The Nissan LEAF offers up to 100 miles of electric range and will go on sale in selected US markets late next year.  According to Nissan executives the car will priced so that monthly cost of operation is equivalent to that of a fully-loaded Civic (including fuel). Nissan still hasn’t decided whether to lease the battery separately or sell it with the car.

The LEAF began a four day display in Los Angeles marking its first stop on a national viewing tour that ends in New York City next February.  It is a non-functioning car.  A Nissan Versa outfitted with the LEAF powertrain will be around for VIP and media test drives, public drives will not be permitted.

On the same day the LEAF tour began GM decided to put out a viral video.

This short and simple cartoon attempts to illustrate why EVs are cool, EREV’s are cooler and can be seen below.

If you forget to plug in your EV and it’s the only car you got, not cool.  If you have a Volt it won’t matter.

Of course, forgetting to plug one’s car in may not happen very often but needing to drive continuously beyond its electric range will.

May the best car win.

Lotus EREV Engine

Moving to production brought about many technical and engineering challenges, and few have followed in GM’s footsteps with most companies opting instead to go with simpler pure EVs.

Tony Posawatz is the Volt’s vehilce line engineer who has been involved in the Volt program since day one. Here’s how he answered the following question.

Does GM plan to offer a portfolio of electrical vehicles or just Voltec and its derivatives?

GM’s general position is going forward we will have a broad choice for customers. We see the option of a Voltec system continuing forward. How many alternatives off of that is interesting. Theoretically a pure battery electric vehicle would still be a Voltec. That’s one of the beauties of why we like the option we’ve taken, because it has that level of optionality.

This issue is now, for example, if you start with a pure EV there no place to put a range extender, or if you start with a hybrid that has at its roots an internal combustion engine, you take the engine out and it does nothing.

We will still do hybrid systems, further enhance them, get costs out because there are certain applications they work better in until we get further development on pure electric systems.

Many people ask us why there aren’t others following us in droves in developing EREVs. It’s a very hard configuration to make work. Once an engine is burning it changes the game, and we have non-intentionally thrown some agencies for a loop, like EPA and CARB, because their existing rules don’t apply. A lot of regulatory compliance stuff goes along with it not to mention the pleasability, the noise, the efficiency of the operation and the maintenance of it.

Therein lies the challenges associated with it and why maybe some companies never made the leap, because its hard.

In an absolute technical sense its hard because of its overall complexity, and the balance and interface and integration of all these things together add to the challenge.

It doesn’t mean the Volt can’t be a second or third car, but (if it is) you can never get to the volume we want, the building of interest to drive the cost down to get suppliers engaged and involved, and to get competitive bids for our components. This is the big picture. Everyone is so focused on the price of the car, but remember the price of the first cell phone.

We are in this for the long haul. There was a lot of deep thought in how to play the endgame here. Even there’s still debates such as shouldn’t it have been a Cadillac. Maybe in the near term it would have been great, because maybe we could have lost less money or even made money because we could have charged more.

/Special thanks to our Veterans today.

Two examples that seem particularly important are entries from Mitsubishi and Honda.

Mitsubishi is unveiling what it calls the PX-MiEV. This crossover seems to be a conglomerate of all things; its is a plugin hybrid, a parallel hybrid, a series hybrid, and an EV.

The front and rear wheels are powered by two electric motors that total 60 kw, and there is a 1.6 L gas engine that can both power the front wheels and act as a generator. All of the driving configurations are managed by a power control unit and software called the “MiEV OS.”

EV mode can be automatically switched between front wheel drive or 4 wheel rive depending on road conditions. When the battery is depleted to a certain level, the vehicle transforms into Volt-like series hybrid operation where the generator simply provides energy for the electric motors. However unlike the Volt, when power demands become high, the engine can also turn the wheels supplementing the electric motors as a parallel hybrid configuration.

The EV mode range is 31 miles from a full charge, and the car seats 4.

Mitsubishi claims the vehicle will achieve about 117 MPG overall.

Also Honda has finally taken its first baby step into the electric car arena and is unveiling its pure BEV concept called the EV-N. This is a retro styled 4 seat mini car that Honda says is purely a design study and that there are no plans for production.

They are also revealing the CR-Z sports hybrid which is similar to the Insight in mild hybrid engineering only does 0 to 60 in 9 seconds instead of the Insight’s 11 seconds. It will go into production in 2010.

The money is coming from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan program. In the first stage, Fisker will use $169.3 million for engineering integration costs as it works with US suppliers to complete and launch its first electric car, the luxurious Karma.

The next $359.36 million tranche will be used to design, develop, and assemble Fisker’s next generation car. This smaller more affordable plug-in hybrid will come forth from what is called project NINA. The goal price for the car is $39,000 after the $7500 tax credit.

Fisker estimates it will be able to sell from 75,000 to 100,000 plug-in vehicles per year beginning in late 2012. They also claim 5000 US jobs will be created and 821 million gallons of gas and 80 million tons of CO2 will be offset by these cars through 2016.

“This conditional loan represents a significant step in America’s future,” Henrik Fisker, the company’s CEO, said in a statement. “With it, Fisker Automotive can rapidly develop affordable, clean cars that satisfy our passion for driving and help restore the U.S. as an auto industry leader.”

“This investment will create thousands of new American jobs and is another critical step in making sure we are positioned to compete for the clean energy jobs of the future,” said US Energy Secretary Chu. “Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could revolutionize personal transportation and cut our dependence on foreign oil, not to mention give us cleaner air and less carbon pollution.”

The Fisker Karma is set to launch in May 2010, and is a 4 seat 4 door extended range electric car that delivers 50 all electric miles, and has a 300 mile cruising range using its gas range extender.  It does 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds, and the gas engine is being sourced from General Motors.

Source (Automotive News)

Although the Karma shares the same general engineering architecture as the Volt, the similarities end there. The car will have a 50 mile range in EV mode using 22 kwh of lithium-ion battery storage and after that a charge-sustaining mode with generated by a 260 hp GM Ecotec 2 liter engine.  Fisker has not announced the total capacity of the battery pack.

The dramatically-styled sports car has up to 405 horsepower, 959 lb-ft of torque, and can do 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds. It will retail for $87,500.

As the Volt 230 MPG announcement drew a lot of attention to it, Fisker too has decided to announced some numbers of its own.

Using the European format they claim the car will emit 83g CO₂/km (less than the Prius’ 87 g CO2/km₎ and will have a fuel economy rating of 3.5L/100km.   This translates to 67.2 MPG.

The Karma is configured to operate in what they call stealth mode (EV mode) that the driver can activate via a steering wheel mounted switch, or in sports mode which uses the gas generator continuously.  The car’s default operation will be EV for the first 50 miles switching to generator after that.  The car will have less performance in stealth mode, topping out at 95MPH (down from 125 MPH) and doing 0 to 60 in 7 seconds.

According to Fisker spokesperson Russel Datz, the announced 67 mpg number is combined city and highway, and was arrived at using the SAE J1711 standard and the SAE J2841 standard which takes population behavior (utility factor) and nightly charging but not petroleum equivalence of electricity into account. Electric usage will be reported separately.

In the case of the Volt, the 230 MPG was determined by measuring the average driving behavior of a typical population who would be recharging nightly, and seeing how many city miles they would accumulate while burning one gallon of gas.  Highway and combined numbers were not released.

Datz said in city driving, the Karma would be rated around 150 MPG.  Similar to GM, he wouldn’t not disclose the MPG of the Karma in charge sustaining mode.

Per Fisker’s press release:

Fueling the Karma could cost just 0.02 euro/km ($0.03/mile), consuming as little as 21 kilowatt hours per 100km in its electric-only Stealth mode, according to SAE methodology. However, a real-world annual average would be closer to 0.05 euro/km ($0.07/mile) based on a mix of Stealth and Sport (gasoline) mode use. Actual economy and emission results will vary depending on individual driving habits and usage requirements.

Source (Fisker)

The car was described in concept form initially in January of this year, and now will be brought as a showcar version to the Frankfurt Auto Show later this month.

The Blue Zero E-cell Plus, as its known, is built off an A-class platform and has an 18 kwh lithium ion battery pack sandwiched into the floor.

There will be a 62 mile all-electric range and a 67 horsepower 3 cylinder 1.0L turbo gas range extender. The gas engine is taken from the Smart car.

The 70 kw electric motor can propel the car from 0 to 60 in 11 seconds and has a top speed of 93 mph.  The car can be fast-recharged in 30 minutes and is front-wheel drive.

Total driving range will be 373 miles.

Mercedes says the car is “near series” production and will be offered as one member of a triad of cars.  The BlueZero E-cell is the pure electric version with 112 mile range, and the BLueZero F-cell uses a hydrogen fuel cell.

Source (Auto-Motor-Und-Sport) via (Autocar)

Since the Volt subsequently garnered so much attention and good will, it has undoubtedly contributed to most of the major automakers announcing their own electric car programs, and launching marketing machines to match.

Some such as Nissan with its LEAF EV are particularly promoting pure electric cars. This could affect potential Volt buyers.

As an example, I was speaking with a well-educated and knowledgeable friend who currently drives a Camry hybrid. He explained to me that he wouldn’t want a Volt because of its 40 mile range. I of course explained the virtues of the car, the ability to drive limitlessly when needed, and the ability to avoid range anxiety.

He replied, “Yes but I don’t want to use any gas at all.”

Though he has a good point, the infrastructure doesn’t exist yet to drive electric cars exclusively and the Volt is an effective solution to begin weaning the country off of oil at this time

Yet it has dawned on me that all the marketing being done by those companies who are planning pure electrics without range extenders maybe having a negative effect on perception of the Chevy Volt.

I had the chance to discuss this with GM’s Director of EVs and Hybrids, Bob Kruse.

In bringing the Volt to market, despite all these years there are still people focused on range and I wonder if the carmakers going with pure electrics are making it harder to market the Volt?
Let me give you some perspective. In battery electric vehicles we talk about range anxiety. Voltec was done to mitigate that. We were able to do that with conventional technology. 78% of the US population drives less than 40 miles per day. Competitors are talking about pure battery electrics with a hundred of miles of electric range. Pick any technology and I can assure you several things. A 200 mile battery will cost more than a 40 mile battery, a 200 mile battery will weigh more than a 40 mile battery. When you’re balancing a vehicle you want to optimize around a particular solution. So heavier vehicle needs more chassis structure, bigger brakes, etc. We say mass begets mass. We have optimized the Volt and the Volt’s battery around this 40 mile promise. That’s with the assumption that the vehicle is going to be connected to the power grid once a day. Remember the first brick cell phones? One of the things that enabled cell phones to get smaller is battery technology. These all had NiCads at the time. You charge your phone once a day. You could buy a phone that you only had to plug in once a week, but you have to carry around this brick. Would you make this trade off? First generation technology is very expensive so why would you want more battery than you are going to use once a day? Why would you want to carry around and push around more battery than you need once a day.

Could people be misled about the Volt by looking at the marketing of the other carmakers pushing pure electrics and just focusing on range. I’m wondering if GM has a mechanism to educate people?
I’ve had this conversation with lots of reporters. Its analogous to a flat screen TV. What is the diagonal? 52 inch. It replaced something with a 25 inch diagonal. So if you spent all this money on a flat screen television could you imagine only using a quarter of it and displaying a 25 inch picture on it? If you buy a 200 mile range electric vehicle and your only going to drive 40 miles a day that’s the equivalent of watching a 25 inch picture on a 52 inch TV.

Its important as we look to moving to vehicles that don’t use petroleum and with the convenience of refueling in your garage. Part of the reason our gas cars have 400 mile range tanks is that its inconvenient to go to a gas station. With a Volt you don’t have to go to the service station and many will never go because they can have their needs met by plugging in once per day.

Part of what we have to do with the Volt is we have to balance being innovative and first to market with the expense of first generation technology. Could we have put a bigger battery in the Volt? Yes. Would it have cost more? Yes. Would it have weighed more? Yes. Would it have helped 78% of the customer who drive less than 40 miles per day? No. Its very important as we regularize electric vehicles that we balance them properly. You’ve seen and driven some of the west coat start up EVs with more EV range than the Volt. You recognize what those cost. We’ve not announced the price of the Volt but there’s orders of magnitude between them. As we’re trying to regularize and make these available to larger and larger consumer groups this is a very key point.

Maybe we will be judging this wrong and people will brag ‘I have a 200 miles EV and you only have a 40 mile EV’

What if people look at it at the surface and they miss GM’s message?
This is perhaps one of the disadvantages of talking so much about this so early, but the other thing I think you will find is that the consumer is really smart. They do make trade off decisions in fuel economy and the cost of the vehicle. Look what happened to hybrid sales when gas was $4 or so a gallon versus when it was $1.50 a gallon. That’s the marketplace working.

Design
Sure the Volt isn’t what its concept was but its no slouch either. Its a taught upright rakish car with a broad aggressive grille and stout sharp looks, though some people consider it plain-looking. The LEAF looks like the Versa cousin on which its nearly based, though its has a bit of a frilly swirl to it and a narrow nose straddled by two bulging bubble-like head lamps and an “oddly concave back end” as one writer put it. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so decide for yourself.

Interior
Both cars showcase their technology in the dash. Both have dual LCD screens and a unique shifter. LEAF went with a mouseball type, where as the Volt has a pull down lever. LEAF has a bright, white, airy appearance whereas the Volt has a sporty interior. LEAF gets a 3rd passenger in the back row, Volt cannot. Both have sizable hatchbacks for storage.

Performance
LEAF has top speed of 87 MPH and unknown 0 to 60 though one reporter guesses “high sevens”. Torque is 280 Nm. Volt does 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds, has a torque of 370 Nm, a top speed of 100 MPH and can squwak the wheels. Volt likely weighs more and both will have a low center of gravity. Ride and handling in either car is unknown.

Connectivity
The Volt is connected to a central monitoring station in Detroit via GM’s tried and true satellite-based OnStar. LEAF is connected to a global monitoring center through an unknown connection system.

Range
This is where the cars differ drastically. The Volt will travel 40 miles on electricity. That will be on both highway and city driving at a moderate temperature. Expect AC and heat to cut into this somewhat, but certainly with careful driving, people are likely to be able to get more EV range. LEAF is said to get 100 miles of range but most experts think this is an exaggeration and will be significantly reduced by HVAC and aggressive driving. I can say that is likely based on my personal experience having logged more than 2000 miles personally in a MINI E, and getting closer to 70 miles of range with a 35 kwh pack.

The key advantage to the Volt is it can continue to be driven without limit beyond 40 miles due to its gas range extender and the fact that there are gas stations everywhere. LEAF dies at 100 miles. To recharge it you’ll have to wait 16 hours if you are away from home. There are no $45,000 high voltage public fast chargers now, but Nissan has teamed with a company called eTec to get 250 installed in 5 major US regions.

With LEAF long road trips are not possible.

Batteries/Warranty
Both cars are using lithium-ion manganese batteries. Nissan’s formulation are very large laminate cells of which the car contains 88 total making up the 24 kwh pack. The pack will discharge much more deeply than the Volt and not have the same thermal management protection, especially in cold weather where operation is particularly abusive to the cells. Volt can turn on the ICE if its too cold to warm the pack first. Volt will also offer 10 year 150,000 mile warranty and Nissan has not said what it would offer, though Mark Perry director of product planning at Nissan told me “We’re going to do a very competitive warranty and we haven’t announced it yet.”

“Think about if form a consumer standpoint,” he says. “How long to people keep cars?, who keeps a car 10 years or 150,000 miles? Our aim is mass acceptance then, whatever than number happens to be.”

Environment/Efficiency
The LEAf as a pure electric car will never use any gasoline, which is what Nissan is heavily promoting calling it a pure zero-emissions vehicle. This attribute is also the car’s limitation. Volt can use gas or E85 if necessary, but for 78% of the population’s daily drives it will use no gas at all.

Price
It seems clear the Volt will retail around $40,000 including the batteries which are not likely to be leased. The LEAF will likely retail around $30,000 plus a separate battery lease. Since the battery costs at least $10,000, monthly cost of ownership should be similar.

Rollout
Nissan has announced it will roll out 5000 LEAFs in 5 geographic regions beginning at the end of 2010. Those cars will be sold to consumers through selected dealerships. Buyers will have to qualify and will be required to provide feedback for a study. Volt rollout plans have still not been announced though sources tell me they too will initially be in a limited geographic distribution. GM has all but stated 10,000 cars will be built in the first year of production.

So which do you prefer and why? – Here are the poll results collected over a 24 hour period:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

To date the only companies publicly embracing the design have been Chrysler, and Fisker though there have been unconfirmed reports Jaguar is working on it too.  Other companies such as Ford, Tesla, Nissan, and Toyota have publicly dismissed the concept altogether.

Mitsubishi has now apparently decided to embrace the idea too.

According to a report out of the UK, Mitsubishi has confirmed its intentions to launch an extended-range electric car by the end of 2010.

Reportedly the vehicle will be a compact SUV similar in size to the Toyota RAV-4 and will use a drivetrain similar to the Chevy Volt’s Voltec system.

The vehicle will also share the 40 mile all electric range with a small possibly 3-cylinder 660 cc gas-powered range extender that would allow it to continue driving on gasoline and 200 miles or so.  The range extender would act as a generator producing electricity for the motor just as in the Volt.

Mitsubishi claims it is confident it can make the 2010 deadline for the EREV as it is already  in production of the lithium-ion battery powered i-MiEV electric car.

Mitsubishi sources describe the diminutive i-MiEV as ideal for crowded city driving such as in Japan and some places in Europe.  Although they do plan to release the i-MiEV in the US in 2011, the company doubts it will sell in significant volumes due to its small size, though it is capable of 100 miles EV range and 90 MPH top speed.  This is why the EREV would be needed.

It is likely the new Mitsubishi EREV will make its appearance at the Tokyo Auto show in the fall.  Then Mitsubishi sources tell GM-Volt.com, “our plans will be made clear.”

Source (Register Hardware)

At this point there are a few players that are trying to distinguish themselves and aim to claim certain market segments.

One such player is Henrik Fisker, the founder of California-based Fisker Automotive. His company has designed and built the rather stylish Fisker Karma which is set to debut in Spring 2010.  The car, like the Volt, is also an extended range electric vehicle (EREV), with 50 miles electric driving range and a gasoline range extender for longer distances.  It is a 4-door sports car that will retail at $87,500.  It is also powerful, using two 201 hp electric motors and going from 0 to 60 in 5.8 seconds.

Though Tesla is also based in California and sells a stylish electric sportscars, Fisker doesn’t want people to confuse the two companies.  “The full-electric car [like the Tesla Roadster] is a niche market. Plug-in hybrids have a much bigger market,” he says.

Fisker expects to be able to sell 15,000 Karmas annually and has contracted a plant in Finland capable of producing 20,000 per year. But even at low volumes Fisker thinks he will be successful. “We have a new business model,” he says. “At 5,000 sales, we can make money.”

Obviously the market for $87,000 cars isn’t limitless.  Fisker says he also has a plan to build a “lower in price, a mass market vehicle with high volume using common components with the Karma.” And with such a car in production, “there’s no reason we can’t eventually produce hundreds of thousands of cars a year,” he says.

Since the Fisker is using the same EREV design strategy as the Volt, and will offer a low priced variant in the future, you would think Fisker sees the Volt as competition.  Not so he says, why? “Its a Chevy” says Fisker.

Somewhat ironic in his put-down of the American iconic brand is the fact that the Karma’s gas engine will be sourced from, that’s right, General Motors. For range extension, the car uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter Ecotec® direct injection (D1) gasoline engine. So the Karma may actually be partly a Chevy on the inside after all.

Source (HybridCars)