GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

For what seems like forever, hydrogen fuel-cell technology has been a shimmering mirage dancing on the distant horizon of the auto-tech desert. No matter how long we keep trudging, how many reams of press-releases we wade through, nothing definite ever seems to happen to bring it any closer. Until now?

Honda Motor Co. has announced the development of it’s latest (fourth generation), compact, solar-powered, home refueling station for the hydrogen fuel FCX Clarity (200 of which are being leased in a California pilot project). With a compact 6-kilowatt solar panel array for power, the station contains a revolutionary high-pressure electrolyzer that can deliver 0.5 KG of extremely pure, pressurized hydrogen gas to the car for every 8 hours of sunlight. Why is this significant?

Honda Solar Hydrogen Station

Although every major automaker has a fuel-cell research program, with GM in particular proclaiming that hydrogen (rather than advances in batteries) is the basis of it’s long term energy strategy, there are several obvious barriers to the success of the technology:

* Hydrogen is actually an energy storage medium rather than a fuel in the petroleum sense (i.e. all usable hydrogen fuel must be produced by electrolysis or reformation, which consume electricity).
* an entire hydrogen refueling infrastructure would need to be built, across the U.S. and around the world.
* vehicle fuel cells remain incredibly expensive to produce.

Since before 2000, billions of dollars have been pouring into vehicle fuel-cell research, but if any practical developments in these three areas have occurred they’ve been kept remarkably quiet. Critics like Doug Korthoff of LiveOilFree accuse automakers (and oil companies) of having used fuel-cell technology as a red-herring to distract lawmakers from requiring battery electric vehicles. Even among those critics who don’t suspect bad faith, many point out that the first barrier is not so much a challenge we can hope to overcome as it is inescapable physics. In other words, the whole proposition may simply not make much sense, particularly if we see competing improvements in battery technology.

But here is where the potential significance of the home refueling station becomes apparent. With one relatively small solar panel and some plumbing that could easily fit on a garage wall, the Honda home station provides enough purified, high-pressure hydrogen from a single day’s sunlight (0.5 KG) to power the car for one standard commute for most drivers.

Voila! Both the first and second obstacles appear to have been dealt a serious blow! It would seem that with this equipment, both the “problem” of where to get the energy to create hydrogen, and the crushing economics of building all the refueling infrastructure necessary to get the system on the road, have been significantly reduced. Of course hydrogen filling stations would still be required, but early-adopters should be a lot more willing to buy a vehicle without waiting for a filling-station network that blankets the earth, if they know that at least they can fill their cars at home. And conceptually, this system works even better if it’s paired with a EREV such as the GM-Volt, with the fuel-cell taking the place of the existing range extender. Days might pass before the vehicle actually consumes any hydrogen, days in which the home system is gradually topping off the tank. Filling station construction could, initially at least, be concentrated on the highways.

Of course, all this may not be quite as wonderful as it sounds (what ever is?). Omitted in the Honda press release and in many of the press accounts is the fact that the electrolyzer requires natural gas as a raw material to generate hydrogen. So the solar panels are not simply providing 30 miles/day of travel directly from the sun, they are in effect converting one fuel to another, albeit a tremendously abundant, environmentally friendly fuel. How much energy is coming from each source, and at what efficiency is of course proprietary information that is not available. We can hope that the technology will ultimately be adapted to water electrolysis, but who knows? And none of this speaks to the third barrier, the current exorbitantly high cost of vehicle fuel cells.

Nevertheless, those of us who until now have been skeptical of the coming “hydrogen economy” can look at this development and say that if it’s not exactly the light at the end of the tunnel, at least it’s starting to look like there really is a tunnel, and not just a black arch painted on the side of a mountain by a lunatic coyote.

Sources: (Cartech, New York Times, HondaNews)

Jon Vandervelde is a designer, writer, and robot combat promoter, with a love for all things mechanical.

While the damage to Toyota’s reputation has certainly taken a hit of late due to the widely publicized problems with stuck accelerator pedals on many models, a case could have been made that it was insular event. At the time, it was fortunate for Toyota that the ‘image flagship,’ the Prius, was not involved in the recall. It would seem the other shoe has now dropped as well.

Several hundred drivers have filed complaints that they have experienced delays before the brakes fully activate in the Prius, or that the brakes sometimes became ‘confused’ in certain situations, leading to accidents.

The problems at the company have gotten to the point where Toyota President and professional hermit, Akio Toyoda (who is also the founder’s grandson) left his bunker and made a rare public appearance at a hastily called press conference Friday. Of interest, when Akio tookover the position at Toyota he promised to be the President “closest to the frontliness,” but instead has earned the nickname of “No-show Akio.”

Shockingly, he offer no apology and blamed the previous president and his management team for any and all problems, claiming that everything was perfectly fine now at the ‘new’ Toyota…and the public was just being ridiculous about the whole thing and should move on with it and start buying cars from them again.

Alright, none of that last paragraph is at all true. Mr. Toyoda did exactly what was expected of him; he apologized half a dozen times and promised to fix the problems plaguing the automaker and once regain the trust of the car buying public…while not actually offering anything of real substance.

“We are facing a crisis,” he said. “I offer my apologies for the worries. Many customers are wondering whether their cars are OK.” Mr. Toyoda then promised to strengthen the quality control, and announced a special committee would be formed to ensure Toyota’s return to former glory, and that it would be headed up by himself personally.

However, his rare televised news conference was not without incident. In Japan, it is customary for executives to bow at the start of such a conference, and also when giving a apology. Mr. Toyoda’s bow during the apology portion of the program was received by the local media as being half-hearted and ‘not deep enough’. /the horror

The Toyota president also failed to address the Prius situation directly, and offered no immediate solution or direction to current Prius owners, just that he “has ordered swift action.”

Officially, Toyota has stated that the situation has already been rectified at the factory. Apparently, they retooled the brake mechanism in January and also did a software update to ensure the problem is not a issue going forward. Which is great if you want to buy a new Prius I guess…but not so good if you already own one of the 270,000 odd copies on the road and have been zipping around on bad brakes the last few months (while Toyota has known about the problem) and are still looking for a fix. (The NHTSA has not yet weighed in on the repair procedure, and announced Thursday it was opening a official investigation)

These situations have lead to Toyota taking a lot of heat, both at home and in the US, for acting too slowly. There is also a growing perception that Toyota is only reacting to safety concerns after being taken to task by US and Japanese transportation authorities.

In the US, Toyota has taken blow after blow by the NHSTA Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood, who recently gave Toyota’s share price a 7% haircut by uttering the statement, “my advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it.” That statement was later ‘taken back’ by Mr. Lahood, but retractions are nothing like headlines…and the damage was done.

A few days ago, I wrote a piece entitled, Is Toyota’s Pain GM’s Gain? and although this crisis is badly hurting Toyota’s sales now and for the foreseeable future (they posted a 8.7% loss in January with only a few of the days at the end of the month being affected by these recalls) it is still unclear if GM will directly benefit.

Will a customer looking for a Toyota Camry make the jump to a Malibu? Or will they look to another manufacturer? Honda would seem to benefit the most from that scenario. Or will they simply insist on still buying that Camry, but look to postpone that purchase until well after the US Transportation Secretary gives Toyota the rubber stamp of approval and stops saying things like Toyota is “a little safety deaf”? I wager many will fall into that last camp. People don’t need a excuse to not buy a car right now, and many of Toyota’s customers in the end are probably still fairly loyal. (JD Power surveys puts the retention rate at over 60%) I expect the bulk of Toyota’s lost sales to be mostly customers deciding to just not buy. A no win situation for the industry as a whole.

However, coupling Toyota’s damaged brand name with the tarnish that has been put on the Prius’ halo, it will definitely help one car in particular at GM, our own Chevy Volt.

The Prius is purchased for not only how it performs and how much fuel it saves, but also for how it makes you feel, and how you are perceived by your peers. (The ‘smugness’ factor if you will) Many cars have come and gone attempting to compete with, and dethrone the Prius…all have failed. In the end, it may be this convergence of events that opens the door enough for another car to someday take over its halo, and the mantle of the car of the future.

/I don’t see why that car can’t be the Volt

What a difference a year makes. The domestic auto industry (forgetting Fiatsler for a moment) is seemingly firing on all cylinders, while Toyota and Honda are hitting road bump after road bump. Which begs the question, can GM take advantage?

For years a trip to the doctor or dentist’s office meant the forced perusal of endless stacks of historical Consumer Reports magazines (unless you really fancied reading May 2006 Issue of Soap Opera Digest). This also meant you were generally treated to a glowing report on Toyota’s latest people mover (unless you were talking about the Tundra), which was usally summed up by a comparison to a similar, but ultimately unfavorable product from Detroit.

To be fair, a good bulk of the criticism was well deserved, but most would agree that the gap has narrowed significantly over time as Toyota has struggled with pressure of being both the number one manufacturer in the world and holding onto the crown for quality and reliability.

Very often public perception is a market-trailing result, gained from a historical experience with a product and does not accurately reflect today’s reality. It takes time for sentiment to change, and in the auto business that can be a very, very long time. A fact GM knows all too well…but sometimes a perfect storm of events lead to things changing in a hurry.

Enter a nationally focused recall and production shut down at Toyota, coupled with a resurgent Detroit auto manufacturing base, and you have some real momentum to change the public’s mind.

Toyota has been dogged by claims of a stuck accelerator pedal for months leading up to this week; at first they claimed it really wasn’t a big deal, didn’t exist, that no real accidents of any significance had occurred, and that maybe it was just floor mat in the end…basically they did whatever they could do to contain the damage.

However, the floodgates opened when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration got involved and claims started coming to the surface on hundreds of accidents. Eventually, millions of cars were recalled, and contrary to what Toyota would have you believe, they were federally mandated to stop production on 8 models until a fix was submitted and approved by the NHTSA.

Throwing even more gasoline on the fire, we now have a House panel holding a hearing at the end of next month, requesting documents from the automaker and the NHTSA about everything they know on it, referencing “persistent consumer complaints of sudden unintended acceleration,” all but guaranteeing the issue stays at the forefront of the news.

When you start hearing statements from the Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman like, “I am concerned by the seriousness and scope of Toyota’s recent recall announcements…our hearing will help us better understand how quickly and effectively Toyota and the NHTSA responded to consumer complaints about the safety of the recalled Toyota vehicles,” you know it has gone past the point of no return.

These 8 production halted models at Toyota account for roughly 6 out of every 10 vehicles sold by the Japanese automaker…which means if you have bought a Toyota car in the last half decade or so, the thought of involuntarily charging into traffic has, at the very least, crossed your mind…and that is not a good thing for Toyota. The only thing worse for Toyota would have been if the recall/stop work order included their flagship Prius…or if Michael Phelps was in a head on collision in one and could never swim for the US again.

Has the focus and criticism of Toyota gotten out of control? Yes. Is it fair to Toyota and the image they have worked so hard to gain over the past couple decades? Probably not. But that is the way it is…and that is the business reality that GM knows all too well of late.

Couple the hit Toyota has taken on its image, with the massive loss they took last year fiscally, along with its gloomy forecast for the coming year and put it up against Detroit’s new found renaissance and you would think it was Toyota that was in trouble.

Conversely, GM now has a clean balance sheet, a forecast of profitability, and potentially a car in the Volt that could steal the thunder from the leader of ‘all things green’ in the Prius. While, the other half of the Detroit equation (Ford) also just finished reporting a 2.7 billion dollar profit for 2009, increased market share, and had a fantastic 4th quarter. (although don’t look behind the curtain too much at that gross negative cash flow, or 1.3B loss from automotive operations…but I digress)

Toyota’s Japanese counterpart Honda has had its own share of troubles. On Friday it announced the recall of some 600,000 cars and has been soundly panned for its abysmal attempt in the strong hybrid market with the Insight (I myself walked from a $500 deposit at my local dealer when specifics/reviews on the car began coming to light). Not to mention introducing what I feel is the ugliest car of the new millennium, the Crosstour. (what the heck is that thing anyway?) Lets just say the new Civic can’t come soon enough for them, and leave it at that.

By no means is General Motor’s all the way back, and I don’t expect to see them atop all the JD Power ratings next year, or even on the cover of Consumers Reports the next time I sit down at my dentist’s office, but they have come along way in a short time.

How has GM reacted to the touble at Toyota? Well…while Toyota has been in a production shutdown, they have been adding salt to the wound by offering (albeit on the ‘down-low’) an additional $1,000 to any current Toyota owner to make the switch…on top of the (on average) $4,000+ in incentives already in play.

/twist the knife GM…twist the knife

Sidenote: It is reported that Toyota believes they have a solution for the gas pedal problem; a small spacer that would increase tension on the accelerator and (hopefully) cause it to not remain in a depressed position. Due to the NHTSA’s involvement, it must first be approved by them before production will resume.

Looking to bolster sales in a post CFC (Cash for Clunkers) world, GM launched a new campaign entitled “May the Best Car Win,” led by a 60 day ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ promotion, designed to bring more buyers into their showrooms.

Beginning September 14th, the premise is straight forward: you buy a GM car; you later decide it just does not offer enough cup holders for your needs, or perhaps does not have the same quality of cup holder as the competition, then between day 30 and 60 of ownership, you can return the car for a full refund. Simple. Easy. Excellent.

Ok, there are a couple catches. For starters, it is only valid for surviving brands, so you can not return a 2010 Vibe to your now Pontiac-less, sales starved, Buick/GMC dealer as a early Christmas present. Same goes if you leased the car, or if you have driven it more than 3,999 miles from purchase.

Unlike some recent marketing snafus, (see any Buick commercial in the past couple years, or the 230 MPG fiasco), this one seems solid, and pretty original. A good combination.

The program gives some real peace of mind and just general good vibes to prospective buyers. It may actually offer some enticement to have shoppers come back and consider a GM product, time will tell. It is still early, but I would rate this akin to Hyundai’s “you lose your job, you can lose our car” campaign…which was very well received. Best of all, the cost to GM itself is fairly minimal, unlike putting $3,500 on the hood of a car to get it out the door.

So that is a winner, good job and good night, right?

Sadly no. GM also decided to ‘jump the shark’ at the same time by having Chairman Lee Iacocca deliver the program directly to the public with some straight talk. Alright, they didn’t do that, Mr. Iacocca was not available as a shill for hire. (How awesome would that commercial have been though?) In Lee’s place, they had newly-minted Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. dub his voice over some old 80s Chrysler commercials. Ok, that is also untrue. GM shot a whole ‘new’ commercial from scratch, with GM’s Chairman doing the walk and talk.

About halfway through the spot, Mr. Whitacre deadpans a line that probably should have been left on the editing room floor, “We are putting our money where our mouth is.” Erm, sorta. Who isn’t mumbling at this point, “putting OUR money where your mouth is,” under their breath here?

Watch GM Chairman Ed Whitacre Here:

Watch then Chrysler Chairman Lee Iaccoca Here:

Side note: The new GM commercial has some shots of the Volt (huzzah for black), a ‘hood peak’ shot (that we are not unfamiliar with here at GM-Volt) of the new entry level Cadillac, and the as yet unnamed Buick Delta II CUV in clay form.

Not content to stop there, GM throws more gas on the ‘going too far’ bonfire, by introducing this site, The Best Car Wins, which basically asks you five simple questions on which brand you feel has the best fuel efficiency, best safety, best quality, best performance and best overall cars. At the end of the quick questionnaire it displays what the public opinion (to date) is, with a note to please, “stay tuned.” I’m thinking, I probably won’t be back.

You would figure being a GM site, some of the answers should come up with a GM brand…but no. As of going to press, the respective answers to those five questions were Toyota, Volvo, Honda, BMW, BMW. I guess nothing says “come to GM” more than by promoting the fact that everyone else believes that other company’s do things better than you do.

Overall thoughts? Good idea, bad follow through. Hopefully the site, and that commercial die a quick death, and the program lives on, filling a hole for GM in the near term.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find a dealer with a in-stock, black Corvette ZR1 with the 3ZR package and chrome aluminum wheels, but hold the floor mats please (they don’t give refunds on dealer accessories).

Official GM Release

On August 24th, the CARS program (more affectionately known as ‘Cash for Clunkers’) ended. The program was rolled out to generate sales to the distressed North American car industry (and the economy in general), while putting more efficient cars on the road.

Was it well received? Very much so. Who doesn’t like free money* after all? In fact, the initial funding of a billion dollars was exhausted in a week. A further two billion was quickly infused into the program, which allowed it to reach the one month mark before closing.

In total, the DoT reported that 690,114 deals went down, good for about 2.9 billion worth of stimulus. Many critics of the program feared that the program merely dragged forward future sales and really did not generate anywhere near that many ‘new’ sales and that a wake would be left in months following it.

The industry as a whole did indeed report growth…over 1% worth, with small car maker Hyundai naturally receiving the largest boost, up 47%. Also faring well were Ford (+17%), Honda (+10%) and Toyota (+6%). However, our own GM pulled up the rear, reporting year over year sales of 246,479, good for -20%. A look at the top selling vehicles in the CARS program gives a glimpse of part of the problem:

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape

You will notice, there is not a GM vehicle to be found on that list. Of all sales generated, only 17% of the CFC deals went down at a GM dealership, and of those, a good bulk fell to ‘dead brand’ Pontiac.

Breaking down August’s -20% monthly sales number at GM, we find Pontiac reported a 23.3% sales increase, while survivors (and unlikely beneficiaries) of the CARS program Cadillac and Buick, were off 55% and 52% respectively. (GMC and Chevrolet were off 45% and 9%)

Looking ahead, GM has a couple big issues. For starters, Pontiac sold 30,000 odd cars last month, which leaves them with only about 15,000 left in new car inventory total before they slip quietly into automotive history. In fact, the ‘dead brands’ made up about 1 in of every 6 sales for GM last month. GM is so concerned about the orphaned customers of these brands, or ‘free agents’ if you will, they have recently set up a special task force to try and rustle those costumers back into the fold.

Even before the loss of the ‘dead brands’ themselves are felt on the monthly sales, GM’s market share has plunged from 24.7% to 19.5% in the last 12 months.

On top of the future loss of ‘free agents’ (about 15% of GM’s business YTD), they now face the vacuum the CARS program has left, which primarily benefited Japanese auto makers (and Pontiac clear outs).

What did newly promoted, vice president of rose colored glasses U.S. Sales, Mark LaNeve, have to say about all of this and GM’s diminishing share?

“The Cash for Clunkers program was certainly a success, but our momentum continues to build on the strength of our new cars….our four core brands – Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac – (which) are well positioned with new products to take advantage of the ongoing recovery in the market.” Mark continues to bat a thousand with optimism on the monthly sales results and forward looking statements.

Inside the same press release, the the usual paradox between reason and the words coming out of Mark LaNeve’s mouth presents itself. Mark announces that current production of cars for the quarter is set at 535,000 vehicles, and will be 655,000 for Q4 2009. Which of course means to any of us that are good at math, (and/or own a calculator), if GM sells every car they make, they will still average about 40,000 less than they sold this month.

Normally your supposed to wrap these articles up with some hope, so what is the answer? Is it the Voltec project(s) going to lead the charge at the ‘new’ GM and turn things around? It might. Unfortunately volume and profitability for this platform are a long way off, and there isn’t any new products that can fill the gap in the meantime…unless the new Equinox (and its legion of rebadges) are going to sell 1.5 million copies in 2010.

GM is going to need a lot more help from you and me (the taxpayer) to get there, so are we in? Or out? Do we even have a choice? Next up…the DoE loans.

Fair Warning: Perhaps you have already spotted the ‘subtle’ tone change in the title? Yes, Lyle has not penned this post. Which can mean only one thing, that I have hacked his administrator password and locked him out. Actually, Lyle has asked me to be a regular guest writer, and who says no to Lyle? Not I. Perhaps he wants a day off? (deservedly so) Or maybe he doesn’t have enough things to worry about it life and wants to add just one more thing…my reckless abandon. Regardless, it is my privilege to do it, as it is to come here to read every post/comment on what I feel is the finest online community of electric car enthusiasts the internet has to offer.

This week brought a new media frenzy to market by GM, with the center of it being the corporately induced viral media campaign “What is 230?” and we saw the spawn of another ‘social media’ website from GM. (How many is that now?)

At the heart of this campaign is a number so large (230MPG) it seems to render itself almost inert, that is except for this phrase tucked inside the press release, “GM expects the Volt to consume as little as 25 kilowatt hours per 100 miles in city driving”

As many people know, I am not one to gloss over the details, or avoid doing math, so I asked John Lauckner how this did not translate to a 32 mile AER in the city (at best), to which he answered:

“Hey statik. We are still confident that we will deliver 40 miles of autonomous electric range (AER) on both the official EPA city and highway tests, so no change there. The EPA draft methodology reduces the laboratory result take into account a number of factors such as the use of air-conditioning, more passengers in the vehicle, cargo, etc. So, that’s the difference between the “up to 40 miles” that we stated for some time…”

To my ears, I heard this:

“Hey statik. We believe the typical driver is a orphaned 18 year old girl, with no friends, personal belongings, and that is allergic to the both the A/C and heater, and never uses the radio…and the Volt will never, ever carry the average family of 3.14 people, a set of golf clubs, or all the other random useless junk that families tend to pile up in the trunk.”

Ok, most people don’t hear like I do. But for most people, deep down, we really don’t believe…well, lets say we have a healthy skepticism, and these types of undercurrents give us pause. 230 is just too big a number. (Nissan wasted little time ‘tweeting’ out their own dreamy, tri-centurion number in response, 367).

To the public, we see the asterisk beside 230 as surely as we see the asterisk beside Barry Bond’s 73 homeruns. For the most part this has been the media response in general to the campaign, ‘catchy number…but c’mon’

That skepticism is akin to the statement, “We expect more than 80 percent of Volt owners will never use or burn gasoline because they commute 40 miles a day or less,” and references/links to that study again, (‘How many miles one-way do you travel from home to work’ http://tinyurl.com/U-S-DOTStudy), which sounds great, until you realize that people working 5 days in a row don’t go straight to and from work. If you even add on 10 miles of need ranged to that lowered 32 mile max expectation, for ‘picking up a loaf of bread, going out for lunch/supper, visiting friends, or just being a poser and driving around in their electric car where people them in it,’ that number slips to 50% of people will burn gas each workday. It is all perspective and hyperbole.

Therefore, my suggestion to GM is that it is time. Your Easter 2008 is now. It is time for those first public test drives, you know what I’m talking about…the real ones. The ones that make Frank Weber get so nervous he only speaks in German. The kind where you hand the keys over, and you let them drive off by themselves.

While 230 MPG may well indeed be the average mileage overall, it certainly will not be the norm for most Volt drivers. Also, most Volt drives themselves will be in a ‘untypical’ configuration ie) number people, cargo onboard, driving styles, situations, etc. We want to draw our own conclusions on our own AER, extended range MPG…and overall gallons we will burn in a typical week/year.

On July 20, 1969 we all didn’t step on the moon, but we all got to see and live it first hand, we didn’t just hear the president say, “yupe, we did it…it all went as planned.” Likewise, it is time for your moonshot to become more than just PR. The competition is at the doorstep now, and pretty soon orders are going to be taken. It’s time to start handing out keys and say, “Have her back by sundown. We think you’ll be pleased.”

/we are ready. Are you?