Q&A With Chevy Volt Lead Powertrain Engineer

Alex Cattelan is head of the Volt propulsion engineering team.  I had the chance to discuss the current state of Chevy Volt development from her perspective.
What is your role in the Volt program?
I head up the team that does all of the propulsion systems for the Volt. That includes motors, power electronics, we don’t [...]

Vice Chairman Tom Stephens on the Current State of GM’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell Program

Hydrogen powered vehicles is a topic that tends to bring out debate. Before the recent explosion of interest in battery electric cars, talk of a hydrogen superhighway and fuel cells cars being the next big step were all the rage.
Interest appears to be waning.
Tom Stephens is vice-chairman of GM and is responsible for product [...]

Guest Post From GM’s Frank Weber on Long Term Cost Advantage of EREVs Over BEVs

This is Frank Weber, Global Vehicle Chief Engineer, Chevrolet Volt. I read with great interest “Dave G’s” post comparing the cost and range of extended-range electric vehicles (EREV) like the Volt to that of BEVs. While many of Dave’s numbers are estimates, his analysis is spot on and worth noting. EREVs have [...]

Pre-production Volt in Motion: Lead Designer Bob Boniface says “Its Like Christmas Morning”

Bob Boniface is the chief designer of the Chevy Volt. In this GM video he discusses what the current pre-production state means from a design standpoint and what work is yet left to do.  We are treated to some new moving footage of the pre-production vehicle in black.
Boniface explains at this point his team [...]

GM VP’s Chevy Volt Update

In our last post we had a live chat with Jon Lauckner GM’s VP of global program management, who along with Bob Lutz is co-creator of the Chevy Volt.
He took some significant questions from readers here and some other sites. Key information is as follows:
Price
GM has never officially told us what the Volt will cost, [...]

GM VP Troy Clarke on Why GM Doesn’t Have a Strong Hybrid Sedan

I had the opportunity to ask a question of GM’s VP North America, Troy Clarke. It was as follows:
Other automakers are making cars like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius, why hasn’t GM placed a strong hybrid architecture into a small sedan and targeted a lower price point, and rather put those systems into [...]

Chevy Volt Generation Two

I had the chance to speak with Nick Zielinksi, he is GM’s vehicle line director for advanced technology vehicles. He is doing some of the coolest stuff at GM, developing the engineering for their “way in the future” cars.

Since you are responsible for the generation two and three Volts can you say anything about what [...]

My Question to GM’s CFO Ray Young

GM just received last night an additional $5.4 billion in government loans bringing the total so far to $9.4 billion. They are expected to receive an addition $4 billion on February 17th.
While in Detroit, I had a chance to ask one question to Ray Young who is GM’s CFO. Ray noted that GM [...]

My Question to GM CEO Rick Wagoner

While at the Detroit Auto Show I had the chance to meet GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner in a group discussion with about ten journalists. It sort of reminded me of the film Roger and Me, here I am some bumbling Michael Moore-type winding my way through months of effort to finally stand next to [...]

GM Q&A: Volt Vehicle Line Executive Frank Weber on the Current Chevy Volt Mules

Frank Weber is the Chevy Volt vehicle line executive. I had a chance to sit down with him for some discussion while he was in New York at a recent event.
How is the mule development going?
The big step was when we finalized the mules vehicles at the end of August and delivered those on time [...]

Lutz Provides More Volt Details: Photovoltaic Roof to be Unveiled in January, and Volt Development Ahead of Schedule

After the Volt unveiling the Toronto Star had a fruitful Q& A with GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz.
Lutz told reporters that because things have gone so well, the Volt is actually ahead of schedule. He indicated that he was now 99.9% sure the Volt will be a success, and that as a result it will [...]

GM Q&A: Chevy Volt Production

I had a wide-ranging discussion with Robert Kruse, to whom I posed many of the questions readers here asked. Bob is GMs executive director of EVs and Hybrids. In this segment we discussed Volt production.
How many Volts are you aiming towards producing in the first year?
We have not announced a specific number for [...]