GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

 

2010 will end with the introduction of two eagerly anticipated electric cars, the GM Volt, and the Nissan Leaf.

Perhaps more eagerly awaited than the cars themselves is their MSRPs. More discussion, speculation, and innuendo have been applied to what these numbers will be than almost any other aspect of the vehicles.

The Volt’s final price remains unknown, and will not be revealed until at least May or perhaps later in the summer.  Estimates vary from low to high 30s before a $7500 tax credit.

Nissan has gone on record promising to reveal the Leaf’s official price in April when the company will begin taking $100 preorders. It is expected the car will be offered either as a full purchase or with a separate battery lease in the US.

A new report in the Mainichi Japan claims to have obtained the Leaf’s expected MSRP.

“The automaker has decided to set the sales price of its new model for the Japanese market below 4 million yen,” it is written.

4 million Japanese Yen currently converts to $44,300 USD .

Another version of the report indicates the car will range anywhere from 3.5 million yen to 4 million yen, thus putting the lower limit at $38,600.

Nissan plans to sell 500,000 units globally and 150,000 in the US by 2012.

“My understanding is the article out of Japan is speculative, and we have no comment,” Nissan spokesperson Catherine Zachary told GM-Volt.com. “We have yet to disclose Nissan LEAF pricing in the U.S. or in any global market.”

If the Leaf does go sale in the US for $40,000, that would place it in the same price range as the Volt is expected. Which car would you rather have for that money?

Source (Mainichi)

Bob Lutz and Jon Lauckner are credited as having devised the Chevy Volt concept in 2006. They charged executive engineers Tony Posawatz, Nick Zielinski and John Bereisa with making it happen.

Though Lutz is retiring, and Bob Kruse, Denise Gray, and Frank Weber have left the program, Lauckner and Posawatz remain deeply involved and committed leaders of the Voltec team.

Recently we heard that GM’s President of North America suspects pure electrics will dominate the market in the long term but believes fully that the Volt will lead the market for the next several years. According to some new information, it seems likely that reflects GMs internal plan going forward.

Lutz in a recent exit interview told the Associated Free Press that GM plans to keep building trucks and SUVs but also expects to hybridize or electrify the majority of them to meet future fuel economy standards.

He also told the reporter that GM is “planning a separate line of all-electric vehicles that won’t have backup gas engines like the Volt does.”

Lauckner made a similar statement to the AP. He said GM plans to spread lithium ion cells across all of its vehicle lines over the next 5 years. The extent to which GM will do so depends on the cost of the technology and fuel prices.

“We certainly understand that the electrification of the vehicle goes beyond just talking about the Chevrolet Volt,” he said. “We need a range of technologies and we have a plan that does that.”

Neither man announced what car will be next, though Lauckner also noted GM plans to put its 2-mode full hybrid drivetrain into sedans. A plugin version has also been demonstrated in the Cadillac XTS concept.

Source (AP)

Later this year and early next year the first mass-produced electric cars will reach the retail market. Nissan will be releasing its 100 mile range pure battery electric vehicle (BEV) and GM will be releasing its extended range electric car (EREV) Chevrolet Volt.

GM has long expressed its strategy with the Volt is to eliminate range anxiety, and many hear among us agree it is a very good solution.

It still remains unknown which architecture will be more popular among the general population of consumers when they finally have a chance to buy them.

I had the chance to ask Mark Reuss who is GM’s new President of North America what his opinion is on this. I asked whether he believes BEVs or EREVs will turn out to be more popular.

“Long term demand (for) BEV could be higher as EREV initially leads the way with battery technology like the lithium ion pack in the Volt…first gen,” stated Reuss.

The initial EREV technology as he sees it “then feeds BEV-like vehicles.”

“While EREV will be wildly popular at first with Volt,” says Reuss. “As the technology flows down to BEV in what will be smaller cars to carry smaller packs, that may be the higher volume play over a longer time.”

Since Reuss is newly in charge of GM North America sales and marketing, his opinions are likely to play a significant role in the company’s strategy going forward.

It appears he believes the Volt is a stepping stone to a market of pure EVs, and that the process of developing the technology for Volt will help lower the costs and broaden the acceptance for EVs in the future.

The Nissan Leaf wasn’t announced until early 2009, more than two years after GM first unveiled the Volt concept.  Despite their late arrival, Nissan’s CEO Carlos Ghosn has been pushing hard to place his company in the leadership position for electric cars.

The 100 mile range Nissan Leaf pure EV and the extended-range Chevrolet Volt are clearly of distinctly different engineering designs, but both are electric cars.

Apparently Ghosn doesn’t think the Volt, or anything else, will be much competition though.

“Frankly, I mean so far there is no competition,” Ghosn recently told reporters . “Let’s be serious. It’s not because someone is coming with a prototype and one car that this is competition. The question is how much capacity are you building.”

Nissan has plans to build 500,000 EVs in 2012 for global sale.

“What I am sure is that in 2011, I am going to be the only one on the market,” he said.

Ghosn announced that Nissan has already collected 56,000 hand raisers for the Leaf EV on the web, and the company plans to begin taking pre-orders next month.  He also expects 10% of automotive sales to be electric cars in 10 years.

“The numbers are big,” Ghosn said of the demand.  ”We are going to come with 500,000 globally.”

He did temper that with an admission that Nissan will need  some time to gauge market reaction until ramping up to maxium production.

Outgoing GM vice chairman Bob Lutz has indicated GM plans to produce about 8000 Chevy Volts in 2011, with the ability to ramp up to 50,000 to 60,000 units annually thereafter.

Is it true Nissan has no competition?

“You draw the conclusion,” Ghosn challenged.

Source (Bloomberg)

GM has placed a one billion dollar bet that range anxiety is important. The Chevy Volt was designed and engineered to allow drivers to do most of their daily driving on electricity but to have the option to keep going on gas when the battery is depleted.  This strategy eliminates any fear of being stranded by a dead battery.

This approach stands in contrast to that of pure electric cars which will stop going when their batteries die.

A study released by the University of California Davis suggests that range anxiety isn’t as important to a cohort of people currently driving electric cars.  The study surveyed 150 MINI E drivers and found the majority of them believed their needs were satisfied with the car’s 80 to 100 mile effective range.  It also showed they were completely satisfied by home charging and did not need to use public charging, suggesting that an extensive public charging network may not be needed to encourage EV adoption.

The director of automotive research at Frost and Sullivan, looking at a wider audience, found that range anxiety was actually more important than it was for this MINI E sub-group.

“There is real range anxiety, and people are concerned about being stranded,” Veerender Kaul told msbnc. “We found a strong preference for a plug-in, range-extended electric vehicle like the Chevrolet Volt.”

I have personally logged over 10,000 miles in my MINI-E, and did not participate in the UC study. My daily commute is 60 miles round trip, and at least twice per month I have to drive round trip greater than 100 miles.  In the cold weather my range is closer to 60 miles, as I drive almost all highway at more than 65 mph, which demands a lot of power.  As such, I rely on charging during the day at work to eliminate range anxiety, and cannot use the car for long drives  instead using a second gas-powered car for those occasions.

The participants chosen for the UC study appear to be a very selected group who are  likely to overlook any inconvenience in exchange for the cause of driving petroleum-free at all times.

To reach a mass audience appeal, however, range anxiety must be controlled.  The Volt is the perfect solution.

Source (msnbc)

Advanced Mechanical Products (AMP) is a company out of Cincinnati Ohio that specializes in producing all-electric conversions of GM vehicles. They have been producing electric versions of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky since 2007.

The company has just annoucend and plan to unveil a new all electric Chevy Equinox conversion based on the current 2010 model.

AMP has signed a deal with REMY motors, a company that already supplies GM with its 2-mode hybrid electric motors, and is in fact using two of those same motors, the HVH250, for the conversion.

They motors will sit side by side, each turning one of the rear wheels, with no transmission, and have a combined peak power of 200kw. They are powered by a 37 kwh lithium-ion battery pack that enables the car to go from 0 to 60 in under 8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 90 mph. It will reportedly have a 150 mile driving range.

Steve Burns, CEO of Advanced Mechanical Products, said, “In a growing electric vehicle market, we believe AMP has clearly established itself as a pioneer. Not only will AMP be the first to reach the market, but we will also be breaking the mold in terms of what the public expects from an all-electric vehicle.”

“Pre-conversion, the Chevy Equinox is an outstanding vehicle in its own right – winner of the Consumer Digest Best Buy award and a five-star frontal and side-impact crash safety ratings. This vehicle is truly a modern day car, with all the features and stringent safety requirements the Chevy Equinox is extolled for. We are thrilled to bring our next 100% electric vehicle platform to market, as this latest offering is a clear display of our true passion for, and an unyielding commitment to, the environment and sustainability,” Burns added.

Burns told GM-Volt that the batteries are air-cooled, will have 80% capacity after 100,000 miles, and that the battery warranty is 3 years. Burns would not disclose the battery vendor at this time.

Through a local GM dealer AMP is currently taking orders for the vehicle, and they plan to begin deliveries in June of this year.

“We will be selling nationwide,” Burns added.

The price is expected to be under $50,000 after government tax credits.

Source (AMP)