GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Lotus EREV Engine

As the story goes, GM planned to leapfrog the Prius with what was called the ‘iCar’ in 2006.  Starting with Bob Lutz’ idea of a pure electric car, GM VP Jon Lauckner recommended adding a gas generator to eliminate issues of range limits and the Chevy Volt concept was born.  The resulting tremendous public interest caught GM by surprise and they had no choice but to produce the car.

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.

Like all recent auto shows before it, the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show will offer a showcase of new electrified vehicles.

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 US Department of Energy announced that they have awarded Fisker Automotive $528.7 million to be used for the development and assembly of plug-in electric cars in the United States.

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)

The Fisker Karma is the “other” extended range electric car deliveries of which are expected to begin in 2010. Only in Fisker’s case its May as opposed to November, and will be simultaneously global.

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)

Word is out that Mercedes will also be entering the extended-range electric car arena. The automaker has apparently confirmed it will be bringing an extended range electric car into limited production next year.

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)

When the Volt concept was first debuted it caught the world by surprise and was cause for inspiration. Sure there had been the EV-1 and the Tesla Roadster was in prototype stage, but most of the US population was not well exposed to the idea of electric cars.

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.