Overview
To date GM has built 80 pre-production IVers and 300 packs. Those vehicles are in testing 24 hours/7 days per week. Production and process validation builds will be made at Hamtramck from March through August 2010. From August 2010 through November 2010 manufacturing validation builds will be made.

The current prototypes have been tested cumulatively over 1/4 million miles. So far they’ve gone through hot weather trials, mountain trials and 65% long distance calibration buy-off rides. In December they will undergo a 300,000 mile three-lifetime simulator test. “We’re very happy where we are right now,” says Farah.

Battery Update
In December 2008, GM built its first battery pack based on their own in-house design and so far over 250 of these 4th and final generation packs have been made.  No further refinements will occur, others at GM are working on lighter next generation packs.

GM will bring it own battery pack assembly plant online in January and it is currently being built-out.   The first pack to be made there will happen in February 2010, and the first saleable packs will be made in August 2010.  The battery lab is working to develop and refine the processes by which mass production of large numbers of packs is flawless.

Over 50,000 cells have been tested on over 300,000 simulated miles in the lab and to date not a singe cell failure has occurred.

Stress Testing
Cells are exposed to crush, penetration, thermal stress and overcharging.  Modules and packs have been exposed to crush, pressure, shirt circuit,corrosion, thermal stress, and seal integrity.  All is well.

Vehicle Stress Testing
Cars have been exposed to the twist ditch, water exposure, potholes, and vibration.  Crash test have shown battery remains safe at 30 MPH head on, as seen in the picture below.

Learnings
Farah admits NVH (noise vibration and harshness) has been “particularly tricky” especially in charge sustaining mode as the car was tweaked to be extremely quiet in electric mode.  Through changes such as increased insulation, specially designed instead of off-the-shelf bushings and new side airflow vents a pleasing experience has been obtained.

Battery chemistry had to be tweaked slightly to achieve longest lifetime, which will be effectively 10 years, though it was noted in temperate climates much longer lifetimes are possible.  Extreme cold and even more so extreme heat degrade the battery life expectancy.

“10 years is the target life, but depending on where you live, you could see significantly more than that,” said Farah. “In more benign conditions — if you do more city driving — and if you are in a more temperate area, the battery would last significantly longer.”

“But even if you live in Phoenix, as long as you charge at night, and you run during the day, your battery will remain happy,” said Wallace.

It has been found that the battery packs are well protected by the car’s structure and cells handle all abuse situations remarkably well.

Though I asked Farah, he still would not release the size of the gas tank claiming we won’t know until just before launch because its still being tweaked.  The gas engine will likely be programmed to circulate once per month even if the driver never uses it.

Farah also wouldn’t disclose the Chevy Volt’s curb weight though states its was “heavier than I would like.”  Efforts are being made to reduce weight of both the car and 400 pound battery pack.

GM has signed off on the final design freeze of the charging equipment, both 120V, 220V and the in-vehicle on-board charger.

Though not confirming dates, Farah implied he is looking forward to beginning work on the higher performance Cadillac Converj, which has unofficially been greenlighted for production.

Below is a video of the Chevy Volt battery pack undergoing serious crush testing:

This news is especially of interest to the Volt community, because both it and the Cruze ride on the Delta II platform, share parts and have many commonalities.

When GM first revealed the Cruze to the public, it looked to have a huge jump on the competition, boasting a bold new look and mileage per gallon numbers starting with a four…unseen anywhere else in the GM lineup.

Unfortunately, the Cruze program has been slow to reach fruition domestically, and the lead over next generation offerings such as the new Ford Focus and Honda Civic, is eroding quickly. The Cruze has been on sale in Europe for much of 2009.

The official reason for the delay was because GM wanted to “ensure a flawless launch and to go to market with full availability of high volume content,” however there was quickly speculation in the media that there was supplier issues at work behind the scenes, and maybe even difficulty sourcing the engine lineup in time for the original launch date.

If the Cruze has indeed run into complications with sourcing, it would not be unreasonable to expect the Volt could face the same challenges when attempting to get to market as expected in November of next year.

I spoke to Lesley Hettinger at Chevy Communications, who is unofficially ‘the point for all things Cruze’ at GM, and she happily put those rumors to rest and offered some good information on the program:

“There are no supplier issues. Initially we planned a pull-ahead on Cruze timing with a start of production in the second quarter of 2010 in our plant in Lordstown, OH, we have since revised our production schedule and decided not to compress the program timing to ensure a flawless launch and to go to market with full availability of high volume content. Assembly of pre-production builds will begin in the second quarter of 2010, followed by start of regular production with the full model year in third quarter of 2010.”

Closer to home, on the topic of the Volt, Rob Peterson offered the following reassurances to us here at GM-Volt, “The Volt remains on schedule for November 2010 production launch. The Cruze timing has no impact on the Volt.”

Still, given that this is the second of GM’s new cornerstone products to be delayed (Chevrolet Camaro), and with the added complexities of electric drive added into the mix, one has to wonder if a similar fate to ‘ensure a flawless launch’ might still be in store for the Volt…and that might not be a bad thing in the long run.

The front runner for this plant had been the Ellesmere Port plant in the United Kingdom, given the strong backing of the state government, and their willingness to subsidize the project to protect jobs.

On Tuesday, however, the Magna consortium reportedly decided it will not produce the Volt’s cousin at this time, and that the reason for this decision is that they feel demand will not exceed the amount of investment needed at this time.

In a report first brought forth by British media, it was said that Magna did not shut the door on ever producing the Ampera in UK, but felt it would not likely again consider that as a option until 2015 or 2016 in the project’s 2nd generation; although a mystery Vauxhall ’source’ later said that demand, “rather than the launch of the second-gen model, will drive the decision on timing.”

As of now the plan is to export the Ampera/Chevrolet Volt from the DHAM facility in Michigan indefinitely. Naturally, this may cause a strain on capacity and availability of the Volt going forward both domestically and internationally if demand has been underestimated.

Vauxhall’s unofficial-official stance from “sources” on this leak (according to autocar) was:

“There has categorically been no decision on where European production of the Ampera will take place, but in order to justify production at any European plant there will need to be sufficient demand…Obviously we would like to see it built at Ellesmere Port as the Ampera is underpinned by the new Astra. It would make sense”

According to our own GM “sources” here at GM-Volt, Ampera production volumes will be “minimal” anyway. One has to wonder if this development could cast doubt on whether the Ampera reskin of the Volt will indeed happen at all.

One unintended advantage to GM because of this development, is that the recent major devaluing of the US dollar against most major currencies has made exporting cars a much more profitable business. Provided that trend continues, any US made-European sold Voltec vehicle, should be profitable.

First, though the Detroit Press reported the 74th car was the final Volt prototype built at GM’s pre-production plant in Warren, according to Bob Warner, GMs Director Global Pre-Production Operations, it was actually the 80th.

“The 80 vehicles we built are now entering the next stage of development, which includes a series of crash tests, developmental drives, battery checks, climate tests and other measures we take to make sure the production vehicles meet our high standards,” he said.

Also, we reported that GM is preparing to begin building the next phase of Chevy Volts called pre-production or validation vehicles at the full scale production plant in Hamtramck Michigan next quarter.

Volt vehicle line engineer Tony Posawatz told us GM will build cars in “the two to three thousand range” of volume.

This led some of us to wonder what would become of all those cars if they weren’t saleable, as it seemed a rather high volume for prototypes.

When asked about that, it turned out Mr Posawatz wasn’t referring to PPVs with that number.

“The (PPV) number is much smaller,” he said. “It is easy to get caught up in terminology, certainly less than 100 non-saleable units beginning with PPV’s (will be built).”

Thus once those non-saleable PPVs have been built and the process for building them well understood and the tools for making them completed, GM will begin cranking out final Volts in significant volume.

It is therefore those Volts for sale that GM will build 2000 to 3000 of in the 2010 calendar year.

Now that these cars are finished what happens next?
Interestingly enough this is probably where the intense work begins. From a build perspective, we won’t build again until early next year in Hamtramck. What we do now is we take the production intent designs that were built up in the integration vehicles and we test the living daylights out of them and continue to do iterations and iterations. A lot of it is software. A lot of it is taking some of the crudeness in fit in the body fits and tighten them up. Although we do it on math, variations occur and flushness and fit come out a little differently then they do on paper.

So we’re now tuning it. And between that time from October of this year and March of next year, we test the vehicle to confirm the production design works, tweak and fix things, and as we tweak and fix things those changes have to be incorporated in the production tooling and those things typically have a longer lead time.

Then the production tooling is in place. Those are the big heavy expensive dyes to stamp the sheet metal. Those are more significant molds and cavities and processes to manufacture plastic parts in high volume. That’s kind of what happens right now. Right now is the testing, problem-solving, refining and putting all that learning into the production tools. Come the March timeframe and we’re running Volts with production tools. And that is still an iteration process or learning process to refine it for what’s going to happen later in the year.

Are you beginning to put hardware into the Hamtramck plant?
Oh yeah, the Hamtramck plant and the battery plant are on a project plan to upgrade themselves to be ready to build in the early 2010 timeframe. So right now there are tools in toolshops being produced and as we find out, we need this or that, we’ll change it on a production tool. That’s the process we’re in.

When you first start building in March what are those vehicles called?
We call them PPVs, pre-production vehicles or validations. We have a couple more “flavors” but those are all flavors of production vehicle that we work through. This is fairly state of the industry, our terminology is a little different, but every manufacturer does these iterations or flavors of vehicles that have the next phase of software.

At some point in time for example the interior parts have a certain graining to them that you do as one of the last things. You put in a little grain into the tool, but once the tool is grained and they have this nice little texture to the plastic parts it’s very hard to change the tool if you have any functional dimensional changes. Later in the Spring we’ll actually grain the parts so that they really look like production and piece the cars together.

Right now things are actually going pretty well.   We have certainly a lot of issues but that’s standard for this type of project and where we are at in the program. Issues are actually a good thing. We know no one is that good to get it spot-on or if the issues don’t properly surface they somehow surface later. If you have a lot of variation in some of the parts, and you don’t see it early enough to try to control it, to get thefir finsihs and execution elements perfect.

PPVs are not saleable?
No, they’re not saleable yet.

So you will build a few hundred of those?
No we build in the two to three thousand range. We’re finalizing that number right now. A lot of that is practicing the processing of that. Ultimately their will be a line rate of many jobs per hour when we do this so you want to get the guys actually practicing in the production environment.

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 do the battery but we work extensively with the battery team to do the integration of the battery, and the EV propulsion system

Are you only working on the Volt?
I am dedicated to the Volt and I heave a team of people that are dedicated to the Volt and I’m extremely enthusiastic about the Volt. We have segregated a team of people that are working on the Volt and the Volt only.

What are you doing now?
The specific stage of the program that we are in, for powertrain, is building on our third level of hardware which is integrated in the the vehicles. We’re doing all of our validation testing on that level of hardware; we’ve got past development where the architecture needs to be, through two generations of hardware we’ve confirmed all of our performance requirements with that architecture.

There are three major areas I’m focused on right now. Making sure that all of our hardware that has been built to date, that third level of hardware is in testing. We are validating all of our parameters for it; durability, that’s the hugest piece, the reliability, making minor fixed to areas that we’d like to improve.

The other major area that we’re focused on is the calibration of the system which is huge, because it’s a very complex system from the perspective of the torque generators we have, the engine, the motors, the power electronics. So we’re tuning all of those systems to make the vehicle fun to drive, to meet all of our efficiency requirements, our drivability requirements, noise vibration and harshness requirements, and we are now entering the phase of program where we will do all of the development for certification. So that’s fuel economy label certification, and that will continue for some months now. We’re going to test per the procedures that are being developed for this program and verify that all of our calibration is tuned in for optimization of the driving experience along with the efficiency of the vehicles. And that’s really the stage that were tuning into now.

In addition the third element that we’re working on is tuning in the manufacturing systems. So we’ve been building our production in our manufacturing plant and we’re right now preparing for what we call pre-production level hardware. That before we build saleable parts we’re going to build pre-production parts in the assembly plant so that its ready for volume. Make sure that our suppliers are prepared for that, make sure that our supplier’s tools are prepared for that and tweaked for quality, our manufacturing plant is tweaked for quality. I was just there last week and walked through all of their systems and systems development to make sure there ready for the production phase.

So those are kind of my three major areas of focus right now.

When you mention the production plant are you talking about Detroit-Hamtramck (DHAM)?
No that’s vehicle assembly plant but ahead of that we’re going to our suppliers and their manufacturing plants for individual parts and systems. And in addition, our drive unit and engine have their own manufacturing facilities that we are walking through and making sure they are ready.

Is GM building its own electric motor for the Volt?
The motor is actually supplied to us but we will be integrating that motor in our drive unit so its encased in our drive unit, we provide tooling, rotating components and all of that which is built in a manufacturing plant owned by GM. We are getting ready to do all of that manufacturing , so the housings, for example we take the castings from a supplier we do all the machining of the housings, the bearing the gearing, all of that kind of stuff.

So you get some of the parts from outside but you put them all together?
Exactly, so it’s a manufacturing step that happens and we send that drive unit and that engine to the assembly plant in DHAM for installation into the vehicle.

Have they done anything at DHAM yet to get ready?
There’s a ton of work going on at DHAM to get ready, and we’ve built our what we call our integration vehicle, and we’re towards the end of that phase. That is being built in pre production operations, however the DHAM team has been very integral in those builds. They have been overseeing the builds they’ve been doing slow builds, they’ve been identifying all issues for their production processes. They’re currently working on tooling for the body. There’s a number of things that DHAM’s doing to get engaged and ready. Because the next phase of vehicle, which is not a saleable vehicle yet, but its our next phase of product, will be built in DHAM so they are getting all of their systems tuned, the personnel trained and ready to go.

When will the first vehicle be built at DHAM?
We’re tuned towards first quarter of next year for that date.

Recently the DOE announced a $30 million grant for GM to use to release a test fleet of 500 Chevy Volts to consumers, and 125 to commercial entities. GM has not officially indicated their specific plans about this keeping it rather coy.

I had the chance to briefly ask Volt executive Frank Weber about it.

He said the grant, “means when we do our development activities with charging infrastructure activities and vehicles and provide test data that we will make available to the DOE, they can learn from the vehicle to understand how the vehicles operate.”

Asked specifically if these cars would be distributed prior to November 2010, he said “it is part of rolling it out for Nov 2010.”

Pressing for more specifics as to whether it would before or after November 2010 he said “its (both) coming to November 2010 and after November 2010.”

Understanding that to mean some cars would be released prior to November 2010, and undeterred, I asked specifically “Will consumers get into those cars before Nov 2010?” At that point Weber looked at me wryly, smiled, and said nothing.

You can take that anyway you want, but don’t say I didn’t try.

Some sources are suggesting that the Volt production run for 2010 will be extremely limited anyway. According to Automotive News, “GM plans to build only 200 to 400 cars in November and December 2010, as 2011 models.”

They also report GM will build just 10,000 copies during the entire year of 2011.

It is also clear GM will limit roullout geographically.

So no matter how you cut it, assuming you can afford it, getting an early Volt won’t be easy.

GM invested $43 million to develop the plant where packs for the Volt and “other extended range electric vehicles” will be assembled.

The 160,000 square foot facility will be landfill-free and provide 100 jobs. It is the first US based lithium ion battery plant operated by an automaker and will be part of a wholly-owned subsidiary of GM called GM Subsystem Manufacturing LLC.

Equipment installation there is already underway and series production will start in the fourth quarter of 2010 to support Volt launch. Prototypes will be built earlier next year.

“Developing and producing advanced batteries is a key step in GM’s journey to become the leader in electric vehicles,” said Fritz Henderson, GM president and CEO. “This state-of-the-art battery manufacturing site reinforces our commitment to achieve that goal and to deliver clean, fuel-efficient vehicles to our customers.”

GM VP Gary Cowger provided pack details:

- 400 pounds, 5 feet long (next generation will be smaller and lighter)

- 16 kwh, 360 Volts, over 220 cells

- 400 amp peak level

- Cells provided by LG Chem

The plant consist of three areas:

- The Battery Module Pre-assembly

- The Battery Module Final Assembly

- The Pack Main Line

The goal is to process 70,000 cells per day or one every 2.7 seconds.

Press Release

Here is an animation of the Battery Pack Assembly Plant in Operation:

The Chevy Volt is dependent on its state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery packs for propulsion. The 16 kwh packs are composed of lithium-ion manganese large format cells that are being supplied by LG Chem in Korea. GM had previously announced that it was using its special learning from Volt development to achieve in-house core competency for pack assembly. Besides the cells, the packs are composed of thermal management systems, electronic controls, and proprietary software

GM had previously stated it would eventually choose a location in Michigan within which the packs will be assembled.

According to anonymous GM sources the facility has been chosen. It is an existing building that will be converted into a battery pack factory for $43 million. The facility is the 370-acre Brownstown Business Center industrial park, which is between Sibley and King roads east of Interstate 75 in Brownstown Township Michigan, about 15 miles south of Detroit (see map).

The plant will produce 100 jobs. Most of the pack assembly process will be automated.

LG Chem’s CEO has previously announced it was his company’s intention to eventually build a battery cell production factory in Michigan as well.

And the launch of the Volt moves one step closer.

Source (Detroit News )

He writes:

I adjusted the seat and mirrors, pressed the POWER button, moved the shifter to D, and then took it on a few laps around our Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich. This was the moment I’d been looking forward to and it was exhilarating. And when I was done, I pulled it into the garage and charged it with the production intent equipment.

As Andrew says, the preproduction properties “are the Volt” He notes this new era is not the end but the beginning of what he calls “the most important part of the process.”

Farah says the fundamental issues of the car are under control, but at this point his team needs to go into the refining the vehicle and make it something people “want to drive.”

Its the little things he says like “the ways the blinker sounds, the way the door sounds, and the way the steering responds.”

People, he says rightly, expect all of that to be flawless and finish developing.  You can see the new location of the charging port door.

What makes it wonderful is that they are a few weeks ahead of schedule.  And so the next major phase of the Volt coming into begin has occurred, 2 years 5 months, and 8 days after this site began as little more than a hope and a dream.

Source (FastLane)

GALLERY: