GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

The following is a discussion I recently had about the Chevy Volt with Bob Kruse who was GM’s director of hybrids and EVs, just before his recent departure.

I would imagine driving style will affect the Volts’ electric range. Hyper-milers probably will try to get the car to go 100 miles without going into generator mode.
Yes. I can probably get it to do several hundred miles downhill with tailwind. To be honest with you there’s several driver interfaces that try to teach drivers. We’ve not talked too much about the man-machine interface, but it will have the necessary tools to allow drivers to modify their behavior for maximum electric range.

Will you have an interface like Ford or Honda that show these green leaves and things?
The Volt will have a very cool set of graphic interfaces for the drivers. We’ve got two different reconfigurable display areas, a primary right in front of the driver where the traditional cluster is and a secondary at the top of the center stack that will have content unique for a driver interfacing with an electric vehicle.

You haven’t shared what that’s going to look like yet.
No but it’s very well done. It’s very impressive.

Very similar to the charge sustaining story, ongoing refinement. While we have time were going to make it perfect. All the fundamental basic functions are already done, we’re making it perfect, cool, and sexy.

Some of these schedules that some of these companies make when they say they get hundreds of miles of electric range, the schedule that you’re on can help influence that.  In the Volt if you do 35 mph flat terrain steady state there’s upside potential over the 40 mile range. One thing we’ve got to look out for is that the US consumer is not happy with the EPA mpg ratings in that they don’t necessarily represent real world driving conditions. We’re being very careful to not allow the perception to exceed the reality. You don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver

It seems to me you feel you are going to underpromise and overdeliver?
That’s fair. Were being somewhat conservative again because we want to be successful with the technology.

The Chevy Volt show car has always been demonstrated with a white glossy iPod-like center stack console.

Shortly after it was unveiled the GM design team noted the stack would also be available in black and green finishes as well.

I have personally seen the new black stack while touring the Volt IVer production facility, and thought it looked excellent.

In one of GM’s videos showing the Volt IVers being built, one can catch a glimpse of the black stack, captured in the image above.

Although it looks gray in the shot it is indeed black.

I cannot get an official high resolution photo but am told it will be coming next week.

Source (Auotbloggreen)

The Opel Ampera was unveiled today at the Geneva Auto Show. As we know, the vehicle uses the same platform as the Chevy Volt and the same extended-range electric drivetrain otherwise known as the Voltec propulsion system.

GM has been gradually teasing images of the car. Now we can see it all including the first look at the car’s interior.

The interior design is the same as the Volt but these photos let us see how the center console will appear in black as opposed to the white color GM has shown us in the Volt. This black coloration is expected as an option in the production Volt too.

I asked GM spokesperson Rob Peterson whether any of this styling could make its way to the Volt. He said “No, the production Volt is the production Volt, and the production Ampera is the production Ampera.”

PHOTO GALLERY BELOW:

VIDEO:

[flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tx54B6ZQWI]

Cars.com gave a review of the information that is expected to be displayed on the Chevy Volt’s 7 inch center console touch screen LCD display.  I suspect at this point the final information rendered in the production car is still under revision.  Reviewed is what the show car illustrates on its screen as it flips through a pre-recorded DVD:

1.  The graphic renderings are described as being bluish, curvy, Nintendo Wii-like and show that state you are in, EV or range-extended.  The screen will appear different depending on which of the two modes the car is in.

2.  Vehicle speed, battery level, and fuel level

3.  Braking, acceleration , and tire pressure  meters

4.  While plugged in, the screen will show how much more time until full charge is attained and whether at 110V or 220V

5.  Stereo, A/C and optional navigation

6.  A climate control efficiency gauge

7.  An extensive menu to to program charging start and end times

And finally, the author got the answer to a question people have been asking for a long time here on GM-Volt.com, the Volt cannot be driven while it is still plugged in.

Source (Cars.com)

I had some further discussions about the Chevy Volt’s interior with chief designer Bob Boniface.  He advised me that the production interior design has undergone some further refinements. This images above reveal those. The older design is at the post bottom.  You can download the high-res image here.

Are the interior interfaces finalized?
Stylistically it looks mainly final.

Are the things seen on the display completely finalized?
They’re not completely finalized, there is going to be more content than what you see here. These are just DVDs that are rolling on a loop.

One of the things we have changed I should tell you design-wise is this piece the middle touch screen frame. People kept trying to break this or pull it off. It doesn’t move. It looks like it should move. It (also) is not very manufacturable.  It was one piece. It was die-locked. So now we’ve integrated it. It has more of a hood on it, its integrated around its edges, it actually looks quite a bit better. On all these buttons, we’ve added pill-shaped targets, tactile targets that you can navigate towards.

Are they haptic?
No, they are capacitive, but they have auditory feedback, they don’t have touch feedback.

Have you taken some feedback then from the public perception?
No, we just knew that all along.

Another thing is that these vents have moved. They’re actually “siamesed” off the sides of the center stack, and they actually look a lot more high-end, more upscale. The rest of these main surfaces are unchanged.

Older Design

Thanks to Statik for finding the image.

Many people have noticed the interesting “green leaf touch” sensor button on the Chevy Volt’s interior center stack.  To date we have not heard a good explanation of what function it might perform, although there have been some amusing guesses by commentators here.

I had the chance to ask this question to Volt lead designer Bob Boniface when I spent some time with him and the car in a recent NYC event.

What is the green leaf?
The green leaf brings up a Volt-specific page. It will give you charge rates which get downloaded through OnStar. You’ll be able to choose your recharge time. It will also give you recommended tips for efficient functioning. How to extend your range for example. It is Volt-specific information. All the things you can do to maximize your range and minimize your expenditure of energy.

You’ll hit that and it will say OK if you don’t use your HVAC, if you use your Econ mode, this is what will happen. Do you want to delay your charge?

What does the Econ button do?
It controls your HVAC, ambient lighting, other things. All the unnecessary electric usage will be reduced so that you can extend range.

Since it seems things aren’t completely finalized yet, what ideas do you have for other Green Leaf functions?

And if you are a US citizen, be sure to get out and VOTE today!