is still planning for a November launch even though GM CEO Ed Whitacre recently said the car would launch in October, corroborating what he had told me in a personal communication earlier this year.

We know from former vice-chairman Bob Lutz that GM will specifically be building four thousand 2011 model year Volts from 4th quarter 2010 through 2nd quarter 2011. An additional four thousand 2012 model year Volts will be produced in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2011.

Posawatz still would not confirm pricing but said it would be “in the 30,000 range” after the $7500 tax credit.

He also disclosed two interesting comments.

First he said the Volt would be the first GM vehicle to deploy the latest 9th generation OnStar system. Included will be the capability of turning off charging upon request of the local utility company if it finds the grid to be overburdened.

Second he stated that he was confident the Volt’s battery back would last twenty years. He expects the pack to live its first ten years in the vehicle but in some cases to spend its second ten years in post vehicle use. This would include home energy storage, back-up grid storage, and in other transportation applications such as electric scooters.

Source (Ward’s Auto, subscription required)