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Archive for the 'Prototypes' Category

New York Times Report on the Chevy Volt Generator Mode Driving Experience

November 20th, 2009 | Posted in: Generator, Prototypes, Test drive with 73 Comments

On the same day the Today Show ran its piece on test driving the Chevy Volt integration prototype, Lindsay Brooke, a reporter from the New York Times published his.
Brooks was the only other journalist so far besides CNBC’s Phil Lebeau to test drive the Volt in generator or charge-sustaining mode and has written about it.
His [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 73 Comments

CNBC Test Drive of the Chevy Volt in Charge Sustaining Mode

November 20th, 2009 | Posted in: Prototypes, Test drive with 41 Comments

A long awaited milestone has just been achieved, sort of.
For many months we’ve discussed, debated, deduced, asked about and imagined what it would be like to drive the Chevy Volt while its generator is running.
This mode is so critical because it represent the first mass market application an electric car operating at the same time [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 41 Comments

Chevy Volt and Battery Program Update

November 18th, 2009 | Posted in: Engineering, Production, Prototypes with 128 Comments

General Motors provided an online media update as to current progress on the Chevrolet Volt and battery development program, moderated by vehicle chief engineer Andrew Farah and Voltec battery system manager Bill Wallace.  I and several actual journalists attended.  We were given the current state of development and the roadmap of the next 12 months [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 128 Comments

Chief Powertrain Engineer Pleased With Chevy Volt’s Charge-Sustaining Mode

I had the following discussion with Alex Cattelan who is the Chevy Volt’s chief powertrain engineer. She has a very deep understanding of how the car operates and recently drove in a fleet of integration Volt prototypes through rugged mountains of Knoxville Tennessee.
Do you feel the charge-sustaining (CS mode) experience is now pretty solid [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 160 Comments

MINI E Pothole Fail, GM Working Hard on Chevy Volt Quality

October 28th, 2009 | Posted in: Engineering, Prototypes, Safety with 123 Comments

As some readers may know, I am one of 100 people in New York who are leasing the MINI E electric car for one year.  I recently passed 5000 miles of driving the car, and for the most part am very happy with it, especially in that all those miles have been covered without using [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 123 Comments

Chevy Volt Prototype Spotted in a Home Driveway

October 18th, 2009 | Posted in: Images, Prototypes with 82 Comments

An astute observer noticed none other than a pre-production Chevy Volt integration vehicle nonchalantly parked in a neighbor’s driveway.
A fleet of eight of these vehicles just returned from a 3-day 1200-mile extended test drive last week, and perhaps one of the lucky participants got to take one home for the weekend. It is known [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 82 Comments

Chevy Volt Fleet Goes on Extended Road Test

October 14th, 2009 | Posted in: Prototypes, Test drive with 201 Comments

On Tuesday morning, eight Chevy Volt integration vehicles left the Milford Proving grounds compound in Michigan on a historic extended test drive into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The cars were driven for more than 9  hours and 300 miles continuously in a special effort to analyze their behavior, performance, and comfort on such a long drive in real [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 201 Comments

Chevy Volt Climbs Pikes Peak

October 7th, 2009 | Posted in: Performance, Prototypes with 238 Comments

GM has just about finished production of 80 integration-vehicle version Chevy Volts. These are full production intent cars that are being used for extensive road testing to generate learning engineers can use to further refine the vehicle for production.
Part of that learning involves putting the car through rigorous real-world driving conditions. We have already [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 238 Comments

Chevy Volt Prototype Fleet Spotted in the Wild

September 25th, 2009 | Posted in: Prototypes, Sightings with 177 Comments

The Chevy Volt is now in the pre-production phase. GM has been building about 80 of these fully functional production intent prototypes, and are likely to be finished with this phase within days. Those cars are undergoing extensive testing and the learning and tweaking will be applied to the final production cars.
Part of [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 177 Comments

GM Engineer Test Drives Volt in Mountains of Tennesee: its a Success

September 2nd, 2009 | Posted in: Environment, Prototypes, Test drive with 243 Comments

Alex Cattelan is a GM engineer working on development of the Voltec powertrain, and has been involved in the Volt program ever since the beginning.
She recently had the chance to drive a pre-production Volt out among a fleet of seven cars to Knoxville, Tennessee.  Cattelan also noted she has previously driven pre-production and mule Volts [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 243 Comments

Guest Post: IVer Production Brings Design Changes, But Why?

August 26th, 2009 | Posted in: Design, Prototypes with 233 Comments

When Bob Boniface, the Volt’s Chief Designer, officially presented the first ‘IVer in motion’ on July 28th (also known to him as Christmas morning), that Volt was painted in the finest color known to man, which of course is not a color at all, it is black. While this made the Volt look impressive, [...]

Posted by: Statik with 233 Comments

Chevy Volt Underwater Testing

August 25th, 2009 | Posted in: Battery, Prototypes, Safety with 220 Comments

I previously had a discussion with Lance Turner, lead engineer in the Volt battery lab who also worked on the EV-1 program.
I asked him if there are any special considerations about the Volt and its high power battery getting exposed to water, such as in a flood, or accident where the car gets submerged.
Lance advised [...]

Posted by: Lyle with 220 Comments

RSS Recent GM-Volt Forum Posts

  • New video: Volt drive in Detroit November 19, 2009
    November 19, 2009 Detroit Free Press story with video featuring a Volt drive with Andrew Farah in... […]
    srschrier
  • New Video: Volt Corrosion Testing November 18, 2009
    From GM VoltAge, the Volt's corrosion... […]
    srschrier
  • Th!nk picks Indiana for U.S. factory November 18, 2009
    Th!nk picks Indiana for U.S. factory: _Link_ (http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1038564_thnk-picks-indiana-for-u-s-factory) […]
    Jason M. Hendler
  • FIRST ALL-ELECTRIC APTERA 2e PUSHED BACK TO 2010 November 18, 2009
    FIRST ALL-ELECTRIC APTERA 2e PUSHED BACK TO 2010: _Link_... […]
    Jason M. Hendler
  • Any news about the NiMH battery? November 18, 2009
    Now that there are new owners of the patent, is there any indication that they will allow its use for electric cars? Like many others, I believe that... […]
    Desertstraw
  • energy requirments of modern electric vehicles November 18, 2009
    does anyone know any credible sources of information concerning the electricity requirements of modern electric vehicles per mile of travel and the... […]
    crubkings
  • 30% reduction November 18, 2009
    The Belgian governement decided that if you buy a car with less then 60g/km emmision you get a 15% tax reduction and you can write it off for 100% if... […]
    filiep