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Archive for the 'Environment' Category

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GM Engineer Test Drives Volt in Mountains of Tennesee: its a Success

September 2nd, 2009 | Posted in: Environment, Prototypes, Test drive with 243 Comments

Alex Cattelan is a GM engineer working on development of the Voltec powertrain, and has been involved in the Volt program ever since the beginning.
She recently had the chance to drive a pre-production Volt out among a fleet of seven cars to Knoxville, Tennessee.  Cattelan also noted she has previously driven pre-production and mule Volts [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 243 Comments

Study Calls Environmental Benefits of Electric Cars ‘Fiction’

April 19th, 2009 | Posted in: Climate, Environment, Research with 147 Comments

There are two major reason why people want electric cars. To achieve energy independence, to help the environment, or both.
While the first benefit can’t be disputed, a newly publicized study suggests that electric car use may actually be worse for the environment.
The study was performed by the group Transport Watch and found that [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 147 Comments

Electric Cars and Lithium Reserves: Only Enough For 1.5 Million Chevy Volts?

November 1st, 2008 | Posted in: Environment with 71 Comments

Some industry observers are concerned that mass adoption of electric cars might strain the supply of natural lithium reserves.
Since the lithium ion battery was first invented in the early 90s, lithium production has been ramping up rapidly for use in consumer electronic devices. Car batteries are of course much more massive, and if they [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 71 Comments

Mass Fuel Cell Adoption Would Cost $200 Billion and Al Gore Challenges US to Go 100% Fossil Fuel Free in 10 Years

July 17th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment, Grid, Hydrogen with 136 Comments

A new study was just published in which researchers estimated it would cost $200 Billion in research and infrastructure to bring fuel cell vehicles to mass market levels.
The study analyzed the cost of bringing 2 million fuel cell cars to the roads by 2020 and 25 million by 2030. It was determined that to achieve [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 136 Comments

Forget the Volt’s Roof, GM Puts World’s Largest Solar Roof on a Whole Assembly Plant

July 8th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment, Video with 72 Comments

Just while we’re busy discussing whether GM will put a solar roof on the Chevy Volt, and we begin to hear rumors about the next year Prius getting a solar roof option, GM has taken the idea to the next level.
Today GM announced that they have placed a massive solar panel array on the roof [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 72 Comments

Bob Lutz’ Boss Cool on Global Warming Comment

March 11th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment with 34 Comments

Not to beat a dead horse, but this item continues to persist in the media.
As many of you know, Bob Lutz recently was quoted as saying global warming was a crock of sh*t. This resulted in an impressive run of internet and print media discussions, in the end Lutz made it clear that his [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 34 Comments

Will Mass Use of Plug-in Cars Increase Air Pollution?

February 27th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment, Research with 45 Comments

 

We have reviewed and discussed the EPRI study which suggested mass-adoption of electric cars can be handled by the power grid, will result in net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and dramatically reduce U.S. petroleum consumption.
A more recent study by GM suggests E-REV use will reduce tailpipe emissions by 80%.
In the USA Today, two studies [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 45 Comments

Bob Lutz Turns up the Heat on Global Warming

February 14th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment with 103 Comments

By now many of you have probably heard about this. Originally reported in D-magazine is a “closed-door”conversation between GM Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz and several journalists. On the topic of the Chevy Volt, Mr Lutz reportedly called global warming “a total crock of sh-t”.  He went on to say he’s a skeptic rather than [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 103 Comments

Driving the Volt

February 13th, 2008 | Posted in: Efficiency, Environment, Research with 43 Comments

Peter Savagian is an engineer at GM who worked on the EV-1. He recently presented data from his study on the effect of driving electrified vehicles.
The presentation examines and discusses the implication of plug-in hybrid and E-REV utilization.
Per Peter, “GM’s Advanced Propulsion Technology Strategy is to remove automobiles from the environmental dialogue.”, and “another [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 43 Comments

New Study: Using U.S. Farmlands for Biofuel Production will Increase Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

February 8th, 2008 | Posted in: Environment, Fuel with 69 Comments

Ethanol supply produced from corn grown on U.S. croplands has been increasing and is thought by some as an opportunity to reduce petroleum consumption. Indeed carmakers like GM have been promoting E85 engines, and the U.S. government has been subsidizing farmers to produce corn.
The use of corn ethanol as being net energy positive [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 69 Comments

Audio Interview: Donald Hillebrand, Director of Center For Transportation Research, Argonne National Lab, Part I

November 2nd, 2007 | Posted in: Electric Motor, Engineering, Environment, Original GM-Volt Interviews, PHEV, Research with 25 Comments

Dr. Donald Hillebrand is the director for transportation research at the Argonne National Lab, a pivotal government organization involved in testing and deployment of plug-in cars. He is also a very intelligent and highly insightful man. We had an extensive and interesting discussion which can be heard in the player below the post. [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 25 Comments

GM Pushes To Control Electric Utility Rates

August 15th, 2007 | Posted in: Environment, Financial, Grid with 7 Comments

Here we’ve just finished posting about how much it will cost to drive the Volt.  Some interesting comments have come back.  I’m working on getting some more battery specifics and will report back to you very soon.
In the meantime, GM is part of a large coalition of heavy electric users in the state of Ohio. [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 7 Comments

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