GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Recently, GM announced a small investment in a company called Powermat.  That company makes wireless device charging systems.  Their current product allow users to place a receiver in the charge port of their device (cell phone, iPad, etc) and plug in the mat.  If the device is rested on the mat, it is wirelessly charged.

The first automotive application expected to result from this partnership is an option for the 2012 Chevy Volt that will become available next year.  It will be a wireless charging mat in the center of the console that drivers can rest their cellphones on while driving to have them wirelessly recharge.

The technology works through the use of induced magnetic fields:

Powermat uses magnetic induction to transfer energy.   Specifically, energy is transferred from a transmitter (which will be embedded in vehicle) to a receiver (which is connected to or embedded in the device) through a shared magnetic field.   Communication between the Mat (transmitter) and the Receiver (personal device) allows the mat to deliver an exact amount of power for the proper length of time so that the transfer of power is safe and efficient and no energy is ever wasted.  When a device reaches full charge, power is shut off to that device. This not only saves energy, but it also prevents overcharging of the device’s battery, which can shorten battery life.
-Powermat

This story begs the question as to whether this option could this be all the relationship is about?  After all, GM Ventures is a VC unit that invests in small companies that may have big automotive futures.

Over the years there has often been talk and theoretical discussions about wirelessly charging not only small devices, but whole electric cars themselves.

The concept would be to have a large wireless mat in one’s garage, simply park on top of it, and the battery will recharge automatically.

Powermat spokesperson Scott Eisenstein admits his company is looking at how to charge large electric car batteries.  ”Yes, we are certainly looking into that,” he said.

Also according to Volt vehicle line executive Tony Posawazt, so is GM. “We are studying many exciting new technologies for the future, said Posawatz.  ”This includes wireless, hands-free inductive charging of the high voltage battery.”

When I entered my garage for my third day of driving my Chevy Volt, all seemed well. I had plugged the car in the night before after making a quick run about 9PM.

However, when I got in and booted up the car (I still prefer saying that to starting) I was met by a surprise. It still showed only 9 miles of EV range were available. Apparently, I hadn’t pushed the charging coupler in hard enough. Even though there is a green light and horn chirp confirmation when charging commences, I probably ran into the house without waiting for it.

This had happened to me several times during the year I drove the MINI E, and when it did my heart sank each time as I had to take my backup car for the day. But with the Volt, all was well. Though I had to burn gas, going about my day’s driving was not going to be any kind of problem at all.

In fact, I figured I’d use the opportunity to see what kind of gas mileage I could get on my significant highway-mostly drive to work.

After leaving home, the car switched to engine mode after 7 miles, and then I reset the MPG meter. As usual the switchover was silently feathered in.

I arrived at my first destination, 15.7 miles from there with a very respectable 45.5 MPG. This was at 49 degrees using 72 degree cabin ECO conditioning and at mostly highway speeds of around 65 MPH. I drove somewhat conservatively but not extremely so at all.

The next leg back to my office was another 7.4 miles at mixed city and highway conditions. I arrived there having completed a total of 23.1 miles in charge-sustaining mode for a final fuel efficiency of 42.8 MPG (not including the EV miles).

Though I had installed and configured the iPhone app, I hadn’t yet configured the plug-in reminder text alert. Needless to say, after this experience I set that up.

Another first happened. On this particular morning journey a fellow driver on the road finally noticed and acknowledged the car and gave a friendly tap of the horn and wave. I felt a bit of pride. People were recognizing this American car, that I played a role in birthing, as a hero of sorts.

In my office I showed the car to two women who work there, one of our nurses and a billing person. They were completely blown away by the design and the interior, and even more amazed by the iPhone app. One reflected how this was a car like no other, and they didn’t even get a chance to drive it.

Another person in my office parking garage came over while I was taking out the charger to see the car. He knew about it and recognized it, and was very interested and asked a lot of questions. I gave him the little flyer that GM provided a stack of, making us CAB members a sort of a group of traveling salespersons. Not that I mind.

I charged the car at my workplace at 120-v from 9:30AM to 4:30 PM during which time it accrued 25 miles of EV range. My return trip home included a stop to see my daughter in her gymnastics class and a stop at a restaurant for dinner with my family. After 23.6 miles the engine came on and I returned home for a total of 30.3 miles and 168.1 MPG.

For the entirety of this day that I had not gotten an overnight charge, I drove a total of 60.4 miles, 30.6 of which was electric, using 0.72 gallons of gas. Total fuel economy for the day was thus 83.9 MPG.

For the three days I have driven the car 183.2 miles and acheved overall 176 MPG.

Today I will be traveling down to Montclair New Jersey, about 30 miles, to meet up with the other three New York Volt CAB members and any GM-Volt readers who happen to make it to Tom M’s restaurant. Our own Dave G will be coming and will take some good video for us. It should be a lot of fun, I hope you can make it.

Here’s the address:
Naunas’s 148 Valley Road, Montclair, NJ

Today I took the next big step towards becoming one of the country’s first Chevrolet Volt owners. So thrilled with the occasion I felt a need to write about it here.

For the first time I am not writing about something happening in Detroit, in China, in California or anywhere else. I am writing about something happening in my own home.

As a member of the Volt consumer advisory board I am scheduled to take delivery of a Chevrolet Volt on or about October 25, a mere six days from now. Part of this thrilling opportunity is getting a free 240-v charger installed in my garage.

Owners will be able to buy these chargers for $495 from GM’s distribution partner SPX, who will either contract an electrician to do the installation fro about $1500, or let the owner do it themselves. There is also funding for 4100 free chargers, that can be obtained from either EcoTality or Coulomb Technologies.

Today an electrician spent the better part of five hours installing the official Voltec charger in my garage.   I was not present, but it seems much of the work involved running about 30 feet of conduit to the new charger and disconnecting the old charger.

I already had 240 volt line there from my breaker panel, which had been used in my previous MINI E Clipper Creek charger. That unit ran on 32 amps. The GM unit only runs on 16 amps and has a maximum output of 3.3 kw. Using it allows the car to charge from empty to full in about 4 hours.

Some electricity during charging could be used to condition the cab and/or the battery.

Since GM is only using the middle band of the battery’s total charging capacity, recharging is linear. There is no more rapid early phase.

Anyway this charger really is a thing of beauty. It is strong robust and attractive. The wire is thick and curled. GM has tested running it over repeatedly with no loss of function. It is also weatherized.

For those who are interested, I have implemented a Volt CAB Forum in the forum section of this site. It is a public place to interact with CAB members. I have invited them all, but cannot guarantee they will participate. They have a private GM-sanctioned forum to use instead. I have chosen not to join that, as I feel the people, the long-standing GM-Volt readers and long-standing fans of the car should be able to see and participate in all the discussion.

Six more days!  Guess I’ll have to move that rack…yeah I know, paint the wall…

GM has announced a partnership with Michigan-based  SPX Service Solutions to sell and install the 240-v Voltec home charging station made for the Chevrolet Volt.

GM has positioned the price of the charging unit to be the “most affordable” on the market.

It will cost $490 before installation.

Installation costs are expected to vary depending on how much is involved at the customer’s home.  SPX estimates the cost of installation in most cases with be $1475.

SPX will also offer several other different chargers for customers to choose from.

The Voltec 240V charger can recharge the Volt from depleted to full in about four hours, drawing 3.3 kw of power.

Nissan has partnered with AeroVironment to install chargers for the LEAF electric car.  Those chargers, with similar specs, will cost about $2200 including installation.

SPX will work with local contractors to do customer installations.

GM says SPX will:

Manage all aspects of installation for Volt owners, including the home survey, installation, permitting, Department of Energy and utility coordination, and identification of available programs and incentives for reduced charging rates

The 240-v charger is optional as the Volt can be recharged using the standard 120-v wall socket charger that comes with the car.  This would take about ten hours.

Source (GM)

[View with PicLens]

Here’s a new video about the charger and installation:

In a few weeks I will be taking delivery of a Chevrolet Volt test car to live with for three months as a member of GM’s consumer advisory board. Sooner than that I will have the official GM 240-v Volt charger installed in my garage. This level 2 charger allows the car to be fully recharged in about 4 hours as opposed to the 8 to 10 hours it would take at conventional 120-v household current.

The Volt has a programmable interface that allows owners to delay charging. This function allows one to take advantage of overnight off-peak utility rates, which are generally significantly less expensive. Utilities meet peak daytime demand by trading off excess nighttime capacity. The utilities would love the chance to sell that capacity, and by offering a lower rate can encourage people to buy it.

Electric cars are the perfect application for this off-peak power because mostly people will want to charge them at night while they are sleeping. In some cases rates are less than 2 cents per kwh off-peak, though they can be more than 10 times that during the day. To refill the Volts 8 kwh, or 40 miles range, of battery capacity could cost as little as 10 or 15 cents off-peak. In comparison, gas costs about $3.50 to $4.50 per 40 miles even at today’s rates.

Most homes have a fixed electric meter that simply records overall kwh usage and doesn’t tell the utility company when that power is being drawn. Customers are simply charged a fixed rate for all power consumed regardless of when it is used. To take advantage of off-peak rates one has to have the utility company install a time-of-use meter (TOU) that records specifically when power is consumed.

The problem with this, however, is that the utility company may offer stellar rates off-peak, but in exchange will inflate the peak rate to far above the standard, negating or even inverting any benefit for charging your car.

Le’ts take my case in point, as I have studied it to see if a TOU meter makes sense.

Currently my electric charges billed by Orange and Rockland (O&R; a subsidiary of Con Edison) in New York has two components; delivery charges and supplier charges.

O&R currently charges 8.6 cents per kwh for delivering the electricity I use. They do not profit off the electric power itself, as that is sold by a third party, in my case Coned Solutions. This provider is charging 10.5 cents per kwh. Thus my overall charge is 19.1 cents per kwh.

If I switch to TOU metering, O&R is offering an amazingly low 1.3 cents per kwh delivery charge for 9PM through 10AM. However, in that case the 12PM to 7PM rate balloons to 20.4 cents per kwh. Its 7.3 cents per kwh at all other times.

Let’s say in the average month I use 1000 kwh of energy, and 50% is during peak times. My bill would come to $191.00.

If I added 240 kwh per month charging my Volt six days per week, my bill would rise to $236.84.

Now let’s say I switched to TOU metering. My regular charges would be $155 (500 kw peak rate) + 79.50 (500 kw regular rate) +28.32 (240 kw off-peak rate) = $262.82

Thus though these differences are small, switching to TOU would wind up costing more. The less the percent of electricity drawn during peak the less the disadvantage, and at some lower level of peak usage a benefit will begin, this benefit will also be larger the larger the car battery. However it is hard to know how much peak electricity one uses unless the switch to TOU has already been made.

This situation is unfortunate and really doesn’t help promote electric car adoption. I suggested my utility company simply offer the 1.3 cents per kwh 9PM to 10AM rate for validated EV owners without changing their daytime rates.

My response so far from an O&R expert by the name of Paul Koretz is “the existing tariffs do not have an incentive for EV owners beyond the TOU rate at this time.”

Asked if that could change he said, “I will see if we have something in the works specifically for EV.”  Paul advises that he is continuing to check on that.

“You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding TOU rates,” says GM’s director of infrastructure Britta Gross. “It is really going to depend on a customer by customer basis how much electricity you really use during the peak hours of the day (and what the rate differential is).”

“If nobody is home during the day, then the TOU can make a lot of sense – but if there is a lot of activity at home during the day the lower evening rate just to charge the vehicle may not make it worth it (because of the daytime higher rate),” she said.

“Some utilities have put rate calculators on their websites to let a customer play with the various options,” she added.

There is some hope this situation will change over time if more of us complain.

“Some utilities (just a few) do offer a special EV rate – and it is separately metered from the normal household energy use – and this is a low evening rate,” said Gross. “Maybe this will catch on – though there is the upfront cost of the separate ‘submeter’”

So if you can, call your utility provider and find out if they offer a special EV off-peak rate, if not see whether switching to TOU makes sense for you.

The Volt is weeks away from its consumer launch, with the first retail production car expected to roll off the assembly line on November 11th. GM has announced they expect to begin an advertising blitz for the car which will start during the World Series.

Though GM has made it clear form the beginning , the purpose of the Volt is freedom form range anxiety, and it is clearly the major  focus of their US marketing efforts, the automaker is quietly leveraging its global reach to develop a pure EV program as well.

So far we have heard of a fleet of Cruze EVs undergoing tests in Korea, and a pure electric Chevrolet New Sail for production in China next year.

Earlier this week GM Europe announced it was beginning a small scale test fleet of electric crossovers. The vehicles are based on the Opel Meriva which is a small MPV in production in Europe. The test fleet has been developed by GM/Opel in conjunction with MeRegioMobil which is an e-mobility project, and is funded in part by the German government.

The fleet consists of three of electrified Merivas and is indented to study the effects of 4o0-v fast charging and the ability of the vehicle to participate in vehicle-to-grid technology. This is the scenario where the car itself acts as an energy buffer, allowing energy to flow back into the grid when demand calls for it, and the driver doesn’t need it.

The vehicle uses a Volt-sized 16 kwh lithium-ion battery pack and an 80 kw electric motor. The motor is dampened to 60 kw in eco-mode. It has a maximum range of 40 miles and a 0 to 60 time of 11 seconds.

The 400-v fast charger can refill the battery in 1 hour.

“These demonstration vehicles, along with others GM has announced in other markets, will be used to study the practicality, user friendliness, and acceptance of electric vehicles among consumers. With our demonstration, we are making an important contribution to the definition of European standards for energy infrastructure, electricity saving technology and data communications,” said Opel Vice President of Engineering Rita Forst.

Though obviously low in volume this fleet illustrates how GM is leveraging global opportunities to simultaneously study several key aspects of electric cars, in this case fast charging and V2G.  When the market calls for it, GM will be more than ready to launch a pure electric for global sale.

“Electric mobility opens for Opel and the entire automotive industry the door to greater independence from fossil fuels and can deliver transportation with zero vehicle emissions.” said Forst. “Our contribution to MeRegioMobil is embedded in GM’s global corporate strategy of developing and demonstrating electric vehicles in daily use.”

Source (GM)