GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

China is officially the world’s largest automotive market, growing the most rapidly, and poised to continue doing so for years to come.  As oil demand grows there and world production declines, China, like many other countries will be faced with considerable difficulties.  As such the Chinese government has been strongly promoting and incentivizing the domestic production and sale of electric cars.

Not wishing to be left out of this opportunity, earlier this week GM shipped in the first two fully operational Volts to ever drive on Chinese soil   The cars were used as part of the VIP motorcade for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

GM also announced it will begin to sell the Volt in China towards the end of 2011.

Volts for sale in China will initially be exported from Detroit as part of the 10,000 planned 2011 production run, so availability will be extremely limited.  ”We are producing 10,000 Volts in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012,” said GM international operations spokesperson Freda Agboka. “We haven’t allocated or announced how many are going to be sold in China yet.”

The company has admitted, however, if demand in China turns out to be strong, the company may produce the Volt there locally.

“Local production of the Volt won’t be a problem, in terms of technology. However, we need positive market feedback before we can put it into mass production,” said Ding Lei, chief general manager of Shanghai GM, the US automakers joint venture in China.

GM also expects to price the Volt competitively in China, though pricing there has yet to be unveiled.

There were some early rumors the the Volt might be sold as Buick in China, since that brand is so popular there.  The arrival of the car as a Chevrolet puts and end to that speculation.

Chinese government incentives designed to promote purchase of electric vehicles currently only apply to Chinese domestic automakers such as BYD. GM hopes by promoting the Volt and through it’s joint ventures in the country, benefits will be extended to their vehicles as well.

Furthermore GM is also developing a pure electric car called the Chevrolet New Sail, intended for the Chinese market. The car is being produced through Shanghai GM and is expected to lead to running prototypes by 2011.

“GM has made a long-term commitment to bringing our industry-leading technology to China,” said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “This is enabling us to provide the best mobility solutions for addressing the transportation challenges associated with the growth in demand for personal mobility. With GM taking the lead, the development of electric vehicles is opening up entirely new industries.”

Source (GM)

GM has partially lifted the veil on how they go about testing cars in hot weather environments in the latest example of Volt development transparency. This week engineers have been putting a fleet of Volt prototypes through extreme heat testing in GM’s Desert Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona.

Hot Soak Evaluation
In this test the Volt is baked all day on black top pavement in direct sunlight and 96 degree temperatures. Lead durability test engineer Steve Pratt measured the interior air temperature of the car at 138 degrees. He went on to check for squeaks and rattles that might be created by the heat, both while standing and driving, and finds none.

He also test the ability of the AC to quickly cool the car to acceptable levels and finds it does so satisfactorily.

“Things went very well,” he said.

Grade Load Testing
In this case GM engineers evaluated the car’s performance at continuous climbing in high heat. To simulate a continuous grade, engineers hitch a towing dynamometer to the rear of the car and drive around a circular track (see graphic above). The dyno can simulate a continuous grade of anywhere from 2 to 10 percent, and on this test they looked at 5 and 7.2 percent at 106 degrees F. The test checks for overheating and how the car handles the stress and strain on what amounts to an endless mountain.

Pratt’s team also took the cars up a 7000 foot climb in Arizona in range extended mode and found they “performed excellent.”

Of note GM doesn’t not recommend using the Volt to tow.  Engineers had to remove part of the rear fascia to hitch the dyno.

City Cycle Testing
In this test GM engineers take Volts into continuous city cycle repeated driving under high heat circumstances. Once again the point is to look for car failures in the grueling heat with particular respect to overheating or electrical disruptions.

Once again, the car handles this testing well.

Trailing Dust Test
In this test the Volt follows behind a Chevy Silverado for 12.2 miles and the truck kicks up desert dust. Engineers then screen for intrusion of the dust into the vehicle through door seal, vents, and other filtration systems. Success on that one too.

Pratt says in his 15 years of running this test, “the Volt is is one of the best cars he’s ever tested” on this course.

Road Schedule Temperature Profile
This checks for real-world pressures and temperatures in the fuel tank at high temperatures. It is done on a 72 minute cycle at 40 percent capacity and ensures fuel is not improperly evaporating.

As GM sums up the experience in a statement, “the Volt has performed very well under the stress and strain of all these tests, but the rigorous testing and validation continues because the Volt is an electric vehicle for all temperatures and seasons.”

The extreme heat testing adds to the suite of previous tests GM has already put the Volt through and shared with us.  This includes extreme winter testing and mountain climbs such as Pike’s Peak.  The car is on track for retail launch now little more than four months away.

Source (GM)

The lithium-ion battery pack GM has created for the Chevrolet Volt is complex and sophisticated.  Besides the actual battery cells, there is a dedicated thermal management system.  This system contains safety sensors, chilling and heating elements, and a sophisticated electronic control unit for managing it all.

This level of sophistication and technology has been applied for the purpose of allowing the packs to have a vehicular lifetime of 10 years/150,000 miles of operation.  It also makes the packs particularly expensive, especially in its first iteration.

GM reports they have been working to reduce costs in the second and third generation of these packs, as the goal of the Volt is to be a highly affordable mainstream electric car solution.

Reports from GM Europe have claimed the plan is to make the packs architecturally simpler so they can be swapped out, and to remove the thermal management technology to that they have shorter lifetimes. This is one way to reduce cost.

On a recent conference call I asked Micky Bly, GMs global director of hybrid and electric cars, if this was indeed the plan.  Though he acknowledged the European report, he did not confirm it.

“Our 3rd generation is a very high level cell technology,” replied Bly.  “(We are) trying to decrease the cost over 50% in cell cost so that we can make (packs) with similar range much less expensive.”

“As we start balancing that architecture decision, we can easily make that a smaller battery from a cost standpoint,” he added.

“We’re not in any position now to say what we are going to decide in the end,” he said.

Bly noted that the second generation packs are now close to reaching the point of a design freeze.  This is when engineers have finalized the design sufficiently so that small-scale manufacturing can begin.

“Gen 2 is getting to that stage by the end of this year,” said Bly.  He noted these generational cycles “used to be 4 to 5 years, but in this technology it’s 2 to 3 years.”

It is also known that GM is currently building the 2012 model year Volt prototypes in its pre-production plant.  I asked what changes were in them compared to the 2011 model year which will be available at launch.

“In 2012 there are no change to the propulsion system,” said chief engineer Andrew Farah  “There are a few improved customer conveniences and features.”

He did not elaborate on what those features might be.

The Chevrolet Volt is expected to launch into the retail marketplace in eight months, and the world will begin to change.

The car will be built at GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck (DHAM) plant in Michigan.  By last fall 80 or so integration vehicle (IV) Volt prototypes were completed at GM’s smaller Preproduction Operations (PPO) plant in the Warren Technical Center, and have since been undergoing extensive testing.  As well, the DHAM facility has been undergoing retooling and personnel training to prepare for the beginning of Volt builds.

According to Volt executive Tony Posawatz the first of these DHAM Volts will come of the line only days from now, and has already started production.

“The first 2011MY PPV’s will roll off the line in late March,” he stated.

These pre-production vehicles will still not be fully refined. Several hundred will be made in various iterations leading up to the actual saleable cars in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile Volt evolution continues.

Sources indicate that GM has already begun production of the 2012 model year Chevy Volt prototypes back at the pre-production operation (PPO) plant.

Little is known publicly about how these 2012MY prototypes differ from the 2011MY units.  ”We can’t share any details on the 2012 model vehicles,” says GM spokesperson Rob Peterson.

Presumably, these cars include refinements that couldn’t be put into place for the first year retail model, and also incorporate learnings the team has made from the current batch of prototypes.

It is likely these refinements will improve efficiency, as well as lower weight and cost. They may include improvements that allow for more efficient building of the cars as well, which would further lower cost.

It is also unknown if the 2012 model year Volts have further refined battery packs, though it would seem logical.

The 2012 year cars will be built in much higher volume than the 2011 models. For the first year GM expects to build 8000 to 10000 units. The second year could bring up to 50,000 cars depending on demand.

Ever since GM-Volt.com started one of the most common comments people make, either on the site or via email is that they would like to sign up to be an early Volt “beta tester.”

BMW has such a program with its not-ready-for-prime-time MINI E that I’ve been driving, but GM has never confirmed such an option will be the case for the Volt.

Indeed as we recently learned there is a lot of push and pull within GM regarding launching an early imperfect consumer test fleet versus waiting to launch a perfect production model in November.

Most recently Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman of product development weighed in publicly with his own thoughts.

He does see some value in an early consumer test fleet.  “We might be using those to get additional customer input,” he said.

There will be a captured test fleet driven by GM employees, which is typical for all new GM cars.  The final decision on whether to let consumers participate in that has not been made.

“We’re actually building more vehicles in that fleet than we would otherwise build. The potential exists that we could get additional people evaluating those types of vehicles or working with us to evaluate those types of vehicles,” Stephens told the Free Press. “I would say the decision still needs to be made (on) if we’re going to put the vehicles in some of the other hands or not.”

Rightly so, Stephens is more concerned about the car being perfect than getting it  into consumers hands early.

“I’m much more worried about making sure that we have a totally bulletproof launch at the start of regular production,” he said. “I think it is so critical for this vehicle to come out and be a smash hit, and I think it’s got all of the makings of being able to do that.”

Source (Detroit Free Press)

Should GM let consumers participate in an early Volt fleet?

Many people who fancy buying and driving a Volt plan to use little or no gasoline.  Since the car will accommodate up to 80% of the population’s driving needs purely on electricity, GM has to prepare for an engine that may be rarely or never used.

A similar concern is the possibility of old gas becoming stale.

GM is using a pressurized zero evaporation gas tank to keep the gas fresh.

“It’s like shrink-wrapping your food,” engineer Trent Warnke told Ward’s Auto. “It keeps the fuel from aging.”

GM will also recommend low gas using consumers only fill their tanks halfway to prevent spoilage.

In addition, the car will have a special algorithm in its control software to ensure the gas engine runs at least once every 60 days to keep things circulating.

The engine will only run while the car is in motion, and will only do so for about 10 minutes. This is sufficient time for the control unit to perform some diagnostic checks as well.

Thus far, the 80 or so pre-production Volts have endured over 500,000 collective miles of test driving, with one car having completed 66,000 miles.

Starting in May, 300 more pre-production or validation vehicles will be built on the full-scale Detroit Hamtramck assembly line. These will be used for testing by engineers, consumers, and the media.

The first saleable car is scheduled to be built on November 1.

Peak all electric range occurs when driving between 45 and 50 mph.

Source (Ward’s Auto, subscription only)