GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The devil continues to be in the details of the democrat-written bill that will use government funds to allow GM and Chrysler to survive until next March. A draft was presented by the top Democrats to the White House on Monday night.

The bill will be called the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act, and a draft copy has leaked into the press.

One thing that appears to be final is the amount, $15 billion, which will go to the automakers out of the retooling fund already appropriated.

It calls for the creation of a single individual to be appointed by Bush and so-called the car czar. That person will oversee and help negotiate the restructuring effort and be able to review any expenditure of greater than $25 million.

The bill also calls for the government to receive stock in the automakers worth 20% of the loans, and limits executive compensation. There’s even a clause requiring a study as to whether the automakers could build transit vehicles.

Nancy Pelosi when speaking about the bill late Monday said “We call this a barbershop. Everyone is getting haircuts, in terms of the conditions,” referring to the shaving of dollars owed to them by creditors as well as contract guarantees from the autoworkers.

The White House has expressed concern that the bill inst tough enough on the automakers. There are fears that it may not offer taxpayers enough protection and may allow companies that cannot demonstrate long-term viability to still get loans. Since loans could be given up until March 31 it might not be possible for GM to show that it has achieved sufficient restructuring by that date. Think about how long it might realistically take to sell Saab or shut down Saturn for example.

Outspoken Senate Finance Committee member Bob Corker noted that the bill “lacked teeth” and should accomplish the same thing as bankruptcy would only without the detrimental stigma. As it stands, he said he wouldn’t support the bill.

Negotiations on the draft are to continue with the hope that a vote could be taken as early as Wednesday, but whether it can avoid a Senate filibuster is still far from clear. It still remains possible that the auto companies will not get government loans.

Source (Wall Street Journal)

In late 2007, GM unveiled the Opel Flextreme concept car and later showed it rebadged as Saturn.

The vehicle has a unique monocab design, but importantly, like the Chevy Volt, is also an E-Flex vehicle. It is meant to demonstrate how the range-extender could also be diesel and how the E-Flex E-REV drivetrain could be implemented in a utility vehicle body.

Many have praised the design.

Today GM announced that the Opel Flextreme was recognized by an international jury and received the prestigious red dot award in a ceremony in Singapore.

I asked GMs Director of Communications from Opel in Europe, Jean-Philippe Kempf, whether since the design has been so acclaimed that GM might move it into production.

He replied:

While I cannot directly comment on future products, I can tell you that you will see further implementations and evolutions of the new Opel design language in future Opel on one hand, and that the E-REV concept will also be deployed within the GM brands.
Do not expect to see the Flextreme hit production. But stay tuned, and you will find many of (not all) the ideas it contains in future Opel products.

Vijay Iyer who is GM Europe’s Manager of Design Communication told me the following:

We expect the first iteration of  an Opel/Vauxhall E-REV to be quite close to the Volt, but there could well be Opel/Vauxhall specific designs in the future.

Source (GM)

I had some further discussions about the Chevy Volt’s interior with chief designer Bob Boniface.  He advised me that the production interior design has undergone some further refinements. This images above reveal those. The older design is at the post bottom.  You can download the high-res image here.

Are the interior interfaces finalized?
Stylistically it looks mainly final.

Are the things seen on the display completely finalized?
They’re not completely finalized, there is going to be more content than what you see here. These are just DVDs that are rolling on a loop.

One of the things we have changed I should tell you design-wise is this piece the middle touch screen frame. People kept trying to break this or pull it off. It doesn’t move. It looks like it should move. It (also) is not very manufacturable.  It was one piece. It was die-locked. So now we’ve integrated it. It has more of a hood on it, its integrated around its edges, it actually looks quite a bit better. On all these buttons, we’ve added pill-shaped targets, tactile targets that you can navigate towards.

Are they haptic?
No, they are capacitive, but they have auditory feedback, they don’t have touch feedback.

Have you taken some feedback then from the public perception?
No, we just knew that all along.

Another thing is that these vents have moved. They’re actually “siamesed” off the sides of the center stack, and they actually look a lot more high-end, more upscale. The rest of these main surfaces are unchanged.

Older Design

Thanks to Statik for finding the image.

Despite all of the abysmal financial issues plaguing GM and the “important changes” to business operations GM CEO Rick Wagoner plans to announce on Friday, GM continues to push ahead with the Volt program.

Multiple sources have stated that with all the slashing going on at GM, the Volt program and budget remains unchanged. In fact there is good evidence GM is actually continuing to work on a portfolio of future E-Flex vehicles.

Reuters is reporting that GM will be developing a range of plug-in vehicles to follow the Volt launch in 2010. These include a Cadillac luxury E-Flex and a Chevy with “SUV styling”.

Supporting this report is a recent exchange I had with E-Flex lead designer Bob Boniface:

Can you say anything about other E-Flex vehicles besides the Volt that you are designing now?
No…well I’m working on some other derivative concepts that use this powertrain. That’s all I can say. And they’re not four door Chevys. In other words, we’re playing with brand and were playing with category.

Many people have noticed the interesting “green leaf touch” sensor button on the Chevy Volt’s interior center stack.  To date we have not heard a good explanation of what function it might perform, although there have been some amusing guesses by commentators here.

I had the chance to ask this question to Volt lead designer Bob Boniface when I spent some time with him and the car in a recent NYC event.

What is the green leaf?
The green leaf brings up a Volt-specific page. It will give you charge rates which get downloaded through OnStar. You’ll be able to choose your recharge time. It will also give you recommended tips for efficient functioning. How to extend your range for example. It is Volt-specific information. All the things you can do to maximize your range and minimize your expenditure of energy.

You’ll hit that and it will say OK if you don’t use your HVAC, if you use your Econ mode, this is what will happen. Do you want to delay your charge?

What does the Econ button do?
It controls your HVAC, ambient lighting, other things. All the unnecessary electric usage will be reduced so that you can extend range.

Since it seems things aren’t completely finalized yet, what ideas do you have for other Green Leaf functions?

And if you are a US citizen, be sure to get out and VOTE today!

There has been some public debate about the appearance of the production Chevy Volt’s front grille.  It is unique in that it isn’t a series of bars across an opening, but rather a closed but very firm and strong panel with openings around the sides.  The panel has etchings that simulate a true grille. The graphic above is a close-up view of that surface.

I had the chance to discuss this important desaign detail with Bob Boniface, who is the Volts’ chief designer.

Are you considering offering different colorations of the front grille?
No. We looked at this in different colors. We looked at in in dark tones and raw metal like this and frankly we like the sealed up look better. We thought it was more modern.

How about black alternating with the silver?
No we didn’t look at it in alternating or striped. When you look at the “down the road” graphic or the long distance view of the car, when they go black it looks a little more conventional. And to me and all of us in design, when we see this “coming out first” surface, it signifies you’ve got something different here. People are used to seeing the grille as though it is the mouth, that’s how it reads. Seeing this sealed up and all of a sudden it takes on a different character and people say “what is going on up there.” It doesn’t aspirate like a regular car.