Bob Lutz: “The Road Ahead”

GM’s outspoken Vice-Chairman, and father of the Volt wrote an opinion piece for the Feb 25th edition of Newsweek entitled “The Road Ahead.”
His task was to predict the future automotive landscape and writes that it will be “markedly different than today”.
First he predicts some change in “proportion”, cars will be smaller, but feels that those [...]

GM Would Share Volt E-Flex Technology Among Brands

Some GM news coming out of the North American Dealers Association, besides GM CEO Wagoner asking dealers to fight state level emissions regulations, had to do with the Volt.
A report noted that dealers were told by GM that brands other than Chevrolet could also one day get E-Flex technology.  This shouldn’t of course surprise us [...]

The E-Flex Cadillac Provoq and the GM Fifth Generation Fuel Cell

The Cadillac Provoq is GM’s latest E-Flex concept car, a luxury crossover with all wheel drive and fuel cell range-extender. Nick Zielinski who used to be the ICE Volt’s chief engineer is now the chief engineer of the hydrogen Volt and Provoq, as well as the fuel cell Equinox. I had a few [...]

Saturn Flextreme E-Flex Concept Vehicle

Today GM is introducing the Saturn Flextreme concept. Similar to it’s Opel cousin, the vehicle uses an all-electric drivetrain powered by a lithium-ion battery capable of 34 miles of range and has a 3 hour recharge time. The on-board generator is diesel powered.
Read full release below:

Cadillac Provoq Fuel Cell E-Flex Concept

The Chevy Volt’s upscale cousin has been born.
GM has just revealed the Cadillac Provoq, a 4 door crossover concept, which uses the E-Flex platform with a hydrogen fuel-cell range extender.
It runs on GM’s svelte 5th-generation hydrogen fuel cell stack married to an E-Flex propulsion system, which is the all-electric powertrain powered by a large rechargeable [...]

E-Flex Team’s Opinion on Release Date

In our last post we heard about an interview with GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz in which he suggested a possible tempering of production date for the Volt. He didn’t exactly say that, for we have never really heard him quote confidence at hitting the 2010 delivery date, only his confidence on actually producing the [...]

Interview with Frank Weber, E-Flex/Chevy Volt Vehicle Line Executive, Part II

A few final questions from my interview with Frank Weber, Chevy Volt/E-Flex vehicle line executive:
Do you have or are you working on E-Flex simulation models for other sizes of vehicles besides the Volt?
Before we get the team up off the track in thinking too much about the expansion of E-Flex, the focus is clearly to [...]

Opel Flextreme is not for Production: Chevy Volt will be a Global Vehicle

At the Frankfurt Auto show in September, GM unveiled the Opel Flextreme; an E-Flex concept car illustrating the possibility of using a diesel generator as a range-extender. Lost in the initial enthusiasm were comments we had here from Tony Posawatz in which he acknowledged the Flextreme was not production intent.
Here is vehicle line director [...]

Interview with Frank Weber, E-Flex/Chevy Volt Vehicle Line Executive, Part I

Frank Weber
I just had the chance to speak with Frank Weber who is GM’s vehicle line executive for the Chevy Volt and E-Flex systems. This is the first of two parts.
Do you have some new information for us today?

We are explaining that vehicle efficiency is something that is very important to make the volt [...]

Tour of Volt Design Lab and More Production Volt Details

Sam Abuelsamid of Autobloggreen, out in Detroit, had the chance to tour the GM wind tunnel and E-Flex Design studio the othe day and heard from Frank Weber, E-Flex vehicle line executive.
Sam has written a post about it: (LINK)
He talks about why aerodynamics are so important in this car, more so than mass.
He also goes [...]

GM’s Brand New E-Flex Design Center

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JVPLZ22Tg]
Back in early October when I interviewed Bob Boniface (post), the Volt’s Chief designer, he told us about GM’s new E-Flex design center, which he happened to be moving into that day. He described it as a grand and extensive facility.
Now GM has opened its doors to a few members of the press, [...]

GM Takes Delivery of Second LG Chem/Compact Power Chevy Volt Battery Pack, and it’s Better Than the First

Jon Lauckner

Yesterday, in remarks made at the EVS23 conference, GM Vice President of Global Program Management, Jon Lauckner, announced that the automaker received the second prototype lithium-ion battery pack from LG Chem/Compact Power. He said:
“A second battery pack, incorporating improvements from the first one, is being delivered to our battery lab today for similar [...]