GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site

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 this test process is seeing how the cars behave in real-world situations.

I received the following note from Volt fan Jim Northrop who lives in Nevada near Death Valley. Since it sent chills up my spine I thought I’d share it here (with Jim’s permission):

It was the best lunch I’ve had in a long time…. It was 11:55 AM. I was waiting for a traffic light in Pahrump, Nevada, on my way home for lunch and what should pass in front of me, headed North on Nevada Highway 160, but five (5) mysterious cars: silver and also white, with strange masking panels, antennae, and Michigan manufacturer plates. The fifth car was lagging and I had a chance to study the grill, gold accents, silhouette, then the rear spoiler. I had seen these features somewhere… they were Volts!! The “Fleet”. I quickly fell in behind, but intervening vehicles kept me distant and I couldn’t pass. I was hoping they would turn on Bellvista which is a popular route to Death Valley Junction and my house. Lucky for me they did make this turn and the chase began. I drove uncharacteristically fast to catch up, passing what I now believe was a large white Chevy “support van” and a few other cars. Finally, the trailing Volt was in reach. I was going way too fast as I pulled up and abruptly slowed next to the Volt–the two occupants didn’t give eye contact–they were probably busy praying they would survive this scary encounter with me (sorry guys). Momentarily mesmerized, I again accelerated, and pulled in front. I was now gaining on the other 4 Volts which were beginning to slow for the stop sign at Leslie. I pulled up behind the fourth Volt (sorry guys, I didn’t mean to scare you, but was completely focused on that round, gray, plug/cap centered low on your rear bumper–darn near caused the first Volt wreck…gasp!) Once I came to my senses and stopped, I honked my horn a few times, and grinning from ear to ear, gave driver and passenger excited “thumbs up”. They both gave me firm thumbs up in return and away they went. I rolled the stop and accelerated to catch them–they easily pulled away from me in my 2005 ,V8 Silverado– acceleration was comparable to my wife’s V6 07 Malibu (I know this as she always tries to beat me home, often from this same stop sign). Noteworthy… they had their windows up which meant they had to have their A/C’s on (in our heat)– strong acceleration!! They continued West, on Bellvista, toward the foothills. So excited, I forgot to eat lunch, too busy calling everyone I know… They are really beautiful, artistically sculpted automobiles. Wow! Very, very Impressive!!! Thanks GM for your commitment to the Volt, and for bringing them through our town today. By the way GM, please send some to Pahrump Valley Auto Plaza, a Volt is on my Christmas list.

Jim, didn’t have a camera with him, but apparently another lucky guy from internetautoguide caught a glimpse of this same fleet in a parking lot (photo above)

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 in cold Canadian winter conditions, high altitudes in Denver, and the scorching heat of Death Valley, and through it all “we have not found any surprises,” she wrote.

Cattelan says that the “twisty, winding roads” of Knoxville are particularly a place where “you really get to see what a car is made of.” And in that place she said of the Volt’s performance from a driver experience standpoint “we are happy with the results.”

She explains it was in those mountains of Tennessee that GM worked to “calibrate how the Volt’s battery energy, fuel efficiency, and drive quality work together in real world conditions.”

She explains that a car must give back to the driver what he or she would expect, and the Volt is no exception. It must feel right and respond intuitively. She says it should have the same feeling both in EV and charge sustainting mode, should climb hills as needed and if its 95 degres outside “take the heat.”

In all these ways on those mountains the Volt lived up to her expectations.

In an almost poetic fashion she writes:

As I stood next to the Volt on top of a mountain last weekend, I felt overwhelmingly enthusiastic about its capability.

I’m confident that Chevy Volt drivers will feel invigorated like I do by its exciting, smooth, quiet, and fuel-efficient performance.

I imagine there’s a lot of people just waiting to get their chance to see for themselves, myself among them.

Source (GM)

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, it made design changes a little hard to pick up on.

A few weeks later at a media event, another IVer Volt was put through its paces by Frank Weber, who is officially ‘King of the Engineers’ at GM. (Ok, that is not his actual title, but it is way too long to repeat, and too boring to remember)

This particular Volt gave us the opportunity to more easily judge/identify the changes, because it was in the worst color known to man, Robin’s Egg Blue.

Actually, that is bold-faced lie. Bob Boniface just recently sent me a note telling me that particular IVer was in “e-coat gray without paint,” not Robin’s Egg Blue. (However, my making that mistake illustrates my point…that Robin’s Egg Blue is a terrible color, and all previously built Volts in that color (or similar) need to be used in crash tests…but I digress)

As you can see from the illustrations, the hood has been changed into more of a bonnet, and the front side quarter panels have been adjusted accordingly. This type of hood, while often seen on trucks and SUV/CUVs is a rarity for sedans.

What was unclear is if this design change is functional or aesthetic. From first glance, it appears it could allow for more access, or perhaps it offers additional protection/redundancy from the elements for the sensitive components inside. Then again, perhaps Bob Boniface just really liked the new Ford Fiesta and this is his homage to it.

When I inquired about the subject, all of those first assumptions proved incorrect, and Mr. Boniface has this to say:

“Hood cutline change was made for compliance with European Pedestrian Protection regulations. Hood cutines tend to be very stiff due to metal flanging and the original ones fell into test zone for head impact.”

So there you have it, functional changes. However, he did add his thoughts on what that meant for the aesthetics as well:

“I was happy to move them because I think the side view line makes the fender appear thinner.”

Taking the reason for the changes to its logical conclusion, one could assume these changes will see their way to the Opel Ampera project as well.

Personally, I think the new changes give it a little more of the “nerd’s shoe” mystique, but it also gives the Volt a little more uniqueness…and that can’t be a bad thing.

Sidenote: Frank Weber’s official title actually is “Global Vehicle Line Executive/Global Vehicle Chief Engineer, Global Electric Vehicle Line Team” …that has to be one whale of a desk plaque.

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 me that the battery pack is, although not hermetically sealed, sealed to be maximally waterproof. Special attention is given to the connection between the high voltage lines coming out of the front of the pack to the inverter, and these are sealed especially well. The pack also has the means of detecting water seeping into the pack allowing it to shut down.

Lance described one way the EV-1 was water tested. GM actually put a working EV-1 inside a large vat of sea-water, because it contains electrolyte and in theory one could drive into it.

Once the car was in, it was turned on and the seawater was gradually added. There was an extensive system of monitors including current detectors placed over test dummies in the seats, and noxious gas detectors.

As soon as the water level reached the battery, it shut down. There were some crackles and pops sounds, but in the end no significant current flowed into the dummies.

Will this be applied to the Volt?  We’ll have to wait and see.

Below is a new video GM released along the same theme showing the Volt IVer prototypes getting soaked in a test chamber. This of course isn’t to test the battery’s safety underwater but to check the final Volt design for leaks so that they can be fixed.

Recently I traveled to GM’s Milford Proving Grounds for the opportunity with many other journalists to test drive the company’s entire fleet of production cars which were all laid out across a large swath of pavement called back lake.

To our surprise, in the middle of the event, suddenly Frank Weber pulled up in a pre-production Chevy Volt integration vehicle fresh off the assembly line.  Presently there are about 30 of these IVers built out of a total of 89 that will be completed in roughly 6 weeks.

Though we were not permitted to drive the car, nor experience the generator mode operation, Frank did give some journalists test rides.

I was afforded the shotgun position and had two additional riders in the back seat including Sam Abuelsamid from Autoblog.

The experience of actually sitting in a bonafide running fully functional and operational Chevrolet Volt was an absolute pinnacle of the incredible long 2-1/2 year journey I’ve been on since this site began in January 2007.

To all those thousands of naysayers who said it couldn’t or wouldn’t been done, I guess you were wrong.

Below you can enjoy my high-def video of the experience.

First of all the car was sharp and sleek, and the interior was dazzling. The LCD displays were bright and high definition. There was plenty of room on the passenger side, and Frank Weber at about 6′4″ seemed to fit into the driver side without difficulty. The two journalists in the back were comfortable as well. As Sam put it “The Volt is considered a compact, but in spite of the sloping roof-line, it still felt surprisingly roomy. Both leg and headroom were more than adequate for this journ’s long-torsoed 5′10″ frame.”

Acceleration was startling. The car took off like a rocket even with all four of us in it.

Amazing as well was the absolute silence. Clearly the final design and soundproofing has had remarkable results compared to the mules. This was simply the quietest electric car I’ve ever been in.

It was smooth and nimble and did not feel weighted down.

It took quick turns with certainty.

Frank even said there was a bit of a delay programmed into the instant torque so that the final production cars would be even quicker, and would have better ride and handling.  Hard to believe.

All I can say is no one will be disappointed with this car, destined to become, if it hasn’t already, the next American icon.

In late June, GM completed the production of its first true to form Chevy Volt prototypes called integration vehicles.  We were given a brief video description of what it was like to drive one by the car’s chief engineer Andrew Farah.

GM granted an interview with Farah to Automotive News who got some new nitty gritty details.

Farah was asked what it was like to step on the accelerator while the engine generator was running. “You get immediate response from the foot pedal,” he says. “Because the Volt is always driven electrically, you don’t even notice the difference there.” He also explained for the first time that at that point “the gasoline engine’s rpms then follow.”

Farah noted that because the engine isn’t directly connected to the foot, “it is one of the things we continue to tune.” He said “there is an expectation of what happens when you put your accelerator to the floor in the way the car sounds and feels. We’ve got the feel.”

“We’ve got the feel of a sports car,” he said. “The sound part and the way the engine plays into that perception is one of the areas we have to work on.”

Asked about vibration, noise, and harshness Farah said “we still have some work to do,” but that during his ride he was “very pleased with the first steps.”

“It was great,” he added.

Farah noted that the team is using “liquid applied sound deadener” and that in the front of the dash and glass there is “packaged-in sound suppression items,” that are also being tuned to perfection.

Farah says that during EV driving he is not aiming for the car to be “Cadillac library quiet,” because it might be “disconcerting” to drivers. He is focused on minimizing wind noise and conducted road noise.

He said transition from computer model to real car went very well although not absolutely perfect. He noted the team had a minor “interference with the instrument panel that we didn’t expect.” But that was corrected and “off we went.”

Asked if the car feels heavy because of the battery at its center, Farah said there are advantages and disadvantages to it. An advantage he explains is that the battery “lowers the center of gravity of the car” which is good from a handling perspective. However, he added the weight is not without detriments, but that his team is “taking the best of the advantages.”

In terms of what work lies ahead at this point Farah said “This is really just the beginning of all the final tuning. We are at the 50 percent point. Fundamentally, we’ve got everything directionally correct, but now we’ve got all the tuning yet to do.”

Source (Automotive News)