GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

Peak oil is the theory and study of the time when global oil production reaches its maximum rate and then declines terminally, despite growing demand. Peak oil is a fact of nature that either will shortly occur or is presently occurring; oil is a finite resource and at some point remaining reserves will decline and not be able to keep up with demand.

It is a very compelling reason to move towards electrification the automobile.

Generally large western democratic governments do not publish reports on the study of peak oil or its consequence, for fear of causing public distress. However a document produced by the German military was recently leaked to the media via the German outlet Der Spiegel.

This document was never meant to be seen by the public and outlines some very dramatic, drastic, and sobering consequences of peak oil.

The report claims there is “some probability that peak oil will occur around the year 2010 and that the impact on security is expected to be felt 15 to 30 years later.”

Analysis of the report has led to seven key findings.

• Oil will determine power:
  Oil producing nations will gain considerable power in the international landscape and will use this power to expand their domestic and foreign policies in their own best interests.
• Increasing importance of oil exporters:
  Oil importing countries will have to compete with each other to obtain oil from oil exporters. This will allow the oil exporting countries to implement their political, economic, and ideological goals on dependent nations including the use of aggressive and assertive tactics.
• Politics in place of the market:
  The global oil market will retract from free-trade mechanisms and degenerate into two-way contracts between oil producing and oil importing nations.
• Market failures:
  The report paints a bleak picture of the global economy as oil shortages develop. Since all goods depend on oil to transport them, shortages and price escalations of vital goods will arise. “In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse,” the study authors conclude.
• Relapse into planned economy:
  Since all economic sectors are reliant on oil, peak oil could lead to complete or partial failure of all markets. This could lead to goverments’ rationing of vital goods.
• Global chain reaction:
  There will not be enough time to restructure oil supplies among dependent nations.  Since those nations are so closely intertwined, including Germany, economic crises or crashes will rapidly will spread throughout the developed world.
  
• Crisis of political legitimacy:
  So potent is the grip of oil dependence, the report predicts that it is possible even democracy itself won’t be able to survive peak oil.  The would create openings for extremist forms of government, intense political distress, and even open violent conflict in the streets.

Clearly these predictions are drastic, but it is important to take note that this report wasn’t written by some fringe psychopathic recluse, but by the military of one of the largest democratic economies in the world.

I’m not sure what I can do about it, but hopefully buying a Chevy Volt is a first step in the right direction.  Let’s hope we have enough time and ingenuity to avert this potential outcome.

Source (Der Spiegel)

A few weeks ago GM announced they would be producing 10,000 Chevy Volts in 2011 and 30,000 in 2012.

Now apparently due to strong consumer interest the company has decided to increase that second year production number by 50% to 45,000 cars.

This decision comes only days after GM announced Volt pricing and on the same day President Obama is visiting the Chevy Volt production plant at Detroit-Hamtramck Michigan (DHAM).

In fact just an hour ago, President Obama got into a Chevrolet Volt and drove it for a few feet before Secret Service agents stopped him.

“Some of you saw me drive the Volt about 12 inches; they don’t let me drive much these days,” said Obama. “Pretty smooth.”

He is addressing crowds both at the DHAM plant as well as a Chrysler plant in support of his previous decision to bail out both companies.

“A lot of people were skeptical. There were many who said we should just let the market take its course. Let GM go bankrupt. Let Chrysler go out of business,” Obama told the crowd at General Motors’ Hamtramck plant. “But I had confidence in you.”

Dealers have seen strong consumer interest stemming from Volt pricing, and GM has indicated their email interest list has exceeded 70,000 names. This is not including the 54,000 names found on the GM-Volt want list.

President Obama visited Holland Michigan on Thursday to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the new LG Chem battery plant. This plant was funded in part by a DOE stimulus grant of $151 million with a matching $151 million provided by LG Chem. Once fully operational in 2012, the plant will be capable of producing enough cells for 200,000 hybrids and electric cars, and will specifically be making the cells both for the Chevrolet Volt and the upcoming Ford Focus Electric, expected to go on sale in 2011.

“This is about more than just building a new factory,” said Obama. “It’s about building a better future for this city, for this state, and for this country.”

The Obama administration has pledged a goal of putting 1 million electric cars on US roads by 2015. So far the Recovery Act has contributed $2.5 billion towards United States electric car battery and component plants, 26 of which are already in some stage of construction. Nine of these are battery plants, including ones from A123 Systems and Johnson Controls. These facilities can collectively expect to produce 500,000 electric cars annually, and are expected to help transform Michigan into the electric car battery capital of the country.

The 650,000 square foot LG Chem plant is expected to produce 300 jobs.

“The workers at this plant, already slated to produce batteries for the new Chevy Volt, learned the other day that they’re also going to be supplying batteries for the new electric Ford Focus as soon as this operation gears up,” said Obama. “That means that by 2012, the batteries will be manufactured here in Holland, Michigan. So when you buy one of these vehicles, the battery could be stamped “Made in America” -– just like the car.”

Obama also predicted that all this investment in electrification of the automobile, will lead to more affordable electric cars in the future.

“Because of advances in the manufacture of these batteries, their costs are expected to come down by nearly 70 percent in the next few years,” he said. “That’s going to make electric and hybrid cars and trucks more affordable for more Americans.”

“It also means we’re going to be less dependent on foreign oil,” he added.

During the event, Obama got to check out and sit in both the Ford Focus Electric and for the first time, the Chevrolet Volt.

We have come a very, very long way from January 2007.

Electric cars operate very quietly, which is one of the strong selling points to drivers who appreciate silence.  Visually impaired pedestrians and other road occupants such as bicyclists however, rely on the sound of combustion engines to negotiate safely.

As such, blind advocacy groups have been working with automakers for two years to reach a consensus on whether and how electric cars should be equipped with sounds.  Recetnly an agreement was reached.

Automakers will equip their electric cars with audible pedestrian alert signals that will not be driver activated.  These chirping sounds would automatically be emitted when the car operates at low speeds to let pedestrians know that it is nearby.

When the first generation Volt goes on sale later this year it will be equipped with a manually activated pedestrian alert, however when the new agreement goes into effect, the sound will have to be automatic.  Nissan has equipped the electric LEAF with an automated chirp.

“Bruup, bruup” is how Micky Bly, GM’s  executive director for hybrid electric vehicles and batteries imitates the sound that will be made by the Chevy Volt.  The manually toggled stalk will sound “like the low tone of a horn, but nonstartling.”

Mark Perry, marketing director for Nissan said the LEAFs’ sound will be revealed to the public next week in Japan.  Earlier reports indicated it would sound like the flying cars in the movie Blade Runner.  “It’s a little too early to disclose it, but when we do you’ll understand the work that went into it from our audio guys,” said Perry.

The often proposed idea of downloadable ring tones for electric cars cars seems unlikely.  ”We do hate the idea of ring tones,” said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, . “We think manufacturers should decide the sound or set of sounds, and drivers should not able to alter them willy-nilly.”

The electric car sound measure is incorporated in the Motor Safety Act of 2010 which was already proposed in congress and is expected to  be ratified into law by the end of summer.

A group of auto trade groups in cooperation with the National Federation for the Blind sent a letter to Congress stating the new law would “will help to ensure the safety of pedestrians, especially those who are blind, as an increasing number of hybrid and electric vehicles are sold.”

The new legislation would require the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to begin drafting the requirements within 18 months and the rule would have to be finalized within three years.

David Strickland who is the director of the NHTSA said his agency is reviewing the agreement which will also be extended to hybrids.

“Our analysis of limited data from 12 states shows that hybrid electric vehicles do have a significantly higher incidence rate of pedestrian crashes than internal combustion engines,” he said.

Source (Detroit News) and (New York Times)

Currently the federal government is offering a $7500 tax credit to purchasers of electric cars with batteries as large or larger than the Chevy Volt.  This tax credit was signed into law last year an can be applied to the first 250,000 electric vehicles each manufacturer sells.

Now both the Senate and House have submitted new proposed bipartisan legislation.  The so-called Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 seeks up to $11 billion to help spur the adoption of electric cars.  The plan has a long-term goal of getting 4 million electric cars on US roads by 2017, and 700,00 within the next few years helping to bring Obama’s pledge to get 1 million by 2015 closer to reality.

The Senate and House versions differ somewhat but both pledge from $250 million to $800 million in grant money to be given to from 5 to 15 municipalities to allow them to deploy a public charging networks.  These “deployment communities” would be chosen based on already proven motivation to spur EV adoption through current tax credits, utility company and auto manufacturer relationships.

The selected communities, which would be named in six months, would also use the funds to provide electric car buyers with at least $2000 in additional local subsidies. This would allow buyers in those areas up to $10,000 or more discount off Chevy Volts or Nissan LEAFs.  A grant of $10 million for research to make a 500 mile range battery is also included in the Senate version.  Furthermore, the legislation would also extend tax credit for EV charging equipment from the current 2011 expiration up to 2017.  The funds would be expected to put 700,000 electric cars on the road witin the next several years.

“The Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act will lead to a surge in job creation, help consumers, recharge our economy and greatly enhance our national and environmental security,” said Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).  “We import most of the oil we use, much of it from countries that seek to do us harm.  The catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is yet another reminder that it’s time for America to start driving toward a clean energy future, and electric vehicles can help power the way.

“From plug-in hybrids to all-electric cars, the auto industry is moving quickly to meet consumer demand for more efficient vehicles that cost less to fuel up,” said Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.), a senior member of the House Science and Technology Committee.  “Thanks to these innovations, America is making great strides toward reducing emissions and cutting our dependence on expensive foreign oil.  But our electric and transportation infrastructure must keep pace with technology. The Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act will accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles and put new energy technologies within reach of more consumers and motorists. It also will help regional communities establish themselves as models for the development and installation of the next generation of transportation infrastructure, including public charging stations.  I look forward to working with my colleague, Chairman Markey, to advance this legislation and help put America’s transportation system on the fast track to electrification.”

Highlights of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act include:

• The Secretary of Energy will competitively award $800 million to 5 different deployment communities around the country, with the objective of deploying 700,000 electric vehicles in those communities within six years.
• At least $2,000 in additional consumer incentives for the first 100,000 consumers purchasing electric vehicles in these communities would be provided.
• All Americans would continue to be eligible for the electric vehicle tax credit, which reduces the prices of an electric vehicle by up to $7500, and additionally, tax credits of the costs of purchase and installation of electric vehicle charging equipment for individuals (up to $2000) or businesses (up to $50,000 for multiple equipment purchases) would be extended.
• Additional research, development, deployment and manufacturing incentives are provided for technologies that enable the widespread deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

“We appreciate Congress’ foresight and interest in electric vehicles,” said GM spokesperson Greg Martin. “With the Chevrolet Volt just months away from the showroom, we believe the timing is right to start working on policies that can accelerate early consumer adoption of advanced electric vehicle technologies.”

The Senate and House have agreed to reconcile the two versions, and since it has broad bipartisan support magnified by the gravity of the Gulf oil disaster, rapid passage of the bill is all but guaranteed.
Source (Detroit News) and (US Congress)

On Wednesday President Obama held a press conference on US energy security at Edwards Air Force base.  ”We’re here to talk about America’s energy security,” said Obama. “An issue that’s been a priority for my administration since the day I took office.”

Obama noted that today new CAFE fuel economy regulations would be signed and go into effect.

The new rules would require all combined 2016 car and truck models to have an average fuel efficiency of 35.5 mpg.  The current mileage standard is 27.3 mpg.

“After decades in which we have done little to increase auto efficiency, those new standards will be finalized, which will reduce our dependence on oil while helping folks spend a little less at the pump,” he said.  Those new fuel economy standards he said “will save 1.8 billion barrels of oil overall,” which is is equivalent he said of “taking 58 million cars off the road for an entire year.”

Obama also said that his administration “is doubling the number of hybrid vehicles in the federal fleet.”  This amounts to 5603 hybrid vehicles.

Among them, the administration said it would “purchase the first 100 plug-in electric vehicles to roll off American assembly lines,” which is identified as Chevrolet Volts.

“We’re going to lead by example and practice what we preach: cutting waste, saving energy, and reducing our reliance on foreign oil,” he said.

Obama also mentioned his administration has put forward “loan guarantees to break ground on America’s first new nuclear facility in three decades.”  But, a main element of his speech was to announce “the expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration.”

OK, I admit it, I was hoping for an early Volt, but I guess being that they put up the $50 billion to keep GM in business the White House gets first dibs. All I did was start a blog.

UPDATE: GM has issued an official response about the White House’ offer to buy the first 100 Volts:

We are pleased to see that the Federal government is interested in the greening of their vehicle fleet.  Media speculation has led to reports that the GSA and DOE will be buying the first 100 Chevrolet Volt’s because we will meet this criteria.  At this time we have no further details regarding these purchases.

Source (White House) and (Detroit Free Press)