GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Sam Abuelsamid has done an outstanding job of relaying the information he garnered as one of the media people invited to visit GMs battery lab. See the post here. For those of you who cant get enough of the technical details, Sam nicely outlinines the data he was presented. Very understandable and great slides from GM’s shows are included (see one above in our graphic).

All-in-all it tells us that the basic nuts and bolts of the battery is here and functional its just tying the loose ends together (trivial details per Sam) that is required to bring the car to market.

Senior commenter Jerry Flint at The Car Connection has written a rather negative post about GMs ability to produce the Volt, especially by 2010. He refers to the effort as being analagous to a Frank Sinatra song where the guy is all dressed up for his date, but got no girl! In GM’s case the girl is the Li-ion battery.We have to keep a balanced view and so we have linked to this post here. We remain optimistic!

According to the Free Press, and GM’s own Fast Lane Blog, GM made good on its promise to open the development process of the Volt to public scrutiny, by allowing 50 media people to come in for a tour of the battery lab yesterday. Hopefully the Warren Michigan facility will be birthplace of the next-gen Lithium batteries that will power the Volt.

There were leaders from the 3 main companies Cobasys, A123, and Johnson-Saft in attendance.

Much was discussed about the need for reliable batteries; those that can last for 150K miles, work in extreme climate conditions, and allow for rapid acceleration. There are working Li-ion batteries now (see Tesla’s), but not up to the standards for a mass produced, widely adoptable car.

One of Edmund’s reporters was there and got some more information, read his post here.

Sundays New York Times features an article about A123 systems and the GM Volt. It is a very positive discussion and focuses on the companies success at producing a very powerful, energy dense, lightweight battery.

The writer states…
” A123Systems, a start-up in Watertown, Mass., says it has created a powerful, safe, long-lived battery. If the cell fulfills the ambitions of its maker, that softer sound will be the future of automobiles.”

The media coverage continues to build positively, sealing the fate of the Volt to clearly become a reality.

It has been reported that Bob Lutz said the production model of the Volt wont be able to look like the concept car. The aggressive styling will have to be subdued, and the car will have to “look a little more traditional”. He also gave the car a 90% chance of making it to market.

We thought it would be fun to make a mock up drawing of what the car might actually look like, and it appears below, below the concept:

We would be very interested in seeing your designs. Make one and email it to chevyvolt AT gmail DOT com. We will post them here for all to see…

We’ve heard it before we’re hearing it again. GM’s Bob Lutz has officially claimed 2010 as the target year for Volt’s production. Reuter’s press release here. There isn’t any doubt about the engineering and the technology, its all there. We still hear how its all about the batteries. But as we have explored, the batteries exist in prototype, and Li-ion batteries are already in use in other electric vehicles. Plus surely the people behind the scenes at A123/Cobasys are certainly giving the go ahead for GM to say its 2010. An interesting NEW fact is that a full running prototype is due out by the end of this year!! Any takers?
So stay posted, more news to come…