GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

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 such a ramp up, the government would need to spend $55 billion between 2008 and 2023 and private industry would need to spend $145 billion.

It was noted in the article that the high and rising cost of platinum makes of 57% of the cost of fuel cell stacks and was a significant barrier, as well, from the article "future platinum supply is a critical issue in forward projections of fuel-cell costs."

So while a production-intent fuel-cell Chevy Volt program is underway at GM, there remains serious considerations whether fuel cells will become the dominant vehicle type.

The study logically concludes that the best approach to displacing petroleum will be to develop a portfolio of alternative fuel vehicles including battery EVs, hybrids, and bio-fuel cars in addition to fuel cells.

Source (Marketwatch )

On a somewhat related note, Al Gore just gave a speech in which he challenged the U.S. to an initiative to achieve 100% fossil-fuel free electricity in 10 years. He cited not just environment concerns but those of national security as well.

Source (Text of Speech )

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 of their Zaragoza assembly plant in Spain where the Opel Corsa, Meriva and Combo models are built. This will be the world’s largest rooftop solar system and will be built by Energy Conversion Devices.

The solar array is 10 megawatts in size and can produce 15.1 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year, enough GM Europe’s President Carl-Peter Forster states to power 4,500 Chevy Volts through typical yearly commuter cycles.

Source (Reuters )

UPDATE : Here’s GMs video about it:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB9Ly-6wmgQ]

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 personal opinions should not reflect the companies activities.

Now GM CEO Rick Wagoner has gone on the record as regretting Mr. Lutz’ comments.

Wagoner said “I would have preferred to pass on the comment”.

He also said “the data is pretty clear that the temperature on the earth is rising. It makes sense for us to put the business in a place where can respond productively,” and “a lot of things need to be done to address CO2.”

Source (Wall Street Journal)

 

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 , one by the National Resources Defense Council and the other by the  Minnesota Pollution Control Agency were reported.

As we already know, the Chevy Volt is essentially a coal-burning car, because right now, the majority of U.S. electricity is produced at coal-burning powerplants.

As per the NRDC report, if the elecricity is generated in older-technology coal plants, “there is a possibility for significant increases of soot and mercury,” .

The second study suggested “plug-ins also could result in more sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions,” and mentions “SO₂ is toxic in large amounts and is a component of corrosive acid rain”.  This study also apparently contradicted the prior EPRI study in concluding that PHEV use could increase CO2 emissions.

Source (USA Today)

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 a denier and further clarified that the desire for GM to build the Volt was more to replace foreign oil than to reduce CO2 emissions.

On this site we examine all the Volt news, and it isn’t clear what type of PR this statement will generate. The comment was picked up by Jalopnik on Tuesday and made it to Popular Science and WIRED on Wednesday.

We here, of course, were dealing with some important politics and science in the interim, but hey, why not stir the pot a little.

One thing that’s clear about Mr. Lutz is he tells it just like he sees it.

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 key element of the strategy is to allow automobiles to shift significant portions of their required energy from petroleum to other sources.” This is otherwise known as petroleum displacement.

The definition of an E-REV is proposed as “a vehicle that functions s a full-performance battery electric vehicle when energy is available from an onboard RESS (rechargeable electric storage system) and having an auxiliary energy supply that is only engaged when the RESS energy is not available.” He also says “the E-REV is unique from a PHEV in that the vehicle, battery and propulsion system are sized such that the engine never is required for operation of the vehicle when energy is available from the battery.”

In the study, Peters group analyzed real-world detailed driving data from a cohort of over 600 actual drivers in Southern California. As opposed to running simulation a on pre-defined test cycles such as the US06, the study analyzes what the effect of this real-world driving behavior would be if it occurred in a conventional vehicle, plug-in hybrid, or E-REV.

One key finding was that the hybrid reduced fuel consumption by 23%, the PHEV by 54%, and the E-REV by 80%.

When measured as a function of number of engine starts, the study showed that emissions were not significantly reduced using a HEV, but were reduced by 72% using an E-REV.

Peter concludes that “electrification that enables E-REVs may be well worth the effort.” and “while PHEVs can make improvements when compared to HEVs, an E-REV appears to realize a much greater portion of societal benefits.”

Further he says, “By offering full-performance on electric power alone, the E-REV operates as an EV for the majority of real drivers. By retaining an ICE-powered charging capability, the E-REV overcomes the “range anxiety” limitations of earlier BEVs. We anticipate that the E-REV will be an important and practical step forward in the electrification of the automobile”.

See Peter’s blog post and presentation of the data: (LINK)