GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

GM has just announced it will be releasing the second generation BAS mild hybrid system for the first time in the 2012 LaCrosse.

First available in the summer of next year, the hybrid system will become the standard drivetrain for the vehicle. It will lead to 25% improvement in fuel economy over the current  2.4 L 4-cylinder 6-speed drivetrain and is expected to achieve 37 mpg highway and 25 mpg city. This in a luxury mid-sized vehicle class, and larger than the Ford Fusion hybrid.

GM marketing however, has clearly learned their lesson from the dismal sales of the previous mild hybrids it sold as versions otherwise gas cars like the Saturn VUE and Chevy Malibu.

Instead of calling the new Buick a hybrid they instead refer to the car as having eAssist, a new term.

The drivetrain operates by including a 15 kw electric motor/generator, a 0.5 kw 115-v air-cooled lithium-ion battery pack, and regenerative braking.

The small electric motor can assist the gas engine in a variety of scenarios including in particular, during strong acceleration. It is a mild hybrid in that the car never operates on  the electric motor alone.

When braking the generator recharges the pack.  The engine also shuts off during stops and fuel is cut off  during deceleration.

The driver’s dash provides and ECO feedback display enabling him or her to intelligently modify behavior for the purpose of to improving fuel economy.

As well the design of the vehicle was been tweaked for aerodynamic improvement, and includes grille shutters that close at high speeds.

“The eAssist system is more than just the next-generation BAS system. The ability to integrate regenerative braking with the latest lithium-ion battery technology creates a system that delivers significant fuel-efficiency gains that customers will enjoy,” said Steve Poulos, global chief engineer of the eAssist system. “Being able to provide electric boost to the powertrain system during heavy acceleration and grade driving enables the LaCrosse transmission to operate more efficiently, while the added functionality of engine start-stop and fuel shut-off during deceleration provides added fuel savings.”

Pricing is expected to be close to $30,000.

Source (GM)

That’s right, after 20 years GM is set to begin production of its first small Buick. The vehicle is called the Buick Verano and will be a luxury version of the Chevrolet Cruze the sales of which began last month.

GM has also announced it will begin production of the car in its Orion Township, Michigan plant next year and is expected to go on sale in 2012. It will be joining the subcomapct Aveo already built there. The Aveo in addition to getting a makeover may also get a name change.

GM is investing $145 million to retool the plant for the Verano and to retain a workforce of 1550 workers. Those UAW workers had negotiated a rate of pay that would allow GM to profit on both of these cars.

GM has only released the above teaser photo of the Verano but invited 900 Buick dealers to come to the plant where they were shown photos of the car.

It was described by one observer as looking like a mini version of the new mid-sized Regal already on sale. It will have a similar front end and a sleek design. It is also expected to have luxury interior appointments and is expected to be the quietest car in its segment.

“Verano will bring premium styling, performance and content to Buick buyers wanting a smaller car than Regal,” said GM North American President Mark Reuss. “The investment in Orion Assembly also extends GM’s local small car footprint, again increasing the number of U.S.-made small vehicles available in showrooms.”

In the month of September when both cars went on sale, 516 Chevrolet Cruzes and 1776 Buick Regals were sold.

All automakers are emphasizing production of small cars with high fuel economy to move to meet US efficiency standards of 35.5 MPG fleet average for cars by 2015.

Whether the public wants these cars is yet to be seen.

No plans for a hybrid Buick have been made public yet though GM’s next generation mild BAS system could theoretically be deployed in this vehicle.

Source (GM), (Detroit News), and (Detroit Free Press)

Not officially yet of course, but thanks to some forced disclosures to protect their intellectual property in China (under a antiquated, nationalistic ‘we are a island’ patent process), some sketches have surfaced showing that the Michigan made Chevrolet Volt, which was given a facelift and then rebranded as a  Ampera for Europe will be rebadged again on its way to China…likely to be born again as a Buick.

It is most likely a Buick because that brand has a lot of cachet in China, and is the flagship of General Motors in that country (despite Cadillac being present in the country since 2004).  The only other real choice would be for it to launch as a Chevrolet; but it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to have the Chevy logo stuck on the Ampera skin that was meant to distance itself from the look of the Volt in the first place.

It is also unlikely that it will be continued to be marketed as a Opel in China, because Opel has no weight in that market whatsoever, illustrated by that fact that cars such as the Astra and Insignia (which are built in China) are both branded Buicks in China (Excelle and Regal).  GM has recently considered expanding Opel’s role in China, but as of now the score in China for auto sales (at least in 2009 )was Buick 447,000 – Opel 3,000.

Additionally, considering the price point will likely exceed $50,000 USD by the time the American made car lands in showrooms in China, it pretty much has to be a Buick.

According to sources, and despite very limited initial production plans (up to 8,000 vehicles in 2011), the Buick (insert name here) will go on sale in China in the first half of 2011. Couple that with plans to launch the Chevy Volt in Canada in mid-2011, the Vauxhell Ampera in the UK and the Opel Ampera in the rest of Europe in late 2011, the Holden Volt in Australia in early 2012, and that is a very full dance card indeed.

Which begs the question.  Only 5 brands for the Volt GM?  I look forward to ‘new’ Voltec offerings from Wuling and Daewoo any day now.  /very ‘old’ GM

Sidenote:  Everyone’s favorite GM exec, Susan Docherty, has just resurfaced (again) as vice president in charge of sales and marketing in China (and the many other regions inside GMIO…which account for about half of all of GM’s sales), so perhaps a new ‘Volt dance’ will resurface at the 2011 Beijing auto show in April.

Source (TheTycho.com)

Recently GM announced that it would not be putting the 7-seat Orlando crossover into US production, out of fear it would cannabalize sales of other Chevrolet products.  Since the Orlando uses the same compact delta platform as the Volt, the loss of the car suggested a multiperson electric car with range extender was no longer on the horizon.

Meanwhile, the Buick brand has been experiencing a renaissance at GM.  The popular Enclave SUV and LaCrosse sedan have been garnering prasie, sales, and profits.  Through this month LaCrosse sales have increased 214 percent, and the already well selling Enclave was up 30 percent.

GM plans to move fast and aggressively putting several other Buicks into the market.  In addition to the new Regal which has just hit dealer showrooms, Buick executives told the Detroit News they also plan to introduce a small sedan, and a small crossover, “in the near future.” More specifically John Schwegman, Buick’s U.S. marketing vice president, said that by 2013 the Regal would be the oldest car in the Buick line-up.

“We’re growing fast, but we don’t want to grow too fast,” he said. “And we still have a lot of work to do.”

Since the Chevrolet brand will have the Volt, and since 2012 will bring high volume Voltec and battery production, it seems very likely Buick will offer an elecrified car, perhaps, the elusive severn seat crossover.

I asked Buick Product Marketing Director Roger McCormack about this. The following was his reply:

We are as excited as our colleagues at Chevrolet and the visitors to your fine site about the potential and promise of PHEV’s. For competitive reasons that I know you understand, I’m not at liberty to divulge specific
information as it relates to future powertrain plans. At Buick we are committed to delivering vehicles, technologies and propulsion systems targeted to a progressive and modern consumer. PHEV’s certainly fit that description and could come into play at some point in the future.

Source (Detroit News)

The complex saga of GM’s 2-mode plug-in SUV continues to take new turns.

The program was initially announced in 2006, six months before the Volt, and was supposed to beat it to market as a plug-in Saturn VUE. When Saturn was sold off to Penske, another host vehicle was needed.

GM then announced it would be reborn in the body of an upcoming unnamed compact Buick crossover and a teaser image was revealed to the public.

At the GM 230 event, members of the media and public, including myself were given a preview of full scale models of many of GM’s upcoming vehicles. Included among them was this Buick compact crossover.

I didn’t mind the look of it. It seemed a conservative if somewhat uninspired rebadging of the VUE with the addition of the classic Buick waterfall grille.

Apparently GM’s plan for the event was to take our actual feedback to make some decisions.

According to GM vice chairman Tom Stephens, “The Buick crossover we showed received consistent feedback from large parts of all the audiences that it didn’t fit the premium characteristics that customers have come to expect from Buick.”

As a result of this, he went on to write:

Last Friday, reaction to the Buick crossover was discussed at the meeting of our Executive Committee, the newly formed group that steers product decisions, and it was decided that if it didn’t belong, it didn’t belong. Buick crossover canceled. Fritz Henderson, Bob Lutz and I and the rest of the committee decided to take swift action to prevent a potential underperformer from reaching the marketplace. And we decided that the important plug-in hybrid technology would be applied to another vehicle, at no delay, that we’ll discuss in the very near future.

So there you have it, the plug-in Buick has died before it was born, and once again we are left wondering which SUV will get the plug.

The basic engineering architecture is a 3.6 L DI engine, two 55 KW electric motors, and an 8kwh lithium pack which orchestrated together via complex transmission and software controls should allow double the fuel economy of a standard gas version compact SUV.

The car is still slated for production in late 2011, regardless of its host.

Source (GM)

Since 2006, GM has been developing a front-wheel drive 2-mode plugin hybrid (PHEV) vehicle. The 2-mode plugin Saturn VUE was to be that car but bankruptcy and divestment of the Saturn brand has ended that plan.

GM’s contract negotiations with Penske could in theory enable that car to still be built and sourced, however that is highly unlikely.

Yet GM has said it still plans to put the plug-in 2-mode powertrain into a production vehicle but hasn’t said which one.   Development work is ongoing.

Writers have speculated the new Chevrolet Equinox which gets 32 mpg highway using a direct injection 4 cylinder engine would be the likely host for the powertrain. Other speculation includes the new GMC Terrain or Cadillac SRX.

These ideas may be wrong.

GM-Volt.com has learned the new vehicle will be a Buick.

GM has designed a new small crossover (CUV) Buick which has yet to be named or unveiled. Footage of a clay model of the vehicle was leaked when CBS news filmed an interview with GM VP of Design Ed Welburn, and is shown above.

This new car shares the same platform the Saturn VUE uses and therefore is properly configured for the 2-mode hybrid and plug-in 2 mode hybrid drivetrain. The body design will be unique.

It is expected the car will make its appearance in 2011.

[UPDATE: GM has not officially confirmed this information, so should be taken as rumor at this point.]